lis 


\ 


itibrarp  of  Che  theological  ^eminarp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


•d^^j)« 


iei  7 


JBoofes  b£  1>enn>  MarD  Beecber. 


Patriotic  Addresses 

In  America  and  England,  from  1850  to  18S5,  on  Slavery,  Civil 

War,  and  Civil  Liberty  in  the  United  States.     With  a  Review 

of  his  Personality  and  Political  Influence  by  John  R.  Howard. 

8vo.     Cloth,  $2.75;  cloth,  gilt,  5325;  half  mor.,  red  edges,  $4.25. 

A  Summer  in  England. 

Addresses,  Lectures,  and  Sermons  delivered  there  in  1886. 
With  account  of  the  trip  by  Maj.  J  as.  B.  Pond.  Photo-artotype 
portrait.     Cloth,  gilt  top,  $2.00. 

Evolution  and  Religion. 
Parti. — Theoretical  and  Doctrinal ;  paper,  5octs.     Part  II. — 
Practical  and  Vital;    paper,  $1.00.      The  two  Parts  in  one  vol- 
ume, cloth,  $1.50;  half  mor. ,  red  edges,  $2.25. 

Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching. 
I. — Personal  Elements;  II. — Social  and  Religious  Machinery; 
III. — Christian  Doctrines  and  their  Use.    Thirty-three  Lectures. 
960  pages.     Three  volumes  in  one.     Vellum  cloth,  $2.00. 

Comforting  Thoughts 
For  those  in  Bereavement,  Illness,  and  Adversity.     Compiled 
by  Irene  Ovington.      With  Vignettes.     Cloth,  limp,  75  cts.  ; 
cloth,  gilt,  $1.00;  cushioned  sealskin,  gilt  edges,  $2.00. 

Beecher  as  a  Humorist. 
Selections  of  Wit  and  Humor  from  his  Works.     Compiled  by 
Eleanor  Kirk.     Vellum  cloth,  #1.00;  half  calf,  $2.00. 

Sermons. 

Ellinwood's  Reports.  Volumes  of  1S73-4:  October,  1882,  to 
April,   1883.     Vellum  cloth.     Per  volume,  $1.50. 

Plymouth  Pulpit,  back  numbers,  5  cts.  ;  assorted  lots,  50 
cts.  per  dozen.     Send  for  list. 

Koyal  Truths 
Reported  from  his  Spoken  Words. 
Seventh  English  Edition.     Cloth,  $1.25; 

Norwood ; 
Or,  Village  Life  in  New  England.     Mr.  Beecher's  Only 
Novel.     Illustrated.     Cloth,  Popular  Edition,  $1.25. 

Lectures  to  Young  Men 
On  Various  Important  Subjects.     Cloth,  Si. 50. 


Fourth  American  from 
half  calf,  $2.00. 


FORDS,  HOWARD,  &   HULBERT, 
27  Park  Place,   New  York. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/patrioticaddressOO 


FORES.]-: 


^5»  0F  *U^ 

MAY    7.'!  1963 
•0G1CAL    Si 


PATRIOTIC 

ADDRESSES 


IN 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND,  FROM  1850  TO  1885,  ON  SLAVERY, 

THE    CIVIL    WAR,    AND    THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF 

CIVIL  LIBERTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


BY 


HENRY   WARD    BEECHER 


EDITED,  WITH    A    REVIEW   OF    MR.    BEECHER'S    PERSONALITY 
AND    INFLUENCE    IN    PUBLIC    AFFAIRS, 

BY 

JOHN    R.    HOWARD 


NEW   YORK 
FORDS,    HOWARD,   &    HULBERT 

18S7 


Copyright,  1887,  by 
Fords,  Howard,  &   Hulbert 


Springfield  (Mass.)  Printing  Co. ,  Eleflrotypers  and  Printers 


PREFACE. 


The  "Addresses"  gathered  in  this  volume  come  from 
various  sources. 

Some  are  reprinted  from  the  files  of  The  Independent, 
in  whose  columns  they  originally  appeared.  The  ser- 
mons delivered  just  before  the  war  and  during  its  first 
two  years  are  taken  from  a  volume  of  Mr.  Beecher's 
discourses,  entitled  "  Freedom  and  War,"  issued  under 
the  careful  editorship  of  Mr.  Frederic  Beecher  Perkins 
in  1863.  The  speeches  in  England  are  from  the  re- 
ports published  by  the  Union  and  Emancipation  Society, 
Manchester,  England,  in  1864.  Of  that  edition  —  the 
only  authorized  one  ever  before  published  —  the  editor 
of  the  present  work,  at  Mr.  Beecher's  request  and  with 
his  cooperation,  in  1872  began  a  revision,  for  the  mak- 
ing of  some  such  volume  as  is  here  gathered;  but  other 
matters  intervened  and  the  project  lay  in  abeyance, 
until  the  sad  event  of  Mr.  Beecher's  death  suggested 
a  more  complete  collection  of  his  political  contributions 
than  that  earlier  day  could  have  furnished.  The  dis- 
courses since  the  war  are  reprinted  from  the  reports  in 
"Plymouth  Pulpit,"  and  some  of  the  addresses  have 
been  gathered  from  contemporary  newspaper  reports. 
The  one  before  the  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
is  from  the  published   minutes  of  that  body. 


6  PREFACE. 

•  In  all  cases  effort  has  been  made  to  secure  the  best 
reports  of  his  spoken  addresses.  Those  delivered  in 
America  were  nearly  all  taken  down  by  Mr.  T.  J.  Ellin- 
wood,  who  from  about  the  year  1858  was  Mr.  Beecher's 
authorized  stenographer,  not  only  in  all  church  meetings 
but  on  public  occasions  when  there  was  especial  desire 
for  a  full  record;  and  to  his  fidelity  and  trained  accu- 
racy we  owe  very  much  of  the  great  legacy  to  be  found 
in  Mr.  Beecher's  words. 

The  article  by  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  descriptive 
of  the  English  episode — "The  Minister  Plenipotentiary" 
—  is  reprinted  from  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1864, 
by  permission  of  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 

The  "Review  of  Mr.  Beecher's  Personality  and  Political 
Influence"  which  prefaces  the  "Addresses"  was  originally 
intended  to  cover  only  his  political  career;  but  it  grew, 
almost  by  necessity,  to  a  somewhat  larger  form  by  rea- 
son of  the  desire  to  show  the  pure,  unselfish  springs  of 
his  action  and  the  steady  consistency  of  his  course. 

It  is  proper  to  say  that  this  volume  has  been  prepared 
under  the  authorization  of  Mr.  Beecher's  family  repre- 
sentatives. The  undersigned  alone,  however,  is  respon- 
sible for  the  opinions  expressed  in  the  "Review." 

JOHN    R.   HOWARD. 

New  York,   October,  1887. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


REVIEW   OF   MR.  BEECHER'S   PERSONALITY 
AND    POLITICAL   INFLUENCE. 

By  JOHN  R.  HOWARD. 

PAGE 

Essential  Principles, n 

Heredity,  Training,  and  Education,         .        .        .       .  15 

Ten  Years  of  Missionary  Work 44 

Plymouth  Church  :    Personal  Traits,       ....  55 

Political  Career 78 

Strength  and  Weakness 134 

Conclusion 155 


PATRIOTIC    ADDRESSES. 

By  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 

I.— FREEDOM  AND   SLAVERY. 

i.    Shall  We  Compromise? 167 

Article  in  The  Independent,  Feb.  21,  1850. 

2.  American  Slavery, 178 

Address  before  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  New 
York,  May  6,  1851. 

3.  On  Which  Side  is  Peace? 196 

Article  in  The  Independent,  June  26,  1856. 

4.  The  Nation's  Duty  to  Slavery 203 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Oct.  30,  1859. 

5.  Against  a  Compromise  of  Principle,    .        .        .        224 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  29,  i860. 

6.  Our  Blameworthiness 246 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Fast  Day,  Jan.  4,  1861. 


TABLE    OF  CONTENTS. 


7- 

8. 

9- 
10. 

1 1. 

12. 

13- 

14. 

i5- 

16. 

17. 
18. 

*9- 

20. 

21. 
22. 
23- 
24. 


II.— CIVIL  WAR. 
The  Battle  Set  in  Array 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  April  14,  1861. 

The  National  Flag, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  May,  1861. 

The  Camp:    Its  Dangers  and  Duties, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  May,  1861. 

Modes  and  Duties  of  Emancipation, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  26,  1861. 

The  Success  of  American  Democracy, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  April  13,  1862. 

National  Injustice  and  Penalty, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Sept.  28,  1862. 

The  Ground  and  Forms  of  Government, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Nov.  22,  1862. 


Liberty  Under  Laws, 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Dec.  28,  1S62. 

The  Minister  Plenipotentiary,   . 

By  O.  W.  Holmes;    descriptive  of  Mr.  Beecher's  speeches  in  En 
gland;  reprinted  from  The  Atlantic  Monthly  of  January,  1864. 

Speech  in  Manchester,  England, 

Oct.  9,  1863. 

Speech  in  Glasgow, 

Oct.  13,  1863. 

Speech  in  Edinburgh, 

Oct.  14,  1863. 

Speech  in  Liverpool, 

Philharmonic  Hall,  Oct.  16,  1863. 

Speech  in  London 

Exeter  Hall,  Oct.  20,  1863. 

Farewell  Breakfast,  London, 

Radley's  Hotel,  Oct.  23,  1863. 

Farewell  Breakfast,  Manchester, 

Oct.  24,  1863. 

Farewell  Breakfast,  Liverpool, 

St.  James's  Hall,  Oct.  30,  1863. 

Mr.  Beecher's  Own  Account  of  the  English 
Speeches 


PACE 
269 


289 

304 
322 

342 

359 
382 

4°3 
422 

437 
465 

495 
515 
545 
574 
594 
625 

640 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


25.  Home- Reception  in  Brooklyn 654 

Academy  of  Music,  Nov.  19,  1863. 

26.  Address  at  Fort  Sumter  Flag-Raising,    .        .       676 

Charleston  (S.C.)  Harbor,  April  14,  1865. 

III.— CIVIL  LIBERTY. 

27.  Abraham  Lincoln 701 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  April  23,  1865. 

28.  Conditions  of  a  Restored  Union,       .       .       .       713 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Oct.  29,  1865. 

29.  Reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States,       .       736 

The  "Cleveland  Letters,"  written  in  August  and  September,  1866. 

30.  National  Unity 750 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Nov.  18,  1869. 

31.  Centennial  Review, 772 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  30,  1876. 

32.  Past  Perils  and  the  Peril  of  To-day,     .       .        789 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  29,  1377. 

33.  Address:  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,        809 

Ninth  Annual  Reunion,  Springfield,  Mass.,  June  5,  1878. 

34.  Retrospect  and  Prospect 825 

Sermon  in  Plymouth  Church,  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  27,  1884. 

35.  Eulogy  on  Grant 840 

Address  delivered  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  Oct.  22,  1885. 


List  of  Illustrations. 


1.  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER,  .  .  .  .  .  .       Frontispiece 

At  the  age  of  forty-three  (1S55). 

b  '  *      "'  FACING  PAGE 

2.  Lyman  Beecher, 18 

At  the  age  of  sixty. 

3.  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 50 

Abolitionist;  editor  of  Tlie  Liberator;  eminent  Anti-Slavery  agitator. 

4.  John  C.  Calhoun, 82 

U.  S.  Senator  from  South  Carolina;  chief  apostle  of  Secession. 

5.  Horace  Greeley 90 

Founder  and  editor  of  The  New  York  Tribune. 

6.  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 134 

At  the  age  of  sixty-five  (1878). 

7.  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 155 

At  the  age  of  seventy-three  (18S0). 

8.  Henry  Clay 167 

U.  S.  Senator  from  Kentucky;  orator,  statesman,  compromiser. 

9.  John  Charles  Fremont, 196 

Eminent  explorer;   first  Republican  presidential  candidate;   Major-Gen- 
eral  U.  S.  Army. 

10.  Charles  Sumner, 200 

U.  S.  Senator  from  Massachusetts;  Anti-Slavery  statesman  and  orator. 

11.  John  Brown, 203 

Abolitionist;   Kansas  emigrant;  hanged  for  invasion  of  Virginia. 

12.  Abraham  Lincoln, 269 

From  a  daguerreotype  taken  in  Washington,  1865. 

13.  Daniel  Webster, 302 

U.S.  Senator  from  Massachusetts;  orator;  expounder  of  the  Constitution. 

14.  Salmon  P.  Chase, 322 

U.  S.  Senator  from  Ohio  ;   Anti-Slavery  statesman  ;   Lincoln's  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury. 

15.  William  Henry  Seward, 352 

U.S.  Senator  from  New  York;   Anti-Slavery  statesman  ;    Lincoln's  Sec- 
retary of  State. 

16.  Frederick  Douglass, .        407 

Escaped  negro  slave;  orator;  U.  S.  Marshal  District  of  Columbia. 

17.  Wendell  Phillits,  . 548 

Lawyer  of  Boston,  Mass.;  eminent  Anti-Slavery  orator. 

18.  Posters  from  the  Walls  of  English  Cities,  1863,        .       652 

19.  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 676 

From  a  photograph  taken  in  1S65. 


HENRY  WARD    BEECHER. 


I. 

ESSENTIAL    PRINCIPLES. 

John  Ruskin,  in  the  preface  to  his  book  entitled,  "The 
Two  Paths,"  on  the  importance  of  organic  form  in  archi- 
tectural decorative  design,  has  this  strong  passage: — 

"  We  are  all  of  us  willing  enough  to  accept  dead  truths,  or  blunt 
ones  ;  which  can  be  fitted  harmoniously  into  spare  niches,  or 
shrouded  and  coffined  at  once  out  of  the  way,  we  holding  com- 
placently the  cemetery  keys  and  supposing  we  have  learned 
something.  But  a  sapling  truth,  with  earth  at  its  root  and 
blossom  on  its  branches ;  or  a  trenchant  truth,  that  can  cut  its 
way  through  bars  and  sods ;  most  men,  it  seems  to  me,  dislike 
the  sight  or  entertainment  of,  if  by  any  means  such  guest  or 
vision  may  be  avoided.  And  indeed  this  is  no  wonder ;  for  one 
such  truth,  thoroughly  accepted,  connects  itself  strangely  with 
others,  and  there  is  no  saying  what  it  may  lead  to." 

The  central  element  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  character 
was  his  sensitiveness  to  truth.  From  his  youth  he 
eagerly  desired  it,  earnestly  sought  it,  welcomed  it  with 
delight,  and  then  poured  out  his  whole  soul  in  using  it 
for  the  good  of  man, — which  he  always  believed  to  be  the 
cause  of  God.  To  a  remarkable  extent,  for  one  who 
worked  in  the  midst  of  men  and  along  the  lines  of  social 
forces,  he  laid  his  course  in  obedience  to  principle,  hold- 
ing a  sturdy  loyalty  to  it  amid  all  the  swaying  passions 
and  policies  by  which  he  was  surrounded.  In  one  sense 
this  was  no  credit  to  him,  since  it  was  his  natural  temper- 
ament. As  he  said  in  reference  to  facing  the  stormy 
English  meetings:  "I  have  expressed  my  views  in  any 
audience,  and  it  never  cost  me  a  struggle.  I  never  could 
help    doing    it."     However,    now    that    he    is    gone,    our 


12  HENRY    WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

inquiry  does  not  so  much  take  the  attitude  of  praise  or 
blame:  we  are  concerned  only  to  know  what  the  man 
was;  what  were  the  relative  points  of  strength  and  of 
weakness  in  his  make-up;  and  how  these  combined  with 
the  movements  and  events  around  him,  to  bring  about 
the  unquestionable  resultant  of  a  personal  influence, 
wider  and  more  potent  than  that  of  any  other  American  of 
his  time.  If  that  seems  a  strong  statement,  it  must  be 
considered  that  his  influence — whatever  it  was — at  no  time 
owed  anything  to  the  accidents  of  inherited  station,  or  the 
great  leverage  of  public  office,  by  which  individuals  may 
wield  the  powers  of  a  people,  but  was  the  immediate  effect 
of  his  own  personality. 

The  special  intent  of  this  volume  is  to  present  a  general 
view  of  Mr.  Beecher's  career  with  reference  to  the  great 
political  revolution  which  took  place  in  the  United  States 
while  he  was  in  public  life.  But  to  separate  his  political 
activity  from  the  rest  of  his  life — domestic,  social,  and 
religious — is  impossible,  if  one  would  get  at  the  real  sources 
of  his  conduct,  the  genuine  secrets  of  his  power.  The 
natural  endowments  of  the  man;  the  influences  under 
which  he  grew;  the  successive  fields  of  his  labor,  with 
their  opportunities  and  limitations;  the  unfolding  of  his 
character  and  capabilities;  his  modes  of  working,  accumu- 
lation of  knowledges,  general  and  special  preparations, 
tenses  and  moods  of  utterance;  the  gradual  enlargement 
of  his  influence;  the  social  and  ecclesiastical  and  political 
entanglements  which  at  times  hampered  his  course;  the 
steady  outflow  of  energy,  of  thought,  of  stimulating  im- 
pulse, in  harmony  with  the  humanitarian  movement  of  the 
age,  which  distinguished  him  to  the  very  end  of  his  long 
life, — these  considerations  are  all  inseparable  and  essential 
in  understanding  any  phase  of  his  career. 

His  public  utterances  were  all  the  outgrowth  of  the  one 
grand  theme  of  his  thought  and  faith:  The  fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  worth  of  man  as  God's  child,  —  not  only  the 
core  but  the  very  sum  and  substance  of  his  teaching, 
from  beginning  to  end.  Whatever  the  special  topic,  that 
underlying  principle  was  sure  to  be  found  at  the  bottom. 


£SS£A ' 7 7A L   PR/A rCIPL AS.  i  j, 

However  variant  the  visible  pattern — and  surely  few  minds 
since  Shakespeare's  have  laid  hold  on  such  a  wondrous 
number  and  diversity  of  matters  for  treatment — the  warp 
and  backing  was  that  maxim  of  his  life.  Whether  upon 
his  own  platform  in  Plymouth  pulpit,  or  lecturing  on  art 
or  literature  or  economics,  making  an  after-dinner  speech, 
or  writing  a  novel  or  a  trifling  paper  or  a  letter  of  travel, 
thundering  through  times  of  war  and  commotion,  or  dis- 
cussing policies  and  parties  in  the  piping  times  of  peace, 
— his  work  was  all  surrounded  and  permeated  with  an 
atmosphere  of  the  brooding  love  of  God  and  the  duty  of 
man  to  man. 

An  amusing  instance  of  this  characteristic  is  related.*  At 
the  lecture  he  delivered  in  Dublin,  on  "  The  Wastes  and  ' 
Burdens  of  Society,"  where  the  local  magnates,  although 
desirous  of  hearing  the  celebrated  American  orator,  were 
in  great  trepidation  lest  he  should  say  something  about 
religion  to  the  distaste  of  Irish  Catholics,  or  about  British 
politics,  to  the  disturbance  of  civil  order  and  governmental 
discipline  in  that  turbulent  town,  the  chairman  introduced 
him  as  follows: — 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  have  the  honor  to  introduce  to 
you  a  distinguished  orator  from  Yankeeland.  Mr.  Beecher  is 
not  on  this  platform  in  his  clerical  character,  so  we  are  not  to  be 
treated  to  any  exposition  of  his  theological  sentiments.  Mr. 
Beecher  is  not  here  as  a  politician,  and  therefore  we  will  not  hear 
from  him  any  exposition  of  his  political  principles.  [Hear,  hear, 
and  applause]  But  Mr.  Beecher  is  here  to  deliver  an  address  of 
more  than  ordinary  social  importance.  As  a  well-known  philan- 
thropist, from  his  long  experience,  from  the  wonderful  abilities 
the  Great  Master  has  gifted  him  with,  and  from  his  well  known 
character  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  orators,  we  may  an- 
ticipate, I  think,  an  address — a  lecture — that  shall  not  only  be 
instructive  but  delightful.  I  have  great  pleasure  in  introducing 
Mr.  Beecher  to  your  notice  this  evening." 

Mr.  Beecher,  on  coming  forward,  said: — 

"  I  have  been  very  kindly  introduced  by  the  distinguished  and 


*"A  Summer  in  England  (1886)  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher."     Edited 
by  James  B.  Pond.     New  York:  Fords,  Howard,  &  Hulbert. 


14  HENRY   WARP   BEECHER. 

honorable  gentleman  who  has  accompanied  me,  and  therefore  I 
accept  the  position  assigned.  I  have  not  come  to  speak  on  the- 
ology ;  and  you  shall  never  know  how  much  you  have  missed. 
[Laughter.]  I  have  not  come  to  speak  on  politics.  I  have  enough 
of  that  in  my  own  country  [laughter],  and  even  if  I  knew  about 
your  politics,  I  should  think  it  very  inexpedient,  as  one  born 
abroad,  to  meddle  with  local  affairs  and  local  questions.  I  know 
that  it  is  not  necessary  for  one  to  know  much  about  politics  in 
order  to  make  a  good  speaker;  but,  nevertheless,  I  accept  the 
delimitation,  and  there  is  nothing  left  of  me  but  this — that  I 
am  a  man.  That's  enough.  'A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that.'  And  as 
to  the  other  things,  I  give  them  a  go-by,  in  the  hope  that  some 
twenty  or  thirty  years  hence  I  may  revisit  you,  and  that  you  then 
will  be  very  glad  to  hear  my  opinions  about  those  other  sub- 
jects." 

Mr.  Beecher  gave  the  lecture  in  one  of  his  own  peculiar 
moods,  caused  by  the  attempt  to  confine  him  within  certain 
bounds.  Mr.  Pond  in  telling  the  story  says:  "The  audi- 
ence soon  had  reason  to  believe  that  he  had  in  some  way, 
perhaps  unco?isciously,  woven  a  great  deal  of  religion  and 
politics  into  the  lecture;  at  least  the  chairman  told  me 
after  the  lecture  that  he  could  see  and  feel  it  all  through." 

And  so  it  was,  at  all  times.  His  religion  was  not  a  mat- 
ter for  Sunday  performance;  it  was  that  which  filled  his 
life  and  thought,  for  which  and  by  which — as  at  once  an 
aim  and  an  inspiration — he  did  that  which  he  found  to  do. 

In  a  brief  sketch,  such  as  this  must  be,  it  is  evident  that 
the  elements  of  the  character,  training,  and  general  career 
of  so  large  and  effective  a  man  must  be  but  lightly  touched 
upon  rather  than  thoroughly  studied;  yet  the  present 
writer  holds  a  consideration  of  them  necessary  to  a  proper 
comprehension  of  Mr.  Beecher's  course  in  connection  with 
civil  affairs.  That  it  will  be  adequate  or  complete  is  not 
to  be  expected;  such  is  a  labor  for  broader  powers  and 
later  years:  but  that  it  should  be  of  interest,  and  of  use  in 
understanding  the  essential  qualities  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  great  mind  and  greater  heart,  is  the  design  and 
hope  of  the  writer. 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  15 


II. 

HEREDITY,  TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION. 

The  familiar  thought  that  great  men,  however  loftily 
they  may  tower  above  their  contemporaries,  are  yet  the 
product  of  their  own  times,  has  been  recently  applied 
to  Mr.  Beecher  by  the  London  Globe,  a  conservative  Tory 
paper,  having  little  sympathy  with  anything  that  he  repre- 
sented.    It  says: — 

"  He  may  be  taken  as  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  view  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  greatness  of  personality,  as  distinguished 
from  greatness  in  any  particular  capacity.  *****  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  was  the  leading  type  of  his  own  people  in  his  own 
day ;  and  as  such  he  will  doubtless  be  remembered." 

Indeed,  it  is  as  one  peculiarly  representing  the  highest 
ideal  of  American  theories  and  practical  citizenship  that 
the  man  must  be  considered. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  a  type  of  the  best  American- 
ism, by  his  ancestry  and  birthright.  A  widow,  Mrs.  Han- 
nah Beecher,  his  earliest  ancestor  in  this  country,  and  her 
son  John,  came  here  from  Kent,  England,  in  1638  with 
Master  John  Davenport's  company  at  the  time  of  the  settle- 
ment of  New  Haven,  Connecticut;  and  Andrew  Ward, 
another  of  the  same  company,  was  his  ancestor  on  his 
mother's  side.  He  himself  mentions,  in  one  of  his  speeches 
in  England  during  the  war,  the  fact  that  his  great-great- 
grandmother,  Mary  Roberts,  was  a  full-blooded  Welsh 
woman;  and  he  felt  that  he  owed  no  inconsiderable  part  of 
himself  to  the  Welsh  blood  in  his  veins. 

John  Beecher,  the  immigrant,  and  his  descendants,  Jo- 
seph, Nathaniel,   and    David    the  father  of    Lyman,  were 


1 6  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

mighty  men  in  stature  and  strength,  Nathaniel  and  David 
being  blacksmiths.  Henry  Ward  was  the  eighth  child  of 
Lyman  Beecher  and  Roxanna  Foote,  the  latter  of  whom 
was  a  descendant  of  Andrew  Ward,  already  mentioned. 
They  were  married  in  1799;  and  Lyman  Beecher,  who 
brought  the  combative  and  somewhat  disputatious  tem- 
perament of  his  father,  the  blacksmith,  into  the  profession 
of  the  ministry,  settled  first  at  East  Hampton,  Long  Island, 
and  twelve  years  later  moved  to  Litchfield,  Connecticut. 
Here,  on  the  24th  of  June,  1813,  Henry  Ward  was  born. 

Thus  we  find  him,  at  the  outset,  an  offshoot  of  the  sturdy 
English  stock,  infused  with  the  highly  sensitive  and  poetic 
Welsh  temperament,  planted  on  a  stony,  breezy,  sunshiny 
hill  of  New  England.  His  early  years  were  to  be  spent 
amid  that  characteristically  Puritan  people,  and  subject  to 
all  the  bracing  atmospheric  conditions  of  that  time  and 
region. 

The  training  of  children  in  these  days,  in  respect  to  both 
their  social,  mental,  and  moral  development,  is  so  rich  and 
full  of  interest  on  every  side,  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  conceive  what  it  was  in  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  child- 
hood. It  is  pitiful  to  look  back  at  such  a  picture  as  Mr. 
Beecher  has  drawn  of  his  own  early  school-days.  From 
our  point  of  view,  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  children  were 
so  neglected;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  looking  forward  from 
that,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  such  a  starved  childhood  could 
have  grown  to  such  a  glorious  manhood: — 

"  It  was  our  misfortune,  in  boyhood,  to  go  to  a  district  school. 
A  little,  square,  pine  building,  blazing  in  the  sun,  stood  upon  the 
highway,  without  a  tree  for  shade  or  shadow  near  it;  without 
bush,  yard,  fence,  or  circumstance  to  take  off  its  bare,  cold,  hard, 
hateful  look.  Before  the  door,  in  winter,  was  the  pile  of  wood 
for  fuel;  and  there,  in  summer,  were  all  the  chips  of  the  winter's 
wood. 

"  In  winter  we  were  squeezed  into  the  recess  of  the  furthest  cor- 
ner, among  little  boys,  who  seemed  to  be  sent  to  school  merely  to  fill 
up  the  chinks  between  the  bigger  boys.  Certainly  we  were  never 
sent  for  any  such  absurd  purpose  as  an  education.  There  were 
the  great  scholars;  the  school  in  winter  was  for  them,  not  for  us 
pickaninnies.    We  read  and  spelled  twice  a  day, — unless  something 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,    AND  EDUCATION.  17 

happened  to  prevent,  which  did  happen  about  every  other  day. 
For  the  rest  of  the  time  we  were  busy  in  keeping  still.  And  a 
time  we  had  of  it,  indeed  !  Our  shoes  always  would  be  scraping  on 
the  floor,  or  knocking  the  shins  of  urchins  who  were  also  being; 

'CD  O 

'educated.'  All  of  our  little  legs  together  (poor,  tired,  nervous, 
restless  legs,  with  nothing  to  do!)  would  fill  up  the  corner  with 
such  a  noise,  that  every  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  the  master  would 
bring  down  his  hickory  ferule  on  the  desk  with  a  clap  that  sent 
shivers  through  our  hearts  to  think  how  it  would  have  felt  if  it 
had  fallen  somewhere  else ;  and  then,  with  a  look  that  swept  us 
all  into  utter  extremity  of  stillness,  he  would  cry,  'Silence,  in  that 
corner!'  Stillness  would  last  for  a  few  minutes;  but  little  boys' 
memories  are  not  capacious.  Moreover,  some  of  the  boys  had 
great  gifts  of  mischief,  and  some  of  mirthfulness,  and  some  had 
both  together.  The  consequence  was  that,  just  when  we  were 
the  most  afraid  to  laugh,  we  saw  the  most  comical  things  to  laugh 
at.  Temptations  which  we  could  have  vanquished  with  a  smile 
out  in  the  free  air,  were  irresistible  in  our  little  corner  where  a 
laugh  and  a  stinging  slap  were  very  apt  to  woo  each  other.  So, 
we  would  hold  on,  and  fill  up;  and  others  would  hold  on  and  fill 
up  too;  till,  by  and  by  the  weakest  would  let  go  a  mere  whiffet 
of  a  laugh,  and,  then,  down  went  all  the  precautions,  and  one  went 
off,  and  another,  another,  touching  off  the  others  like  a  pack  of 
fire-crackers!  It  was  in  vain  to  deny  it.  But,  as  the  process  of 
snapping  our  heads  and  pulling  our  ears  went  on  with  primitive 
sobriety,  we  each  in  turn,  with  tearful  eyes  and  blubbering  lips, 
declared  'we  didn't  mean  to,'  and  that  was  true;  and  that  we 
'wouldn't  do  so  any  more,'  and  that  was  a  fib,  however  uninten- 
tional ;  for  we  never  failed  to  do  just  so  again,  and  that  about 
once  an  hour  all  day  long. 

"A  woman  kept  the  summer  school,  sharp,  precise,  unsympa- 
thetic, keen,  and  untiring.  Of  all  ingenious  ways  of  fretting  little 
boys,  doubtless  her  ways  were  the  most  expert.  Not  a  tree  was 
there  to  shelter  the  house.  The  sun  beat  down  on  the  shingles 
and  clapboards  till  the  pine  knots  shed  pitchy  tears,  and  the  air 
was  redolent  of  warm  pine-wood  smell.  The  benches  were  slabs 
with  legs  in  them.  The  desks  were  slabs  at  an  angle,  cut,  hacked, 
scratched,  each  year's  edition  of  jack-knife  literature  overlaying 
its  predecessor,  until  in  our  day  it  already  wore  cuttings  and  carv- 
ings two  or  three  inches  deep.  But  if  we  cut  a  morsel,  or  stuck 
in  pins,  or  pinched  off  splinters,  the  little  sharp-eyed  mistress  was 
on  hand,  and  one  look  from  her  eye  was  worse  than  a  sliver  in 
our  foot,  and  one  nip  of  her  fingers  was  equal  to  a  jab  of  a  pin  ; 
— for  we  had  tried  both. 


iS  HENRY   WAR/)   BE  EC  HER. 

"We  envied  the  flies — merry  fellows,  bouncing  about,  tasting 
of  that  apple-skin,  patting  away  at  this  crumb  of  bread;  now  out 
of  the  window,  then  in  again;  on  your  nose,  on  your  neighbor's 
cheek,  off  to  the  very  schoolma'am's  lips,  dodging  her  slap,  and 
then  letting  off  a  little  real  round  and  round  buzz,  up,  down,  this 
way,  that  way,  and  every  way.  O,  we  envied  the  flics  more  than 
anything,  except  the  birds!  The  windows  were  so  high  that  we 
could  not  see  the  grassy  meadows ;  but  we  could  see  the  tops  of 
distant  trees,  and  the  far,  deep,  bounteous  blue  sky.  There  flew 
the  robins ;  there  went  the  blue-birds,  and  there  went  we.  We 
followed  that  old  Polyglott,  the  skunk-blackbird,  and  heard  him 
describe  the  way  they  talked  at  the  winding  up  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel.  We  thanked  every  meadow-lark  that  sung  on,  rejoicing 
as  it  flew.  Now  and  then  a  'chipping-bird  '  would  flutter  on  the 
very  window-sill,  turn  its  little  head  sidewise  and  peer  on  the 
medley  of  boys  and  girls.  Long  before  we  knew  that  it  was  in 
Scripture,  we  sighed — O,  that  we  had  the  wings  of  a  bird — we 
would  fly  away  and  be  out  of  this  hateful  school.  As  for  learning, 
the  sum  of  all  that  we  ever  got  at  a  district  school  would  scarcely 
cover  the  first  ten  letters  of  the  alphabet.  One  good,  kind, 
story-telling,  Bible-rehearsing  aunt  at  home,  with  apples  and 
ginger-bread  premiums,  is  worth  all  the  schoolma'ams  that  ever 
stood  to  see  poor  little  fellows  roast  in  those  boy-traps  called  dis- 
trict schools." 

Perhaps  it  would  be  hard  to  find  anywhere  a  more  apt 
and  complete  summing  up  of  the  characteristics  with  which 
this  boy  started  life:  physically  strong,  full  of  life,  with 
keenly  sensitive  nerves,  quick  to  see  and  to  feel  the  influ- 
ences of  nature,  especially  in  its  aspects  of  poetry  and  free- 
dom from  constraint,  with  a  heart  swiftly  responsive  to 
sympathetic  treatment,  combustible  with  merriment  and 
with  tears,  and  a  soul  that  instinctively  reached  out  toward 
the  beautiful  and  the  good.  That  which  does  not  appear 
at  this  time,  and  which  must  have  been  very  slow  in  mak- 
ing its  appearance,  was  the  remarkable  mental  capacity  of 
which  the  man  was  a  notable  example  throughout  his  en- 
tire life,  but  which  the  boy  seems  to  have  shown  no  hint  of. 

What  he  received  from  his  father  and  mother  by  direct 
inheritance  certainly  cannot  be  overlooked;  and  it  is  worth 
more  than  a  passing  glance  to  consider  what  was  the  do- 
mestic atmosphere  in  which  he  grew  through  boyhood  and 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION  19 

youth  to  early  manhood, — if  only  to  show  the  shallowness 
of  the  small  critics  of  our  clay,  who  because  this  great 
original  thinker  grew  out  luxuriantly  in  all  directions  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  trellises  on  which  their  own  slender 
vines  were  trained,  are  fain  to  say,  "  He  is  a  great  talker; 
but  he  knows  nothing  of  theology;  "  the  fact  being  that  in 
Henry  Ward  Beecher's  youth,  in  old  Connecticut,  theology 
was  the  food  he  ate,  and  the  milk  he  drank,  and  the  air 
he  breathed,  and  the  ground  he  trod,  from  his  very  earliest 
years.  Theology  was  the  only  thing  that  he  got  a  surfeit  of, 
and  doubtless  it  was  out  of  his  own  familiarity  with  it,  and 
his  final  perception  of  its  barrenness  for  good  in  practical 
labor  upon  the  souls  of  men,  that  he  so  impatiently  went 
beyond  it. 

Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  was  a  born  belligerent.  He  was  a 
man  of  thorough  theological  training  himself,  under  Dr. 
Dwight  of  New  Haven,  and  in  the  controversies  and  feuds 
of  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  and  Unitarian 
churches  of  his  day  he  took  no  uncertain  part.  He  was  a 
revivalist,  an  ardent  laborer  in  the  Temperance  cause,  and 
in  every  direction  one  of  the  foremost  clergymen  of  his  time. 
A  sermon  preached  in  1810  on  the  killing  of  Alexander 
Hamilton  by  Aaron  Burr  attracted  special  attention;  and  his 
famous  Six  Sermons  on  Intemperance  (1814)  were  power- 
ful factors  in  the  reform  then  moving  throughout  New 
England.  His  family  was  large;  his  income  of  three  hun- 
dred dollars,  after  five  years  increased  to  four  hundred, 
gave  even  in  those  times  a  narrow  margin.  He  was  eccen- 
tric and  peculiar,  and  absent-minded;  in  everything  except 
the  personal  influencing  of  men  to  right  living,  the  discussion 
of  theoretical  questions  in  theology  and  practical  problems 
in  morals,  an  eminently  unpractical  man.  He  carefully 
thought  out  his  sermons,  but  usually  preached  them  without 
notes,  pouring  them  forth  with  great  vehemence,  and  also 
with  great  effect  upon  his  hearers.  Keenly  alive  to  the  influ- 
ences of  music,  and  thoroughly  unconventional,  so  far  as 
outward  appearances  were  concerned,  he  was  accustomed 
to  relieve  the  tension  of  his  mind  and  nerves  after  preach- 
ing by  violin-playing  or,  as    like    as   not,  by   going  to  the 


20  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

wood-pile  and  sawing  wood.  He  was  a  man  of  tremen- 
dous impulses,  and  lightning-like  changes  of  mood;  a  rec- 
ognized thinker,  a  powerful  orator,  a  genius  of  many  sides. 
Though  by  no  means  a  symmetrical  character,  he  was  an 
eminent  force  for  good  in  his  day. 

In  spite  of  Dr.  Beecher's  musical  sensibility,  he  was 
curiously  lacking  in  any  perception  of  beauty  in  art,  and 
his  son  Henry  Ward's  love  for  all  such  matters  in  later 
years  was  one  of  the  things  that  he  could  not  understand. 

If  the  sources  of  impulsive  power,  the  broad  sense  of 
morality,  the  mental  alertness,  the  ardent  earnestness  for 
man,  the  lofty  aspiration  for  Heavenly  things,  the  rich 
humor,  the  quick  wit,  the  careless  freedom  from  conven- 
tionality, the  subtle  nerve-sensitiveness  to  music,  and  the 
magnificent  physical  frame,  elasticity  of  muscle,  and  per- 
fection of  organic  health,  came  from  the  father,  the  mother 
of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  contributed  some  elements  with- 
out which  he  would  not  have  been  the  man  he  was. 

The  great  men  have  usually  risen  from  families  unknown 
before  their  advent;  yet,  whenever  a  man's  career  has  made 
it  worth  while  to  seek  out  his  progenitors,  it  is  usually 
found  that  he  had  a  mother  of  remarkable  qualities. 

Roxanna  Foote  was  a  woman  of  rare  nature.  Miss 
Catharine  Beecher,  the  eldest  of  Dr.  Beecher's  thirteen 
children,  in  her  "  Educational  Reminiscences  "  speaks  of 
certain  traits  in  the  characters  of  both  the  mother  and 
father  which  are  worth  notice.  The  mother,  she  says,  had 
"a  high  ideal  of  excellence  in  whatever  she  attempted,  a 
habit  of  regarding  all  knowledge  with  reference  to  its 
practical  usefulness,  and  remarkable  perseverance."  She 
gives  illustrations  of  Mrs.  Beecher's  esthetic  taste  and 
positive  artistic  talent,  in  making  and  painting  a  car- 
pet from  a  useless  bale  of  cotton  that  Dr.  Beecher  had 
bought  for  its  cheapness,  and  in  painting  and  decorating  a 
set  of  old  wooden  chairs,  in  her  beautiful  needlework,  her 
remarkable  paintings  of  fruits,  flowers,  and  birds,  and  her 
miniatures  on  ivory,  all  accomplished  when  the  young 
mother  of  four  or  five  children,  a  housekeeper,  and  a 
teacher  of  a  boarding  school. 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  21 

The  father  passionately  loved  children,  but  the  mother, 
though  benevolent  and  tender,  was  not  demonstrative. 
The  father  was  imaginative,  impulsive,  and  averse  to  study; 
while  the  mother  calmly  enjoyed  both  studying  and  teach- 
ing. The  father,  although  profuse  and  poetical,  was  a 
trained  dialectician;  and  yet  the  mother,  untrained,  he  re- 
garded as  fully  his  equal  in  argument.  She  had  a  refined 
and  shrinking  nature,  but  in  emergencies  showed  a  native 
strength  and  power  of  command. 

Mrs.  Beecher's  spiritual  traits  impressed  themselves  upon 
her  children,  but  she  gave  them  also  their  characteristic 
physiognomy;  for  the  "  Beecher  look,"  so  familiar  to  the 
public  in  the  faces  of  Dr.  Edward,  Miss  Catharine,  Henry 
Ward,  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  others  of  the  elder  group,  is  not  at 
all  Beecher,  but  distinctively  Foote,  and  may  be  seen — espe- 
cially the  fine  nose,  the  full  eye,  the  mobile,  sensitive 
mouth,  and  the  general  contour  of  the  mask  —  in  many 
members  of  the  old  Connecticut  family  of  that  name.  It 
was  the  Beecher  power  infusing  the  Foote  refinement  that 
found  its  consummate  products  in  Harriet  and  Henry. 

Mr.  Beecher  once  told  the  present  writer  that  his  father 
was  very  irascible.  "One  day,"  said  he,  "being  much  an- 
noyed by  some  hogs  that  kept  getting  into  his  garden,  he 
seized  his  gun  and  rushed  to  the  door.  My  mother  anx- 
iously followed,  and  cried,  'Oh  Fatner,  don't  shoot  the 
poor  things!'  He  flashed  back  at  her,  'Woman,  go  into 
the  house  ! '  and  when  he  was  telling  me  of  it  years  after- 
ward he  said  :  '  Without  a  word  or  look  she  turned, 
quietly,  majestically,  and  went  in — but  she  didn't  get  in 
before  I  did.  I  threw  my  arms  around  her  in  an  agony  of 
self-reproach,  and  cried,  "  Forgive  me  —  Oh  forgive  me  !  " 
She  uttered  no  word,  but  she  looked  at  me  like  a  queen — 
and  smiled  —  and  kissed  my  face:  my  passion  was  gone 
and  my  offense  forgiven.'  Up  to  the  last  of  his  life  he 
never  spoke  of  her  but  with  intensest  admiration  and  lov- 
ing remembrance.     She  must  have  been  a  noble  woman." 

This  lovely  mother  died  when  little  Henry  was  but 
three  years  old.  His  remembrances  of  her  were  vague, 
but  full  of  tender  and  beautiful  imaginings.     He  seems  to 


22  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

have  cherished  his  slight  memories  and  what  he  could  learn 
of  her,  as  a  beautiful  ideal  which,  throughout  his  life,  ap- 
pears in  many  exquisite  passages  of  writing  or  of  speech. 

In  one  of  his  sermons  occurs  the  following:  "  I  can 
never  say  enough  for  women  for  my  mother's  sake,  for  my 
sisters'  sake,  for  the  sake  of  others  that  gathered  in  the 
days  of  my  infancy  about  me,  in  return  for  what  they 
have  interpreted  to  me  of  the  beauty  of  holiness,  of  the 
fullness  of  love,  and  of  the  heavenliness  of  those  elements 
from  which  we  are  to  interpret  Heaven  itself." 

So  much,  then,  for  what  Mr.  Beecher  inherited  from  his 
parents.  Upon  the  death  of  his  mother  there  came  into 
his  family  another  person  of  whom  the  man  was  never 
tired  of  saying  beautiful  things,  as,  for  instance,  this  allu- 
sion to  her  in  his  "Fruits,  Flowers,  and  Farming," — "My 
dear  Aunt  Esther,  who  brought  me  up, — a  woman  so  good 
and  modest  that  she  will  spend  ages  in  Heaven  wonder- 
ing how  it  happened  that  she  ever  got  there,  while  the 
angels  will  always  be  wondering  why  she  was  not  there 
from  all  eternity." 

This  excellent  and  beloved  woman,  a  sister  of  Dr. 
Beecher,  came  to  take  charge  of  the  family  after  Mrs. 
Beecher's  death.  A  close  economist,  an  accomplished  cook, 
systematical  and  neat  in  all  family  arrangements,  but 
gentle,  loving,  and  a  very  soul  of  brooding  motherly  kind- 
ness, her  well-ordered  household  moved  along  with  Dr. 
Beecher's  impulsive  nature  in  perfect  harmony.  At  the 
end  of  the  year  a  second  mother  was  brought  to  the 
home,  of  whom  Miss  Catharine  says  that  she 

"Introduced  a  more  complete  and  refined  style  of  housekeep- 
ing, which  she  had  acquired  or  observed  in  the  families  of  her 
two  uncles,  Gov.  King,  of  Maine,  and  Rufus  King,  a  former  am- 
bassador of  the  United  States  to  England.  Under  her  quiet  and 
lady-like  rule,  I  again  was  trained  to  habits  of  system,  order,  and 
neatness,  entirely  foreign  to  my  natural  inherited  traits,  as  it  re- 
spects personal  habits,  while  in  the  most  unfavorable  circum- 
stances, she  was  a  model  of  propriety  and  good  taste.  .  .  .  She 
had  a  most  sweet  and  gentle  speech,  which,  even  in  the  most  try- 
ing circumstances,  never  became  loud  or  harsh." 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  23 

Mrs.  Beecher,  in  writing  to  her  former  home  about  this 
family  into  which  she  had  come,  says: — 

"  It  seems  the  highest  happiness  of  the  children  (the  elder  ones 
especially)  to  have  a  reading  circle,  and  they  have  all,  I  think, 
fine  capacities  for  learning.  Edward  probably  will  be  a  great 
scholar.  Catharine  is  a  fine  looking  girl,  and  in  her  mind  I  find 
all  that  I  expected.  Mary  will  make  a  fine  woman;  will  be 
rather  handsome  than  otherwise.  The  four  youngest  are  very 
pretty.  George  comes  next  to  Mary.  Harriet  and  Henry  come 
next,  and  they  are  always  hand  in  hand.  They  are  as  lovely 
children  as  I  ever  saw, — amiable,  affectionate,  and  very  bright." 

Now,  to  add  to  the  foregoing  pictures  of  the  family,  take 
this  sentence  from  Miss  Catharine  again.  Speaking  of  her 
first  experience  in  school  teaching  she  says:  "The  only 
pleasant  recollection  is  that  of  my  own  careful  and  exact 
training  under  my  most  accurate  and  faithful  brother  Ed- 
ward, and  my  reproduction  of  it  to  my  sister  Harriet  and 
two  others  of  my  brightest  pupils." 

Thus,  though  it  would  appear  that  the  early  school- 
ing of  little  Henry  was  less  than  nothing,  the  qualities 
that  he  inherited  from  his  parents,  and  the  advantages 
of  mutual  training,  of  intelligent  conversation,  of  varied 
reading  in  the  midst  of  a  family  circle  of  unusual  aptitude 
and  varied  acquirements,  gave  him  advantages  of  no  mean 
quality;  while  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  early  neglect 
of  his  little  mind  gave  him  a  chance  to  solidify  and  develop 
that  splendid  physique  which  after  all  was  the  source  of 
much  of  his  power. 

The  society  in  Litchfield  at  the  time  of  his  youth  was  of  a 
rather  high  intellectual  grade,  there  being  in  the  town  a  well 
known  law  school  and  several  other  institutions  of  learning; 
it  was  an  era  of  what  Emerson  calls  "  plain  living  and  high 
thinking."  This  was  in  one  respect  unfavorable  to  the 
development  of  the  boy,  inasmuch  as  it  tended  to  separate 
the  father's  intellectual  sympathies  from  his  children, 
leaving  them  largely  to  shift  for  themselves.  It  was,  how- 
ever, but  according  to  the  temper  of  the  time;  and  the  con- 
ditions of  their  Litchfield  home  resulted  in  an  atmosphere 
highly  favorable  to  the  growth  of  character,  the  honorable 


24  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

examples  of  life  about  him  exerting  an  influence  upon  his 
whole  future  life.  He  has  several  times  expressed  his 
gratitude  to  God  that  his  early  life  was  passed  without 
knowledge  of  impurity  or  vice  of  any  kind.  He  was  sin- 
gularly favored  by  his  surroundings  in  that  regard;  and 
his  knowledge  of  such  things,  utilized  in  later  years  with 
great  dramatic  power,  in  his  "  Lectures  to  Young  Men," 
not  only,  but  in  all  his  course  of  preaching,  resulted  from 
a  careful  gathering  of  information  in  conversation  with 
those  who  knew.  For  instance,  his  apparent  familiarity 
with  the  modes  and  influences  of  gambling,  in  his  Indian- 
apolis lectures  to  young  men,  came  from  a  series  of  talks 
which  he  had  with  a  gambler  in  that  city,  with  whom  he 
sought  an  acquaintance  for  the  express  purpose  of  learn- 
ing something  about  the  facts,  the  bearings  of  which  he 
was  going  to  discuss.  So  that,  although  he  had  never 
been  inside  of  a  gambling  house,  and  did  not  even  know 
one  card  from  another,  his  own  intuitions  of  human  nature, 
his  quick  sympathy  with  others  and  power  to  put  himself 
by  imagination  in  their  places,  enabled  him  to  clothe  the 
bare  bones  of  fact  with  such  living  power  that  the  pictures 
were  recognized  as  truthful  and  vivid  to  the  last  degree. 

He  says  in  one  place:  "  I  thank  God  for  two  things — 
first  that  I  was  born  and  bred  in  the  country,  of  parents 
that  gave  me  a  sound   constitution   and  a  noble  example. 

I  never  can  pay  back  what  I  owe  to  my  parents 

And  I  am  thankful  that  I  was  brought  up  in  circumstances 
where  I  never  became  acquainted  with  wickedness." 
And  again:  "I  never  was  sullied  in  act,  nor  in  thought, 
nor  in  feeling,  when  I  was  young.  I  grew  up  as  pure  as  a 
woman.  And  I  cannot  express  to  God  the  thanks  which  I 
owe  my  mother,  and  to  my  father,  and  to  the  great  house- 
hold of  sisters  and  brothers  among  whom  I  lived.  And 
the  secondary  knowledge  of  those  wicked  things  which  I 
have  gained  in  later  years  in  a  professional  way,  I  gained 
under  such  guards  that  it  was  not  harmful  to  me." 

Combative  as  Dr.  Beecher  was,  there  must  have  been  in 
him  much  of  the  power  of  sweetness  and  self-control  which 
the  son  so  markedly  exhibited  during  his  own  season  of* 


HEREDITY,   TRAINING,  AND  EDUCATION  25 

greatest  tribulation.     In  a  sermon  on  "The  Moral  Teach- 
ing of  Suffering,"  Mr.  Beecher  says:  — 

"  I  recollect  distinctly,  on  one  occasion,  when  I  was  not  more 
than  six  years  old,  that  a  man  of  great  violence  of  temper  came  to 
see  my  father,  and  rated  him  with  such  a  scolding  as  I  had  never 
heard.  I  looked  at  my  father  with  amazement,  as  he  sat  perfectly 
still  and  tranquil.  When  the  man  had  done,  and  felt  relieved, 
father  began,  in  the  gentlest  manner,  to  say  to  him,  'Well,  if  all 
you  say  is  true,  I  think  you  are  right  in  the  severity  of  your  re- 
marks ;  but  I  suppose  that  if  in  any  regard  you  are  not  correct, 
you  are  willing  to  be  set  right.'  '  Yes,'  said  the  man  with  a  growl, 
'of  course  I  am.'  'Well,  will  you  allow  me  to  make  one  state- 
ment?'said  father,  humbling  himself  before  the  man.  'Yes.'  So 
father  began  with  a  little  matter,  and  stated  it;  and  then  he  went 
a  little  further;  and  then  a  little  further;  until,  by  and  by,  the 
man  began  to  lose  color,  and  at  last  broke  out,  '  I  have  been  all 
wrong  in  this  matter;  I  do  not  understand  it.'  After  he  had  gone 
away,  father  said  to  me,  in  a  sort  of  casual  manner,  'Give  up,  and 
beat  'em.'  I  got  an  idea  of  self-restraint  under  provocation,  which 
I  never  could  have  got  by  all  the  instruction  in  the  world  which 
came  to  me  merely  in  the  form  of  ideas,  and  in  picture-forms 
and  fables;  I  had  before  me  the  sight  of  my  father  suffering — for 
his  pride  was  naturally  touched  (though  you  might  not  think  it 
from  his  posterity,  yet  there  was  pride  in  my  father  to  some  ex- 
tent); he  felt  it  keenly;  and  under  the  keenness  of  the  feeling  he 
still  maintained  perfect  calmness  and  perfect  sweetness.  He 
overcame  the  man  by  suffering.  He  suffered  reproach  and  abuse, 
and  maintained  himself  under  them." 

It  will  not  do  in  this  connection  to  omit  mention  of 
Charles  Smith,  an  old  negro  who  used  to  saw  wood  for 
Dr.  Beecher,  and  do  odd  "chores"  about  the  place,  and 
to  whom  Mr.  Beecher  has  frequently  alluded  in  terms  of 
profound  affection  and  gratitude.  Little  Henry  occupied 
the  same  room  with  him,  and  records  the  undying  im- 
pression made  upon  him  by  the  man's  genuine  piety, 
lovely  character,  and  profound  enjoyment  of  his  religion. 
Mr.  Beecher  says:  "  Every  night  he  would  set  the  candle 
at  the  head  of  his  bed  and  pray,  and  sing,  and  laugh,  and 
I  bear  record  that  his  praying  made  a  profound  impression 
upon  my  mind.  I  never  thought  whether  it  was  right  or 
wrong,   I   only   thought,    '  How  that  man    does  enjoy  it  ! 


26  HENRY    WARD   HE  EC  HER. 

What  enjoyment  there  must  be  in  such  prayer  as  his.'  I 
gained  more  from  that  man  of  the  idea  of  the  desirableness 
of  prayer,  than  I  ever  did  from  my  father  or  mother.  My 
father  was  never  an  ascetic,  he  had  no  sympathy  with  any- 
thing of  a  monkish  tendency;  and  yet  this  poor  man, 
more  than  he,  led  me  to  see  that  there  should  be  real 
overflowing  gladness  and  thanksgiving  in  prayer." 

He  was  a  shy  and  diffident  boy;  his  natural  articulation 
was  thick  and  indistinct;  his  memory  was  poor,  and  to  all 
influences  except  those  of  nature  without  and  the  affec- 
tionate appeals  of  domestic  love  within  the  home  circle,  he 
seems  to  have  been  rather  dull  than  bright.  When  he 
was  ten  years  old  he  was  put  in  the  young  ladies'  school, 
kept  by  his  sister  Catharine,  in  Hartford,  where  among 
forty  girls  he  was  the  only  boy.  One  who  knew  his  early 
days  writes: — 

"  Here  his  mirthfulness  began  to  develop  very  rapidly.  He  kept 
the  little  company  of  thirty  or  forty  girls  in  continuous  roars  of 
laughter.  His  store  of  fun  was  exhaustless.  The  school  was  di- 
vided into  two  divisions  in  grammar,  with  leaders  on  either  side, 
and  at  certain  periods  public  examinations  were  held,  when  the 
successful  competitors  were  suitably  rewarded.  On  such  occa- 
sions Henry  was  not  wanted  by  either  division,  as  he  would  in- 
variably throw  the  whole  division  into  convulsive  merriment. 
One  day  his  sister  took  him  aside  to  a  private  apartment  to 
drill  him  in  the  rules  and  definitions,  which  he  found  almost 
impossible  to  commit  to  memory.  'Now,  Henry,'  said  the 
teacher,  'A  is  the  indefinite  article,  you  see,  and  must  be  used 
only  with  a  singular  noun.  You  can  say  a  man,  but  you  can't  a 
men,  can  you?'  '  Yes,  I  can  say  Amen  too,'  said  the  mischievous 
little  rogue.  'Father  always  says  it  at  the  end  of  his  prayers.' 
'  Come,  Henry,  don't  be  always  joking;  now  decline  he.  Nomi- 
native he,  possessive  his,  objective  him.  You  see  his  is  possess- 
ive. Now,  you  can  say  his  book,  but  you  can't  say  him  book.' 
'  Yes,  I  do  say  hymn-book  too,'  said  the  incipient  scholar,  with  a 
cunning,  quizzical  little  smile.  At  this  point  the  teacher,  failing 
to  contain  herself  any  longer,  burst  into  laughter,  which  pleased 
him  immensely.  '  But  now,  Henry,  seriously,  do  attend  to  the 
active  and  passive  voice.  Now,  /  strike  is  active,  you  see,  be- 
cause if  you  strike  you  do  something.  But  /  am  struck  is 
passive,  because  if  you  are  struck  you  don't  do  anything, do  you?' 
'  Yes  I  do;  I  strike  back  again.'" 


HEREDITY,   TRAINING,   AND  EDUCATION  27 

After  a  year  of  Hartford  he  was  sent  to  the  little  town 
of  Bethlehem,  not  far  from  Litchfield,  to  attend  a  school 
kept  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Langdon,  where  he  gained  but  little 
except  the  further  development  of  his  love  of  outdoor 
study  and  familiarity  with  the  life  of  nature. 

At  twelve,  he  was  plunged  into  an  entirely  new  envi- 
ronment, by  the  removal  of  his  father  to  Boston,  to  take 
the  pastorate  of  the  Park  Street  Congregational  Church. 
Here  he  was  confined  among  streets  and  house-walls,  not 
only,  but  also  still  further  imprisoned  by  being  placed  in 
the  Boston  Latin  School,  which,  although  it  did  give  him 
the  rudiments  of  Latin  grammar,  gave  him  but  little  else, 
except  a  sense  of  restraint  and  an  irrepressible  desire  of 
outbreaking  rebellion. 

Boston  days,  however,  did  really  give  him  an  uplift. 

"  A  green,  healthy,  country  lad,  with  a  round,  full,  red-cheeked 
face,  at  about  thirteen  years  of  age  we  entered  this  city  of  mar- 
vels. How  fast  our  heart  beat,  on  Sunday  morning,  to  hear  so 
many  bells  clamoring  all  together  and  filling  the  heavens  with 
calls  to  worship.  One  solitary  bell  had  we  been  used  to  hear; 
one  sweet  bell,  that  rolled  out  its  tones  for  a  mile  around  and 
more,  rising  and  falling  as  the  wind  blew  or  lulled,  and  having 
the  whole  air  to  itself,  to  make  its  own  music  in.  This  jangle 
and  sweet  dissonance  of  Boston  bells  was  among  the  first  things 
that  touched  the  secret  spring  of  fancy,  and  sent  us  up  into 
dreams  and  imaginings.  .  .  .  Next  to  Boston  bells  were  Bos- 
ton ships.  We  shall  not  again  see  anything  that  will  so  profoundly 
affect  our  imagination.  We  stood  and  gazed  upon  the  ship,  and 
smelt  the  sea-air,  and  looked  far  out  along  the  water  to  the  hori- 
zon, and  all  that  we  had  ever  read  of  buccaneers,  of  naval  battles, 
of  fleets  of  merchantmen,  of  explorations  into  strange  seas,  among 
rare  and  curious  things,  rose  up  in  a  cloud  of  mixed  and  chang- 
ing fancies,  until  we  scarcely  knew  whether  we  were  in  the  body 
or  out." 

He  mentions  also  the  Charlestown  Navy  Yard,  with  long 
rows  of  unmounted  cannon;  the  mounted  sea-batteries; 
clambering  all  over  the  men-of-war  building  in  the  ship- 
house,  and  the  dismantled  ships  that  lay  against  the  pier 
head.  The  result  of  all  this  was  not  only  the  unconscious 
filling  of  his  imagination  with  material  for  future  use,  but 


28  HENRY  WARD  BEE  CHER. 

the  arousing  in  him  of  an  intense  desire  and  firm  determi- 
nation to  go  to  sea. 

Here  the  father  showed  his  tact  in  management  by  his 
skillful  dealing  with  the  boy.  He  granted  cheerfully  the 
lad's  wish  to  go  to  sea,  but  said,  "  Of  course  you  do  not 
want  to  be  a  common  sailor  ?  "  "  No,  sir,  I  want  to  be  a  mid- 
shipman, and  after  that  a  commodore."  "  Yes,  yes,"  an- 
swered the  father,  "  well,  to  do  that  you  must  study  mathe- 
matics and  navigation,  and  all  that." 

And  thus  the  young  fellow  went  with  cordial  zest  to 
Amherst,  Mass.,  where  at  the  Mount  Pleasant  academy, 
under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  a  West  Point  graduate 
whose  manly  ways  captivated  him,  he  worked  hard  and 
really  made  excellent  progress  in  mathematics;  and  this, 
not  mechanically,  but  as  the  West  Point  fashion  is,  thor- 
oughly, and  with  understanding.  "  You  must  not  only 
know,  but  you  must  know  that  you  know,"  was  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald's dictum;  and  the  boy's  knowledge  was  frequently 
tested  controversially  by  his  instructor,  to  whom,  as 
Mr.  Beecher  has  said  in  later  years,  he  felt  that  he  owed 
his  habit  of  becoming  well-grounded  in  facts  for  the 
formation  of  his  opinions,  and  his  power  to  freely  and 
good-naturedly  sustain  his  positions  in  the  face  of  storm 
and  argument. 

At  this  same  school,  also,  he  received  a  training  of  in- 
calculable benefit  at  the  hands  of  Professor  John  E.  Lovell, 
the  elocutionist.  In  his  "Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching" 
Mr.  Beecher  says: — 

"  No  knowledge  is  real  knowledge  unless  you  can  use  it  with- 
out knowing  it.  You  do  not  understand  the  truth  of  anything, 
until  it  has  so  far  sunk  into  you  that  you  have  almost  forgotten 

where  you  got  it If  you  desire  to  have  your  voice  at 

its  best  and  to  make  the  best  use  of  it,  you  must  go  into  a  drill 
which  will  become  so  familiar  that  it  ceases  to  be  a  matter  of 

thought,  and  the  voice  takes  care  of  itself It  was  my 

good  fortune  in  early  academical  life  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  your 
estimable  fellow-citizen,  Professor  Lovell,  now  of  New  Haven,  and 
for  a  period  of  three  years  I  was  drilled  incessantly  (you  might  not 
suspect  it,  but  I  was)  in  posturing,  gesture,  and  voice-culture.  .  . 
.     .     It  was  the  skill  of  that  gentleman,  that  he  never  left  a  man- 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,    AND   EDUCATION.  29 

ner  with  anybody.     He  simply  gave  his  pupils  the  knowledge  of 
what  they  had  in  themselves." 

In  continuing  the  same  subject  with  reference  to  his  later 
studies  at  the  theological  seminary,  Mr.  Beecher  says:  — 

"  There  was  a  large  grove  lying  between  the  Seminary  and  my 
father's  house,  and  it  was  the  habit  of  my  brother  Charles  and 
myself  and  one  or  two  others  to  make  the  night,  and  even  the 
day,  hideous  with  our  voices  as  we  passed  backward  and  forward 
through  the  wood,  exploding  all  the  vowels  from  the  bottom  to 
the  very  top  of  our  voices.  The  drill  that  I  underwent  first  and 
last  produced,  not  an  oratorical  manner,  but  a  physical  instru- 
ment, that  accommodated  itself  readily  to  every  kind  of  thought 
and  every  shape  of  feeling,  and  obeyed  the  inward  will  in  the 
outward  realization  of  the  results  of  rules  and  regulations." 

Now,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  were  the  young  man's 
true  powers  and  sensibilities  laid  hold  on  by  the  whole- 
some stimulus  of  ambition,  the  real  aspiration  of  accom- 
plishing a  purpose.  True,  his  naval  fancy  soon  faded 
out  in  the  substantial  enjoyment  of  developing  his  newly- 
awakened  powers;  moreover,  his  rescue  from  the  dis- 
tracting excitements  of  the  city  (for  simple  as  they  were, 
they  were  wild  dissipation  to  him)  and  his  return  to  the 
more  wholesome  influences  of  country  life  had  a  most 
favorable  effect  upon  him,  physically  and  spiritually;  for 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  in  the  midst  of  a  general  revi- 
val of  interest  in  religion,  his  whole  heart  turned  God-ward, 
and  he  united  with  his  father's  church  in  Boston,  and  de- 
lighted his  father's  heart  by  announcing  his  determination 
to  take  up  the  ministry,  as  a  profession.  He  spent  two 
years  more  at  Mount  Pleasant  preparing  for  college,  and 
entered  Amherst  at  the  end  of  that  time. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  apparently  slight  occurrences 
at  that  time  entered  deep  into  his  soul,  and  produced  ef- 
fects that  were  visible  during  the  very  plenitude  of  his 
power  in  later  days;  for  instance,  in  his  sermon  entitled 
"  The  Background  of  Mystery,"  preached  some  forty-four 
years  after  the  event,  he  gives  the  following  incident: — 

"  Once,  when  a  boy,  I  stood  on  Mount  Pleasant,  at  Amherst, 
and  saw  a  summer  thunder-storm  enter  the  valley  of  the  Con- 


3©  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

necticut  from  the  North.  Before  it  was  all  bright ;  centervvise  it 
was  black  as  midnight,  and  I  could  see  the  fiery  streaks  of  light- 
ning striking  down  through  it;  but  behind  the  cloud — for  I  could 
see  the  rear — it  was  bright  again.  In  front  of  mc  was  that  mighty 
storm  hurtling  through  the  sky;  and  before  it  I  saw  the  sunlight, 
and  behind  it  I  saw  the  sunlight;  but  to  those  that  were  under 
the  center  of  it  there  was  no  brightness  before  or  behind  it. 
They  saw  the  thunder-gust,  and  felt  the  pelting  rain,  and  they 
were  enveloped  in  darkness  and  heard  the  rush  of  mighty  winds; 
while  I,  that  stood  afar  off,  could  see  that  God  was  watering  the 
earth  and  washing  the  leaves,  and  preparing  the  birds  for  a  new 
outcome  of  jubilee,  and  giving  to  men  refreshment  and  health. 
So  I  conceive  that  our  human  life  here,  with  its  sorrows  and 
tears,  as  compared  with  the  eternity  that  we  are  going  into,  is  no 
more  than  the  breath  of  a  summer  thunder-storm ;  and  if  God 
sees  that  our  experience  in  this  world  is  to  work  out  an  exceed- 
ing great  reward  in  the  world  to  come,  there  is  no  mystery  in  it 
— to  Him."* 

The  fact  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  foremost  preacher  of 
New  England  and  indeed  of  the  whole  country,  dis- 
tinguished young  Beecher  for  notice  among  his  classmates 
at  college;  but  he  did  not  rest  on  his  father's  reputation, 
for,  as  is  learned  from  the  reports  of  his  classmates,  he 
made  himself  felt  immediately  and  continuously  among 
them  in  all  matters  of  earnest  moral  and  religious  influenqe, 
of  physical  and  athletic  sports,  and  of  general  literary  and 
rhetorical  effort. 

Dr.  Holmes,  in  his  eloquent  paper  concerning  Mr. 
Beecher's  English  war  speeches,  entitled  the  "Minister 
Plenipotentiary,"  calls  him  "  the  same  lusty,  warm-hearted, 
strong-fibered,  brave-hearted,  bright-souled,  clear-e)'ed 
creature,  as  he  was  when  the  college  boys  at  Amherst  ac- 
knowledged him  as  the  chiefest  among  their  foot-ball 
kickers."  He  was  interested  in  matters  of  reform,  having 
decided  anti-slavery  views  and  being  a  total  abstainer  from 
ardent  spirits;  made  himself  a  power  in  the  class  prayer- 
meetings;  and  always  attracted  the  attention  of  his  fellows 
by  the  ability  and  originality  of  his  essay-writing  and  his 
fluency  and  eloquence  in  debate  and  extempore  speaking. 

♦Printed  in  Mr.  Beecher's  volume  entitled,  "  Evolution  and  Religion." 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  31 

His  fount  of  humor  flowed  constantly,  and  irrepressibly. 
It  was  a  frequent  sight  to  see  a  throng  about  him  and  to 
hear  from  it  roars  of  laughter.  Already  he  was  showing  a 
peculiar  combination  of  native  powers  that  furnished  the 
tools  for  his  future  work. 

His  interest  in  phrenology  began  at  this  time.  He  says: 
"  I  suppose  I  inherited  from  my  father  a  tendency  or  in- 
tuition to  read  man.  The  very  aptitude  that  I  recognize 
in  myself  would  indicate  a  pre-existing  tendency.  In  my 
Junior  college  year,  I  became,  during  the  visit  of  Spurzheim, 
enamored  of  phrenology,  which  has  been  for  many  years 
[this  was  in  1872]  the  foundation  on  which  I  have  worked, 
although  I  have  not  made  it  a  special  study.  Admit,  if 
you  please,  it  is  not  exactly  the  true  thing;  and  admit,  if 
you  will,  that  there  is  little  form  or  system  in  it;  yet  I  have 
worked  with  it  much  as  the  botanist  worked  with  the  Lin- 
naean  system  of  botany,  the  classification  of  which  is  very 
convenient,  although  an  artificial  one.  There  is  no  natural 
system  that  seems  to  correspond  to  human  nature  so  nearly 
as  phrenology  does." 

Mr.  Beecher's  use  of  phrenology  was  rather  as  a  con- 
venient classification  and  intelligible  nomenclature  of  the 
faculties  of  the  mind,  than  as  a  full  acceptance  of  the 
phrenological  theory  of  the  physical,  cerebral  organs  of 
those  faculties.  Former  writers  on  mind  considered  the 
mental  acts  of  attention,  perception,  conception,  memory, 
etc.,  as  faculties;  while  the  phrenologists  regarded  these 
acts  as  merely  the  modes  of  action  of  the  faculties, which  they 
otherwise  named  and  classified.  Mr.  Beecher  thus  stood 
between  the  two;  and,  as  he  so  often  did,  took  for  his  own 
practical  purposes  whatever  of  good  he  found  in  both, 
without  committing  himself  fully  in  theory  to  either. 

With  him  was  interested  in  phrenology  the  late  O.  S. 
Fowler,  his  classmate,  a  man  who  probably  did  more  than 
any  other  to  spread  the  practical  knowledge  and  utilization 
of  the  system  among  the  American  people.  It  was  in  con- 
nection with  phrenology,  also,  that  young  Beecher  first 
began  his  experience  as  a  public  lecturer. 

In  Mr.  Beecher's  Statement  of  Belief  before  the  Congre- 


32  HENRY    WARD   BEECH ER. 

gational  Association  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  Oct.  13, 
1882,  he  speaks  of  this  matter  and  of  other  interesting 
points  in  his  college  course:  — 

"  I  never  undertook  to  preach  by  any  system  of  philosophy 
based  on  phrenology,  but  the  whole  nomenclature  of  mental  phe- 
nomena [in  prevalent  metaphysical  philosophies]  was  so  vague  it 
had  no  individuality  in  it,  no  power  of  individualizing;  it  gener- 
alized all  the  way  through  ;  while  phrenology  brought  into  view 
as  distinct  qualities,  combativcness,  self-esteem,  pride,  the  love  of 
approbation,  the  love  of  praise,  conscience,  hope,  reason — that  is, 
causal  and  analogical  reason.  It  gave  definite  names,  so  that  one 
could  read  a  man ;  just  as  you  can  by  taking  type  spell  out  a  word, 
so  by  taking  the  different  faculties  you  get  to  know  the  man. 
This  working  apparatus  of  phrenology  I  embraced.  I  analyzed 
men's  actions  by  it.  I  could  say  to  myself  what  sprang  from  this 
or  that  organ :  here  conscience  is  at  work,  here  self-esteem,  and  so 
on.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  it  was  the  most  accurate  system; 
but  I  do  say  it  gave  definiteness,  it  gave  a  man  an  insight  into  his 
fellow-man.  It  told  him  just  where  to  strike  and  just  what  to 
strike  with,  and  it  was  altogether  a  more  practical,  personal,  and 
usable  system  than  any  of  the  metaphysical  systems  that  had 
been  in  vogue. 

"  Then,  besides  that,  I  early  studied  science  with  enthusiasm.  I 
was  a  pupil  of  Professor  Hitchcock  at  Amherst  College.  I  was 
the  first  two  years  a  dull  scholar  [in  science]  because  I  was  study- 
ing literature,  history,  and  belles  lettres,  but  when  I  came  to  my 
junior  and  senior  years  I  bent  myself  to  mental  philosophy  and 
scientific  studies,  and  I  have  kept  along  the  line  of  the  front  of 
scientific  investigation  ever  since,  and  these  two  elements  have 
underlain  and  been  very  potent  to  form  my  theological  state- 
ments. When,  therefore,  I  am  judged  I  ask  to  be  judged  by  my 
philosophy,  and  not  by  a  very  different  one  which  my  critic  may 
hold. 

"The  result  has  been  unfavorable  in  many  cases, — that  is  to 
say,  unfavorable  to  my  reputation  in  the  community.  It  set  good 
men  a  great  many  times  apart,  by  misunderstanding.  It  has 
caused  grief  to  some  men  that  were  closely  connected  with  me. 
I  know  I  have  their  confidence  as  to  my  personal  piety  and  as  to 
my  general  conduct,  but  they  fear  I  am  straying  so  far  from  "the 
good  old  sound  way"  that  it  is  a  matter  of  mourning.  I  do  not 
think  so;  I  think  I  am  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  good  old 
sound  way.  I  think  my  views  conform  to  Scripture  a  great  deal 
more  than  those  in  which  I  was  originally  educated.     In  regard 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND  EDUCATION.  33 

to  scientific  investigation,  I  see  the  day  coming  when  one  of  the 
most  powerful  arguments  for  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  will  be 
that  it  laid  itself  right  along  on  the  assumption  of  truths  that 
were  unknown  at  the  time  they  were  written  and  by  the  person 
by  whom  they  were  written.  It  is  a  remedial  book.  It  lays 
itself  along  the  line  of  human  development  and  human  want  in  a 
manner  that  no  man  can  account  for  except  by  superintending 
Providence.  My  scientific  and  philosophical  views  lead  me  to  a 
deeper  and  a  deeper  faith  in  the  word  of  God." 

During  his  last  two  years  in  college,  he  was  very  active, 
— teaching  in  district  schools,  lecturing  and  zealously  work- 
ing in  Christian  enterprises,  and  taking  finally  the  regular 
care  of  Sunday  services  held  in  a  school-house  near  Am- 
herst. During  this  period,  he  says,  "growing  constantly 
and  warmly  in  sympathy  with  my  father,  in  taking  sides 
with  orthodoxy  that  was  in  battle  in  Boston  with  Unitari- 
anism,  I  learned  of  him  all  the  theology  that  was  current 
at  that  time.  In  the  quarrels  also  between  Andover  and 
East  Windsor  and  New  Haven  and  Princeton — I  was  at 
home  in  all  these  distinctions.  I  got  the  doctrines  just 
like  a  row  of  pins  on  a  paper  of  pins.  I  knew  them  as  a 
soldier  knows  his  weapons.  I  could  get  them  in  battle 
array."  He  was  graduated  from  the  college  in  1834,  and 
immediately  went  to  Cincinnati,  whither  his  father  had 
been  called,  from  the  Park  Street  Church  in  Boston,  to  the 
presidency  of  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  held  the  pastorate  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church.  Here,  of  course,  Mr.  Beecher  received  the  cus- 
tomary theological  training  which  every  student  in  a  Pres- 
byterian theological  seminary  is  supposed  to  receive,  but, 
moreover,  he  was  drawn  actively  into  the  controversy  be- 
tween Dr.  Wilson,  representing  the  old-school  doctrines. of 
what  has  been  called  "The  Scotch  -  Irish  Presbyterian 
Calvinistic  Fatalism  of  God's  Sovereignty  "  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  his  father,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  an 
ardent  partisan  of  the  then  "  New  School  Theology  "  of 
New  England,  pivoting  on  "man's  free  agency." 

The  violent  opposition  of  Dr.  Wilson  to  Dr.  Beecher  cul- 
minated in  the  trial  of  the  latter  for  heresy  before  the 
3 


34  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

Presbytery.  This  issuing  in  a  vindication  of  Dr.  Beecher, 
Dr.  Wilson  appealed  to  the  Synod,  where  the  cause  was 
tried  again  and  with  the  same  result.  Before  this  came 
about,  however,  the  contending  forces  had  already  clashed 
in  various  ways.  Dr.  Wilson  seems  to  have  been  the 
aggressor  in  every  instance. 

In  the  autobiography  of  Lyman  Beecher*  there  is  an 
amusing  and  characteristic  description  written  by  Miss 
Harriet  E.  Beecher,  later  known  as  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe,  of 
the  examination  of  her  brother  George  before  Pres- 
bytery with  the  view  to  his  ordination  as  a  Presbyterian 
minister.  Dr.  Beecher's  elder  sons  William  and  Edward 
were  already  in  the  ministry.  A  paragraph  written  by  Dr. 
Beecher  in  one  of  the  circular  letters  which  they  were  ac- 
customed to  send  around  to  every  branch  of  the  family, 
— each  one  adding  a  few  lines  and  passing  the  document 
on  by  mail  to  the  nearest  family  station  for  further  addi- 
tions,—  gives  a  glimpse  at  the  early  family  life  in  the 
matter  of  theology;  which,  be  it  remembered,  is  one  of  our 
objective  points  of  inquiry.  Miss  Beecher's  lively  descrip- 
tion may  be  aptly  prefaced  by  the  paragraph  here  quoted: — 

"William,  why  do  you  not  write  to  your  father?  Are  you  not 
my  first-born  son  ?  Did  I  not  carry  you  over  bogs  a-fishing, 
a-straddle  of  my  neck,  on  my  shoulders,  and,  besides  clothing  and 
feeding,  whipping  you  often  to  make  a  man  of  you,  as  you  are, 
and  would  not  have  been  without?  Don't  you  remember  study- 
ing theology  with  your  father,  sawing  and  splitting  wood  in  that 
wood-house  in  Green  street,  Boston,  near  by  where  you  found 
your  wife  ?  Little  do  those  know  who  have  rented  that  tenement 
since,  how  much  orthodoxy  was  developed  and  imbodied  there;  and 
now  why  should  all  this  fruit  of  my  labors  be  kept  to  yourself?" 

Besides  William  and  Edward,  George  was  now  about  to 
be  examined  for  the  ministry;  Henry  Ward  had  just  come 
from  Amherst  College,  and  had  entered  Lane  Seminary; 
while  Charles  and  Thomas  and  James  were,  in  spite  of  tem- 
porary aberrations  of  fancy,  destined  to  the  same  high  call- 
ing. 

*  "Autobiography,  Correspondence,  Etc.,  of  Lyman  Beecher,  D.  D." 
Edited  by  Charles  Beecher.    New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.    1865. 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND  EDUCATION.  35 

But  to  return  to  Miss  Beecher  and  her  Presbytery: — 

"At  last  the  moderator  calls  the  meeting  to  order.  They  pro- 
ceed to  business.  They  are  to  examine  a  candidate.  The  candi- 
date is  Mr.  George  Beecher,  a  New  School  man ;  but  that  is  not 
the  worst — a  Taylorite  ! ! 

"  Do  you  see,  in  the  front  pew,  a  tall,  grave-looking  man,  of 
strong  and  rather  harsh  features,  very  pale,  with  a  severe  serious- 
ness of  face,  and  with  great  formality  and  precision  in  every  turn 
and  motion?  Well,  if  you  see  him,  that  man  is  Dr.  Wilson.  His 
great  ivory-headed  cane  leans  on  the  side  of  the  pew  by  him,  and 
in  his  hand  he  holds  the  Confession  of  Faith. 

"The  candidate  sits  on  the  pulpit  stairs,  so  that  he  may  face  the 
Presbytery,  and  the  examining  committee  are  called  on  :  '  Dr. 
Wilson,  in  Philosophy.'  Here  follows,  '  Mr.  Beecher,  what  is 
matter  and  what  is  mind,  and  what  is  the  difference  'twixt  and 
'tween,  and  what  is  Mechanics,  and  Optics,  and  Hydrostatics,  and 
what  is  Mental  Philosophy,  and  what  is  Moral  Philosophy,  and 
what  is  right  and  wrong,  and  what  is  truth,  and  what  is  virtue, 
and  what  are  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and  what  is  intellect,  sus- 
ceptibilities, and  will,  and  conscience,' — and  everything  else,  world 
without  end,  amen !  After  this  the  doctor's  grave  face  gradually 
relaxes  into  a  smile,  which  seems  like  the  melting  of  a  snow-drift 
as  he  says  that  he  has  'pursued  this  branch  of  the  examination  as 
far  as  might  be  deemed  expedient.' 

"'Mr.  Moderator,'  says  one,  'I  move  that  the  examination  be 
sustained.'     '  I  second  it,'  says  another. 

"The  moderator  then  says,  '  Those  who  sustain  this  examina- 
tion say  Ay.' 

"  Now  hark — '  Ay !  ay !  ay ! ' 

" '  Those  of  contrary  mind,  No.'     No  answer.     So  this  is  over. 

"  Next  topic  is  now  announced  :  'Theology!'  Now  you  may 
seethe  brethren  bending  forward,  and  shuffling,  and  looking  wise. 
Over  in  the  pew  opposite  to  us  are  the  students  of  the  Lane  Sem- 
inary, with  attentive  eyes.  There  is  Theodore  Weld,  all  awake, 
nodding  from  side  to  side,  and  scarce  keeping  still  a  minute. 

"'The  examiner  in  Theology,  Brother  Gallagher.'  This  is  the 
tall  son  of  Anak  whom  I  have  written  of  aforetime — the  great 
Goliath,  whose  awful  brows  and  camp-meeting  hymns  used  so  to 
awe  and  edify  me.  He  rises  very  leisurely,  and  gives  a  lunge  for- 
ward, precipitating  his  unwieldy  size  into  a  chair  without  much 
regard  to  graceful  disposition,  and  with  a  deep,  deliberate  voice, 
begins. 

"  The  beauty  of   it  all  is  that  Gallagher  is  a  warm  friend  to 


36  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

George,  and  of  similar  sentiments.  The  appointing  him  to  ex- 
amine was  a  friendly  motion  of  the  moderator.  .  .  He  con- 
fined his  examination  merely  to  the  broad  and  obvious  truths 
of  Christianity,  and  then  sat  down. 

"  But  now  comes  the  fiery  trial.  The  moderator  announces, 
'  Any  of  the  brethren  have  a  right  to  question  the  candidate.' 
You  must  have  seen  before  now  some  of  them  fidgeting  on  their 
seats,  and  waiting  their  turn.  Then  such  a  storm  of  questions 
rains  in  :— 

" '  Mr.  Beecher,  do  you  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  election  ?  Will 
you  please  to  state  your  views  on  that  subject?'  'Mr.  Beecher, 
do  you  believe  in  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin?'  'Mr.  Beecher, 
do  you  believe  infants  are  sinners  as  soon  as  they  are  born  ? '  '  Do 
you  believe  that  infants  have  unholy  natures?'  'Do  you  believe 
that  men  are  able  of  themselves  to  obey  the  commandments  of 
God?'  'Mr.  Beecher,  do  you  believe  men  are  active  or  passive 
in  regeneration?'  'Mr.  Beecher,  do  you  make  any  distinction 
between  regeneration  and  conversion?'  'Mr.  Beecher,  do  you 
think  that  men  are  punished  for  the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin?' 
'Do  you  believe  in  imputed  righteousness?' 

"There  was  George — eyes  flashing  and  hands  going,  turning 
first  to  right  and  then  to  left.  '  If  I  understand  your  question, 
sir,' — '  I  do  not  understand  your  terms,  sir.'  '  Do  you  mean  by 
nature  thus  and  so?  or  so?'  'In  what  sense  do  you  use  the  word 
imputation?'  'I  don't  exactly  understand  you,  sir.'  'Yes,  sir' (to 
right).     'No,  sir'  (to  left).    '  I  should  think  so,  sir'  (in  front). 

"  So  far  I  wrote  when  I  heard  George,  and  father,  and  Edward 
coming  in  from  meeting;  for  Edward  is  with  us — poked  in  like 
a  ghost  upon  us  one  day  just  after  George's  examination.  The 
first  that  father  knew  of  the  matter  was  seeing  him  going  by  the 
window,  and  exclaiming,  '  There  's  a  man  looks  like  Edward  ! '  and 
the  next  minute  we  were  all  electrified  by  seeing  him  standing 
among  us. 

"  To-night  Edward  and  Professor  Sturtevant,  father  and  George, 
have  been  holding  a  long  chat.  At  last  father  and  Edward  went 
down  cellar  to  saw  wood.  Don't  that  seem  natural  ?  I  heard  the 
word 'foreordination '  through  the  parlor  floor,  so  I  knew  what 
they  were  talking  about.*     I  have  come  up  and  left  them.    .     .     . 

"Now  to  finish  the  account  of  Presbytery.  The  examination 
lasted  nearly  two  hours  and  a  half,  after  which  the  farther  con- 


*This  little  touch  reveals  the  theologic  atmosphere  in  which  the  whole 
Beecher  family  was  reared  as  perfectly  as  volumes  of  description  could  do. 
—Ed. 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  37 

sideration  of  that  subject  was  postponed  till  examination  had 
taken  place  in  other  branches.  The  next  day  the  Presbytery  were 
called  upon  to  see  if  they  had  any  remarks  to  make  upon  the 
examination  thus  far.     Then  such  a  war  of  words ! 

"  The  way  of  proceeding  is  to  call  over  the  names  of  the  whole 
Presbytery  in  order,  and  each  one,  when  his  name  is  called,  has 
the  liberty  of  rising  and  speaking  as  long  as  he  will.  The  whole 
day  was  taken  up  in  this  way.  I  went  only  in  the  afternoon,  and 
what  I  heard  was  (apart  from  moral  considerations)  sufficiently 
diverting. 

"There  are  men — one  or  two,  I  mean, — whose  minds  have 
been  brought  up  in  a  catechetical  treadmill — who  will  never  say 
'Confession  of  Faith '  without  taking  off  their  hats,  and  who 
have  altogether  the  appearance  of  thinking  that  the  Bible  is  the 
next  best  book  to  the  Catechism.  These  men  are,  of  course,  mor- 
tally afraid  of  heresy — or  '  hear  say,'  as  an  old  woman  very  perti- 
nently pronounced  it — and  their  remarks  on  this  subject  were 
truly  lucid.     .     .     . 

"The  discussion,  as  I  have  said,  lasted  all  day.  In  the  evening 
we  came,  and  they  went  at  it  again.  There  was  quite  an  audi- 
ence in  the  house,  as  preaching  had  been  expected.  All  the 
Presbytery  had  finished  their  remarks  except  father  and  Dr.  Wil- 
son, who,  as  the  oldest,  came  last  on  the  list.  Father,  as  first 
called  on,  rose,  and  went  through  a  regular  statement  of  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  views  expressed  by  the  candidate,  and  a 
regular  argument  to  show  that  they  were  in  agreement  with  the 
Confession  of  Faith.  He  spoke  well,  clearly  and  persuasively,  and 
was  occasionally  a  little  humorous.  He  began  by  saying  that  it 
was  his  belief  that,  however  they  might  differ  in  points  of  opin- 
ion, they  were  all  honest,  well-intentioned  men.  '  We  are  honest!' 
(bringing  down  his  fist).  But  then  he  said  that  there  were  some 
dangers  in  this  meeting  together  in  Presbytery;  that  ministers 
were  so  much  accustomed  to  command  the  whole  ship  at  home 
that  they  did  not  always  feel  exactly  tractable  in  a  Presbytery; 
'and  I  hope,'  said  he,  'that,  for  the  future,  our  elders  will  take 
better  care  of  us' (here  a  general  smile  went  round  among  the 
elders). 

"Toward  the  close  of  the  speech  he  said  that,  if  the  case 
should  be  carried  up  to  the  Synod,  he  should  be  prepared  to 
prove  even  more  fully  many  points;  'and  in  that  case,' said  he, 
bringing  down  his  forefinger,  'I  shall  think  myself  happy,  King 
Agrippa,  to  speak  more  fully  of  this  matter.'  He  also  insinuated 
that  if  Presbyteries,  and  Synods,  and  all  the  legislative  bodies 


3&  HENRY   WARD  BEECJIER. 

should  turn  out  and  reject  all  who  held  those  sentiments,  yet 
they  could  not  stop  their  progress.  'No,'  said  he,  'we  shall  still 
live  ;  we  shall  stand  on  God's  earth,  and  breathe  his  air,  and 
preach  his  Gospel  as  we  believe  it.' 

"  When  father  sat  down  Dr.  Wilson  rose  up,  and  made  a  speech 
of  about  half  an  hour,  in  which  he  stated  that  he  believed  that 
the  candidate  was  not  a  Christian,  and  knew  nothing  experi- 
mentally about  Christianity,  and  that  he  firmly  believed  that  he 
and  all  those  who  held  the  same  sentiments  with  him,  'would 
never  see  the  gates  of  eternal  bliss.' 

"This  was  abundantly  courteous  for  Dr.  Wilson,  since  he 
merely  shut  us  out  of  heaven  this  time,  without  pronouncing 
sentence  any  more  definitely.  Many  people  say  that  it  is 
altogether  the  mildest  and  most  temperate  speech  they  ever 
heard  him  make.  After  this  speech  the  question  was  taken, 
though  with  much  difficulty  and  opposition  ;  and  on  calling  the 
roll,  the  examination  was  sustained  by  a  majority  of  twenty- 
three.  About  twelve  o'clock  at  night  we  found  ourselves  once 
more  at  home  and  in  a  state  of  high  excitement,  and  sat  up  about 
half  an  hour  longer  to  fight  over  the  battle  to  Catharine,  who 
had  not  been  able  to  go  out." 

Of  course,  years  of  such  surroundings  as  this,  followed, 
as  were  the  events  just  related,  by  increasing  bitterness  on 
the  side  of  the  attacking  party  (who,  to  the  credit  of  the 
Presbyteries  concerned,  seem  to  have  got  the  worst  of  every 
judicial  combat);  the  studies  of  the  course  itself;  the  en- 
suing trials  of  his  father  for  heresy,  together  with  the 
lively  correspondence  among  friends  and  foes,  and  the 
family  discussions  of  all  these  controverted  points  and 
persons,  kept  young  Beecher's  mind  alert  in  study  of  all 
the  close  theological  distinctions,  and  familiarized  him 
with  the  whole  ground  as  no  mere  seminary  curriculum 
could  have  done. 

The  result  of  this  theological  warfare,  however,  was 
very  depressing  to  Henry  Ward,  who  found  less  and  less 
promise  of  fruitfulness  in  such  a  long  continued  course  of 
dialectics,  in  which  each  combatant  strongly  held  to  his 
own  views,  and  no  result  was  ever  reached.  Indeed,  he 
became  convinced  at  that  early  day  that  men  are  most 
positive  in  theology  about  things  of  which  they  know  the 
least;  they  are  most  dogmatical  on  what  they  call  "  funda- 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,   AND   EDUCATION.  39 

mentals  "  for  which  they  find  least  solid  foundations  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  or  in  nature.  He  felt,  already,  after 
a  childhood  and  youth,  and  a  young  manhood,  spent  in 
the  atmosphere  of  disputatious  theology,  that  (as  he  says 
in  his  sermon  entitled  "  The  Golden  Net  ")  "  the  question 
is  not  to  be  with  the  plow  and  the  harrow,  but  with  the 
harvest.  The  farmer  that  raises  the  best  wheat  in  the  best 
quantity,  and  in  the  best  manner,  and  constantly,  is  the 
best  farmer,  no  matter  what  his  tools  are." 

In  one  of  the  family  circular  letters  already  alluded  to, 
written  shortly  after  young  Beecher  had  got  at  his  pastoral 
work,  occurs  the  following  passage  addressed  by  him  to  this 
same  brother  George,  who  seems  to  have  tended  toward 
the  belief  in  the  possibility  of  Christian  "perfection:" — 

"As  to  perfectionism,  I  am  not  greatly  troubled  with  the 
fact  of  it  in  myself,  or  the  doctrine  of  it  in  you  ;  for  I  feel  sure 
that  if  you  give  yourself  time  and  prayer,  you  will  settle  down 
right,  whatever  the  right  may  be  ;  and  I  rejoice,  on  this  account, 
that  your  judgment  has  led  you  to  forbear  publishing,  because, 
after  we  have  published,  if  we  do  not  hit  exactly  right,  there  is  a 
vehement  temptation  not  to  advance  but  rather  to  nurse  and 
defend  our  published  views.  The  treatises  which  have  had  influ- 
ence in  this  world  from  generation  to  generation  are  those  which 
have  been  matured,  re-thought,  re-cast,  delayed.  Apples  that 
ripen  early  are  apt  to  be  worm-eaten,  and  decay  early  at  any  rate  ; 
late  fruit  keeps  best." 

His  early  experiences  however,  while  they  taught  him 
how  easily  men  may  be  mistaken  in  their  philosophizings 
even  while  most  confident  that  they  are  correct,  thus  made 
him  feel  free  all  his  life  long  to  let  his  humor  play  pleas- 
antly about  the  heads  of  those  who  dogmatize;  and  yet, 
in  the  necessity  of  some  systematic  mode  of  regarding  the 
truths  of  religion  he  was  a  firm  believer,  and  not  only  can 
there  be  found  in  his  works  no  passages  inconsistent  with 
this  view  but  those  are  numerous  which  testify  to  his  high 
estimate  of  reason  in  the  philosophy  of  spiritual  matters. 

In  his  "Yale  Lectures"  he  says:  — 

"  It  is  very  desirable,  I  think,  that  every  preacher  should  have 
not  merely  gone  through  a  system,  but  that  he  should  have 
studied  comparative  theology.     He  ought  to  study  that  system 


40  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

on  which  he  expects  to  base  his  ministry  ;  and  it  is  also  desirable 
that  he  should  take  cross-views  of  differing  systems  of  theology — 
for  a  variety  of  reasons,  You  may  think  that  you  are  going  to 
preach  some  particular  system, — but  most  of  you  will  not,  even 
if  you  try.  You  may  take  your  teachers'  views  of  theology  and 
preach  them  for  a  while,  but  they  will  not  suit  you  long.  Every 
man  who  is  fit  to  preach  will,  before  many  years,  begin  to  have 
an  outline  of  his  own  theology  very  distinctly  marked  out.  But 
it  is  always  necessary  to  know  what  other  men  have  thought,  to 
practice  close  thinking,  to  be  drilled  in  sharp  and  nice  discrim- 
ination, and  to  have  a  mind  that  is  not  slatternly  and  loose,  but 

which  knows  how  to  work  philosophically You  must 

acquire  the  habit  of  thinking,  of  looking  at  truth,  not  in  isolated 
and  fragmentary  forms,  but  in  all  its  relations  ;  and  of  using  it 
constantly  as  an  instrument  for  producing  good.  You  see  I  do 
believe  in  the  science  of  theology,  though  I  may  not  give  my 
faith  to  any  particular  school  of  it  in  all  points.  But  no  school 
can  dispense  with  a  habit  of  thinking  according  to  the  laws  of 
cause  and  effect. 

"  Theology  is  osteology,  and  a  skeleton  is  a  poor  thing  to  live 
with.  But  that  which  makes  a  man  handsome  is  not  beinsr  with- 
out  bones.  Some  people  say,  because  I  occasionally  hit  theology 
a  slap,  that  I  do  not  believe  in  it.  Indeed,  I  do  believe  in  it ; 
but  I  believe  in  something  else  besides.  Theology  ought  to  be 
inside;  it  is  the  frame  on  which  you  build  everything.  I  believe 
in  the  succulency  and  the  elasticity  of  the  nerve,  and  the  bloom 
and  beauty  of  the  skin  that  overlies  it  all ;  but  what  would  all 
these  things  be  if  there  were  not  any  bones  there  to  lay  them 
upon,  and  by  which  they  could  stand  up  and  be  operated  ?  Men 
would  all  be  gelatinous ;  no  better  than  so  many  jelly-fish.  So 
theology  has  its  own  sphere  and  function." 

Thus,  while  he  had  from  the  first  a  clear  estimate  of  the 
importance  of  theologic  training, — of  which  he  was  getting 
a  larger  share  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  average  student, 
— yet  his  soul  was  impatient  for  action.  This  youthful 
David  felt  oppressed  and  encumbered  by  the  Saul's  armor 
and  weapons  which  he  had  been  testing  long  enough 
to  feel  that  his  preparation  for  the  fight  was  to  come  in 
another  way. 

In  a  letter  written   to  Dr.  John  H.  Raymond,*  about  a 


*"Life   and    Letters  of  John    H.   Raymond,   First   President  of  Vassar 
College."     New  York:  Fords,  Howard,  &;  Hulbert,  1881. 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,    AND   EDUCATION.  41 

year  after  his  going  East  (1848),  Mr.  Beecher  mentions  a 
theological  dispute  then  raging  over  Dr.  Bushnell's  teach- 
ings:— 

"  I  see  no  benefit  in  a  controversy.  It  will  be  a  fierce  technical 
dispute  about  propositions,  at  the  expense  in  the  churches  of 
vital  godliness.  .  .  .  Others  may  blow  the  bellows  and  turn 
the  doctrines  in  the  fire  and  lay  them  on  the  anvil  of  controversy, 
and  beat  them  with  all  sorts  of  hammers  into  all  sorts  of  shapes; 
but  I  shall  busy  myself  with  using  the  sword  of  the  Lord,  not  in 
forging  it." 

This  was  the  lesson  which  he  learned  very  early.  He 
well  knew  the  processes  by  which  the  doctrines  were 
fused  and  forged  and  changed  from  age  to  age,  but  he 
felt  in  himself  the  ability  for  a  higher  craft  than  the 
smith's;  and  how  effectively  he  wielded  his  powers  for 
fifty  years  the  world  knows. 

But  there  was  another  part  of  his  course  in  the  sem- 
inary which  was  of  incalculable  value.     He  says: — 

"  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  under  Professor  Stowe  in  my 
theological  training.  Those  who  have  gone  through  a  course 
with  him  need  not  be  told  how  much  knowledge  he  has,  nor  his 
keen  and  crystalline  way  of  putting  that  knowledge.  The  ad- 
vantages which  I  derived  from  his  teaching,  his  way  of  taking 
hold  of  Scripture,  the  knowledge  I  got  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole, 
are  inestimable  to  me.  In  looking  over  my  old  note-books, 
which  I  filled  independently  of  my  course  there,  but  which  were 
partly  in  consequence  of  it  and  partly  from  teaching  in  the  Bible 
class,  I  found  I  had  gone  then  very  nearly  through  the  New 
Testament  with  close  and  careful  study,  and  had  formed  an  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  it,  before  I  began  to  preach  regularly. 
In  the  early  years  of  my  ministry,  I  engaged  in  a  great  amount  of 
exegetical  study  and  interpretation  of  the  word  of  God,  having 
one  service  a  week  which  was  mainly  devoted  to  that  work.  The 
preliminary  acquisition  of  the  power  to  do  that  will  abbreviate 
your  after-work  more  than  you  can  tell.  Do  not  believe  that 
your  enthusiasm  will  be  a  light  always  burning.  You  must  have 
oil  in  your  lamps.  Study  and  patient  labor  are  indispensable 
even  to  genius." 

This  study  of  the  Bible,  under  Professor  Stowe  and  by 
himself,  and  especially  during  his  last  term  at  the  Semin- 
ary while  he  was  in  charge  of  the  Bible  class,  was  really 


42  HENRY    WARD  BEECIIER. 

his  salvation  from  the  depression  and  condition  of  doubt 
into  which  he  had  been  thrown  by  the  theological  combats 
just  alluded  to.  For  one  of  his  brothers,  surcharged  with 
doubts,  had  thrown  up  the  ministry  (although  he  after- 
ward returned  to  it  again),  and  Henry  Ward  himself  during 
the  hot  rage  of  pro-slavery  rioting  in  Cincinnati  and  the 
great  anti-slavery  excitement  in  the  seminary  itself,  had 
for  some  months  been  actively  engaged  in  editing  the  Cin- 
cinnati Journal,  by  means  of  which  his  ideas  and  feelings 
were  drawn  to  the  possibility  of  his  escaping  the  ministe- 
rial life  and  adopting  journalism  as  his  profession.  That  he 
would  have  been  one  of  the  country's  great  editors,  no  one 
can  doubt;  yet  how  much  would  have  been  lost  to  journal- 
ism itself,  as  well  as  to  the  cause  of  God  and  the  up-build- 
ing of  man  in  the  multitudinous  avenues  through  which 
this  man's  influence  has  been  felt,  had  he  not  been  drawn 
as  he  was,  by  the  inspiration  imparted  to  him  in  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  to  the  founding  of  his  whole  professional 
life  upon  the  broad  basis  of  God's  work  in  the  world  ! 

From  this  close  and  loving  study  he  received  two  lumi- 
nous thoughts.     He  speaks  of  the  time, 

"  When  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  to  my  wandering  soul  the  idea 
that  it  was  His  nature  to  love  a  man  in  his  sins  for  the  sake  of 
helping  him  out  of  them  ;  that  he  did  not  do  it  out  of  compliment 
to  Christ,  or  to  a  '  law  '  or  a  '  plan  of  salvation,'  but  from  the  full- 
ness of  His  great  heart.  .  .  .  Time  went  on,  and  next  came 
the  disclosure  of  a  Christ  ever  present  with  me — a  Christ  that 
never  was  far  from  me,  but  was  always  near  me,  as  a  companion 
and  friend,  to  uphold  and  sustain  me.  This  was  the  last  and  the 
best  revelation  of  God's  Spirit  to  my  soul." 

Of  course  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  inspiration  of 
these  great  ideas  had  now  been  for  the  first  time  presented 
to  young  Beecher's  mind,  but  simply  this:  his  whole  train- 
ing and  education  thus  far  had  been  along  the  line  of  the 
Calvinistic  theology,  involving  chiefly  the  idea  of  God's 
sovereignty  and  power.  Aided  by  the  controversies  of  the 
time,  then  beginning  to  break  away  from  under  the  mighty 
shadow  of  that  truth,  controversies  aiming  to  establish  the 
theory  of  man's  free  agency  and  consequent  responsibility, 


HEREDITY,    TRAINING,  AND  EDUCATION.  43 

and  giving  to  human  individuality  a  dignity  which  the  older 
theology  did  not  allow  to  it, — he  was  yet  hampered  and 
obstructed  by  the  sense  of  argumentation;  his  heart,  that 
tremendous  engine  of  moral  and  spiritual  power,  was  not 
satisfied.  But,  from  the  time  when  his  soul  was  lifted  up 
by  these  two  great  truths — God's  nature  as  manifested  by 
Jesus  the  Christ  to  love  man  in  his  sins  for  the  sake  of  help- 
ing him  out  of  them,  and  the  sustaining  Christ  ever  present 
zuith  individual  men  ("a  real  presence"  of  perennial  spiritual 
influence), —  he  sprang  to  his  work  with  an  ardor  that  was 
unquenched  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

God's  love  because  of  his  fatherhood;  man's  worth  and 
mutual  brotherhood  because  of  his  sonship  to  God:  these 
were  the  two  halves  of  the  one  great  theme  which  from 
that  time  to  the  day  of  his  final  silence,  underlay  his  life, 
his  words,  his  works. 

Indeed  his  own  playful  way  of  putting  this  is  as  apt  as 
any  could  be:  "I  was  like  the  man  in  the  story,  to  whom 
the  fairy  gave  a  purse  with  a  single  piece  of  money  in  it, 
which  he  found  always  came  again  as  soon  as  he  had 
spent  it.  I  thought  I  had  found  at  least  one  thing  to 
preach;  I  found  it  included  everything." 

With  the  close  of  his  theological  studies  in  1837,  young 
Beecher  married  Miss  Eunice  White  Bullard,  a  sister  of 
one  of  his  classmates  and  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Bullard  of 
Worcester,  Mass.  Their  betrothal  had  lasted  faithfully 
for  seven  years,  and  their  faithful  companionship  in  mar- 
ried life  lasted  for  fifty  years,  his  death  in  1887  rounding 
the  half  century. 

Here,  then,  concludes  the  first  period  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  life.  We  have  tried  to  sketch — or  rather  to  have 
him  sketch — the  inherited  traits,  the  early  influences,  that 
combined  to  give  him  his  outfit.  He  was  not  one  whose 
education  was  finished  when  he  left  the  theological  sem- 
inary. To  the  day  of  his  death  he  learned,  he  grew,  he 
increased  the  talent  committed  to  his  charge;  but  on  leav- 
ing the  seminary  he  was  armed  and  equipped,  and  in- 
spired with  the  best  thought  of  his  life. 


44  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 


III. 
TEN   YEARS  OF   MISSIONARY   WORK. 

It  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable  in  this  place  to  give 
a  biography  of  Mr.  Beecher.  The  object  sought  is  sim- 
ply to  gather  some  memoirs  going  to  show  the  main 
sources  of  his  power  as  an  instructor  of  public  thought 
and  a  stimulator  of  public  feeling,  the  principles  from 
which  he  drew  his  own  inspiration,  and  the  consistency 
with  which  he  maintained  them  under  whatever  variations 
of  the  influences  about  him, — whether  social,  religious, 
ecclesiastical,  or  political. 

He  preached  for  a  brief  time  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  Covington,  Kentucky,  but  soon  received  a  call  from 
Lawrenceburg,  Indiana,  a  small  town  about  twenty  miles 
west  of  Cincinnati,  where  for  two  years  he  labored  in  his 
little  low  wooden  building,  which  would  seat  one  hundred 
and  fifty  people,  the  church  membership  consisting  of 
twenty  members, — as  he  puts  it,  "  nineteen  of  them  were 
women,  and  the  other  was  nothing," — he  and  his  young 
wife  living  in  two  rooms  over  a  provision  store,  with  a 
salary  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  guaranteed  by  the 
Home  Missionary  Society,  and  a  possible  one  hundred  and 
fifty  more  from  the  parish,  paid  if  at  all  in  provisions. 
Less  than  $1.10  a  day,  if  all  was  paid  !  When  we  read 
such  figures  as  these  and  think  of  the  self-denying  labors 
and  privations  of  those  who  labor  for  God  and  man  in  our 
frontier  settlements,  it  seems  clear  that  when,  many  years 
afterwards,  Mr.  Beecher  was  trying  to  arouse  the  manliness 
of  the  working-men  to  meet  the  rigors  of  hard  times,  and 
said   that  if  all  they  could  get  was  a  dollar  a  day  they 


TEN  YEARS  OF  MISSIONARY   WORK.  45 

should  make  that  suffice,  he  well  knew  what  he  was  talk- 
ing about. 

Mr.  Beecher's  own  pictures  of  these  days  of  destitution 
are  very  graphic,  but  we  cannot  stop  to  consider  them  in 
detail;  and  yet  these  two  years  were  among  the  most  val- 
uable of  his  training-time,  bringing  him  face-to-face  and 
hand-to-hand  with  the  ills  and  miseries  of  actual  privation 
and  poverty  as  well  as  the  hard  pastoral  work  of  a  Home 
Missionary  in  a  malarial  district  among  a  scattered  people. 
He  was  blessed  with  health,  vigor,  perseverance,  and 
already  an  intuitive  way  of  getting  at  people's  hearts. 

He  says: — 

"  There  lived  over  on  the  other  side  of  the  street  in  Lawrence- 
burg,  where  first  I  had  my  settlement,  a  very  profane  man,  who 
was  counted  ugly.  I  understood  that  he  had  said  some  very 
bitter  things  of  me.  I  went  right  over  to  his  store,  and  sat  down 
on  the  counter  to  talk  with  him.  I  happened  in  often, — day  in 
and  day  out.  My  errand  was  to  make  him  like  me.  I  did  make 
him  like  me, — and  all  the  children  too  ;  and  when  I  left,  two  or 
three  years  later,  it  was  his  house  that  was  opened  to  me  and  all 
my  family  for  the  week  after  I  gave  up  my  room.  And  to  the 
day  of  his  death  I  do  not  believe  the  old  man  could  mention  my 
name  without  crying." 

Thus  it  was  that  he  learned  early  in  his  career  the 
secret  of  winning  the  sympathies  of  the  men  whom  he  de- 
sired to  influence.  He  relates  in  one  place  his  visit  to  the 
manufacture  of  papier  mac  he  in  Birmingham,  England.  He 
was  noticing  the  various  processes  from  room  to  room, 
until,  coming  to  where  they  give  the  final  polish,  he  was 
told  that  they  had  tried  everything  in  the  world  for  pol- 
ishing and  at  last  had  been  convinced  that  there  was  no 
leather  or  other  substance'  that  had  such  power  to  polish 
to  the  very  finest  smoothness,  as  the  living  leather  in  its 
vital  state, — the  human  hand.  "It  is  very  much  so,"  says 
he,  "  with  people.  You  can  teach  them  from  the  pulpit 
in  certain  large  ways,  but  there  are  some  things  vou  can- 
not do  except  by  putting  your  very  hand  upon  them." 

During  these  two  years  young  Beecher  made  his  mark 
not  only  in  the  little   community  where  he  was  working 


46  HENRY    WARD   BEECH  ER. 

but  also  in  Cincinnati,  where  lie  occasionally  preached  in 
his  father's  pulpit,  at  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church. 
In  1839  he  was  called  to  Indianapolis,  then  a  place  of 
about  four  thousand  inhabitants,  the  capital  of  the  State. 
The  "new  school"  and  "old  school"  theological  discus- 
sions  were  still  disturbing  the  churches  (as  when  indeed 
are  they  not!)  and  he  was  called  to  a  new  congregation 
which  had  swarmed  off  from  their  more  conservative 
brethren.  He  had  now  a  larger  salary  ($600 — say  $1.65 
per  diem)  but  also  larger  expenses,  and  was  compelled 
still,  although  not  suffering  from  positive  poverty,  to  exer- 
cise rigid  economy  and  live  in  great  simplicity. 

As  to  preaching,  he  had,  as  we  have  seen,  had  consider- 
able experience.  He  had  practiced  public  speaking  from 
the  time  of  his  Sophomore  year  at  college, — making  tem- 
perance speeches,  holding  conference  meetings,  and  in 
various  ways  learning  to  overcome  his  natural  diffidence 
and  acquiring  power  to  face  people  and  to  think  on 
his  feet.  In  the  little  Lawrenceburg  church  he  had 
preached  the  best  sermons  that  he  knew  how  to  get  up, 
but  was  constantly  discouraged  with  his  own  efforts.  He 
says:  "I  remember  distinctly  that  every  Sunday  night  I 
had  a  headache.  I  went  to  bed  every  Sunday  night  with 
a  vow  registered  that  I  would  buy  a  farm  and  quit  the 
ministry." 

But  while  thus  slowly  feeling  his  way  toward  the  power 
of  setting  forth  truth  in  a  way  to  lay  hold  on  the  minds  of 
men,  he  was  diligently  filling  up  his  own  mind.     He  says  : — 

"  I  read  Robert  South,  through  and  through  ;  I  saturated  my- 
self with  South.  I  formed  much  of  my  style  and  my  handling  of 
texts  on  his  methods.  I  obtained  a  vast  amount  of  instruction 
and  assistance  from  others  of  those  old  sermonizers,  who  were  as 
familiar  to  me  as  my  own  name.  I  read  Barrow,  Howe,  Sherlock, 
Butler,  and  Edwards  particularly.  I  preached  a  great  many  ser- 
mons while  reading  these  old  men,  and  upon  their  discourses  I 
often  founded  the  framework  of  my  own.  After  I  had  preached 
them  I  said  to  myself,  'That  will  never  do;  I  wouldn't  preach  that 
again  for  the  world  ; '  but  I  was  learning,  and  nobody  ever  tripped 
me  up." 


TEN  YEARS   OF  MISSIONARY   WORK.  47 

In  fact  he  learned  slowly,  in  spite  of  his  father's  power 
as  a  preacher  and  an  effective  mover  of  men,  and  of  his 
own  facility  and  popularity  as  a  speaker.  He  himself  tells 
us,  "  For  the  first  three  years  of  my  ministry  I  did  not  make 
a  single  sinner  wink."  He  was  gaining  in  reputation,  but 
that  was  not  what  he  was  aiming  at;  and  it  was  not  until 
the  beginning  of  a  period  of  intense  religious  excitement, 
which  indeed  grew  largely  out  of  his  own  efforts,  that  at 
last  he  seems  to  have  come  to  something  of  the  power 
which  so  largely  abode  with  him  from  that  time  forward. 
More  and  more  constantly  did  he  study  the  life  and  the 
teachings  of  Him  who  spoke  as  never  man  spake,  earnestly 
seeking  the  secret  by  means  of  which  it  was  that  the  com- 
mon people  heard  Him  gladly.  He  also  gave  zealous  study 
to  the  doings  and  sayings  of  those  first  Christian  mission- 
aries, the  apostles,  and  both  while  at  Lawrenceburg  and  in 
the  first  portion  of  his  Indianapolis  pastorate,  he  did  much 
to  furnish  himself  with  the  best  of  material  and  the  best  of 
models  for  his  work.     He  says:  — 

"  I  owe  more  to  the  Book  of  Acts  and  the  writings  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  than  to  all  other  books  put  together.  I  was  sent 
into  the  wilderness  of  Indiana  to  preach  among  the  poor  and 
ignorant,  and  I  lived  in  my  saddle.  My  library  was  in  my  saddle- 
bags; I  went  from  camp-meeting  to  camp-meeting,  and  from  log 
hut  to  log  hut.  I  took  my  New  Testament,  and  from  it  I  got 
that  which  has  been  the  very  secret  of  any  success  that  I  have 
had  in  the  Christian  ministry." 

And  again: — 

"When  I  had  lived  at  Indianapolis  the  first  year,  I  said,  'There 
was  a  reason  why  when  the  apostles  preached  they  succeeded, 
and  I  will  find  it  out  if  it  is  to  be  found  out.'  I  took  every  single 
instance  in  the  record  where  I  could  find  one  of  their  sermons, 
and  analyzed  it,  and  asked  myself,  'What  were  their  circum- 
stances? Who  were  the  people?  What  did  he  do?'  And  I 
studied  the  sermons  until  I  got  this  idea:  that  the  apostles  were 
accustomed  first  to  feel  for  a  ground  on  which  the  people  and  they 
stood  together;  a  common  ground  where  they  could  meet.  Then 
they  stored  up  a  large  number  of  the  particulars  of  knowledge 
that  belonged  to  everybody  ;  and  when  they  had  got  that  knowl- 
edge which  everybody  would  admit  placed  in  a  proper  form  be- 


48  HENRY  WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

fore  the  minds  of  the  people,  then  they  brought  it  to  bear  upon 
them  with  all  their  excited  heart  and  feeling.  That  was  the  first 
definite  idea  of  taking  aim  that  I  had  in  my  mind.  'Now,'  said 
I,  'I  will  make  a  sermon  so.'  I  remember  it  just  as  well  as  if  it 
were  yesterday.  First,  I  sketched  out  the  things  we  all  know, 
.  .  .  and  in  that  way  I  went  on  with  my 'you  all  knows,' until 
I  had  about  forty  of  them.  When  I  had  got  through  that,  I 
turned  round  and  brought  it  to  bear  upon  them  with  all  my 
might;  and  there  were  seventeen  men  awakened  under  that  ser- 
mon. I  never  felt  so  triumphant  in  my  life.  I  cried  all  the  way 
home.  I  said  to  myself,  'Now  I  know  how  to  preach.'  I  could 
not  make  another  sermon  for  a  month  that  was  good  for  any- 
thing. I  had  used  all  my  powder  and  shot  on  that  one.  But,  for 
the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  had  got  the  idea  of  taking  aim.  I 
soon  added  to  it  the  idea  of  analyzing  the  people  I  was  preaching, 
to,  and  so  taking  aim  for  specialties.  Of  course  that  came  grad- 
ually and  later,  with  growing  knowledge  and  experience." 

And  again: — 

"  It  is  easier  to  study  law  and  become  a  successful  practitioner, 
it  is  easier  to  study  medicine  and  become  a  successful  practitioner, 
than  it  is  to  study  the  human  soul  all  through — to  know  its  living 
forms,  and  to  know  the  way  of  talking  to  it  and  coming  into  sym- 
pathy with  it.'N 

We  have  seen  (p.  24)  haw  he  had  learned  the  lesson  of 
thoroughness,  in  the  preparation  for  his  "  Lectures  to 
Young  Men."  At  the  time  of  his  Indianapolis  pastorate, 
the  assembling  in  that  city  of  the  State  Legislature  brought 
together  a  great  many  people  of  all  kinds,  and  as  the  chief 
city  of  the  State  it  was  naturally  alive  not  only  with  good 
influences,  but  also  with  bad,  and  at  one  time  vice  seemed 
to  fairly  riot  there.  Gambling  and  drinking  and  all  forms 
of  evil  flourished  rankly.  Seeing  here  an  opportunity, 
young  Beecher  prepared  himself  by  a  careful  study  of 
facts,  and  then  delivered  that  series  of  lectures  which  when 
gathered  and  published  (as  most  of  his  early  books  were, 
for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  other  people),  formed  his  first 
book.  The  venerable  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  contemporary 
and  friend  of  the  older  Beecher,  wrote: — 

"  I  remember  admiring  its  force  of  thought  and  inspiration,  its 
wealth  of  illustration,  its  insight  into  human  nature  under  the 
various  phases  of  individual  character,  its  boldness  of  assault  and 


TEN  YEARS   OF  MISSIONARY   WORK.  49 

denunciation,  its  earnestness  in  warning  young  men  against  moral 
dangers,  and  the  electric  force  of  its  incitements  to  manly  aspira- 
tions and  manly  living.  In  every  lecture  I  seemed  to  see  sparks 
as  from  the  red-hot  iron  on  the  old  anvil,  and  to  hear  the  old 
Boanerges  thundering  with  a  youthful  voice." 

These  lectures  produced  an  intense  excitement  in  the 
community.  Many  men  of  high  social  and  political  stand- 
ing felt  themselves  aimed  at,  and  were  wrathful;  but  the 
city  thronged  to  hear  them,  consciences  were  aroused,  per- 
ceptions enlightened,  hearts  touched,  and  the  result  was  a 
revival  of  religion  that  shook  the  community.  This  plain 
presentation  of  simple  truth  with  a  bold  hand,  set  forth  in 
dramatic  forms,  followed  up  by  moral  instruction  and  spirit- 
ual incitement,  really  struck  the  key-note  of  the  man's  life 
and  labor. 

But  it  was  not  only  boldness  that  he  learned,  but  deftness 
also  was  coming  to  his  modes  of  management. 

When  he  was  at  Indianapolis,  he  says: — 

"  Nobody  was  allowed  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
They  were  all  red-hot  out  there  then ;  and  one  of  my  elders  said, 
'  If  an  Abolitionist  comes  here  I  will  head  a  mob  to  put  him  down.' 
I  was  a  young  preacher.  I  had  some  pluck;  I  felt,  and  it  grew  in 
me,  that  that  was  a  subject  that  ought  to  be  preached  upon.  .  . 
.  .  .  The  question  was,  how  shall  I  do  it?  I  recollect  one  of 
the  earliest  efforts  I  made  in  that  direction  was  in  a  sermon  on 
some  general  topic.  It  was  necessary  to  illustrate  a  point,  and  I 
did  it  by  picturing  a  father  ransoming  his  son  from  captivity 
among  the  Algerines,  and  glorying  in  his  love  of  liberty  and  his 
fight  against  bondage.  They  all  thought  I  was  going  to  apply  it 
to  slavery;  but  I  did  not,  I  applied  it  to  my  subject  and  it  passed 
off:  and  they  all  drew  a  long  breath.  It  was  not  long  before  I 
had  another  illustration  from  that  quarter,  and  so,  before  I  had 
been  there  a  year,  I  had  gone  all  over  the  sore  spots  of  slavery,  in 
illustrating  the  subject  of  Christian  experience  and  doctrine.  It 
broke  the  ice." 

The  above  passage  occurs  in  his  instructions  to  young 
preachers  on  the  subject  of  Illustrations,  and  it  seems  worth 
while  to  include  another  paragraph  pursuing  the  same 
topic: — 

"  You  may  go  down  to  the  brook  under  the  willows  and  angle 
for  the  trout  that  everybody  has  been  trying  to  catch,  but  in  vain. 


5°  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

You  go  splashing  and  tearing  along,  throwing  in  your  line,  pole 
and  all.  Do  you  think  you  can  catch  them  that  way?  No,  in- 
deed; you  must  begin  afar  off  and  quietly,  if  need  be  drawing 
yourself  along  on  the  grass  and  perhaps  even  on  your  belly,  until 
you  come  where  through  the  quivering  leaves  you  see  the  flash 
of  the  sun ;  and  then  slowly  and  gently  you  throw  your  line  so 
that  the  fly  on  its  end  falls  as  light  as  a  gossamer  upon  the  placid 
surface  of  the  brook.  The  trout  will  think  '  That  is  not  a  bait 
thrown  to  catch  me:  there  is  nobody  there,'  and  rises  to  the  fly, 
takes  it, — and  you  take  him." 

He  earnestly  strove  both  in  spirit  of  life  and  in  method 
of  labor  to  follow  Jesus,  that  he  might  be  made  a  fisher  of 
men. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  fruitful  fields  of  the  infinite 
variety  of  illustrations  used  by  Mr.  Beecher  throughout 
his  life  was  his  love  for  nature,  his  profound  and  extensive 
knowledge  of  its  processes  and  productions,  his  apprecia- 
tion of  its  myriad  forms  and  sounds  of  beauty,  the  senti- 
ments which  it  is  capable  of  arousing  in  the  human  soul, 
and  the  multiform  similitudes  which  it  offers  to  the  condi- 
tions and  development  of  human  life.  His  facile  control 
of  this  vast  field  of  course  did  not  come  by  accident.  He 
always  loved  and  sympathized  with  the  life  of  the  natural 
world  from  his  earliest  childhood,  and  much  of  his  boy- 
hood and  youth  was  spent  in  the  meadows  and  along  the 
brooks  and  among  the  woods.  The  cultivation  of  flowers 
and  shrubs  and  of  all  manner  of  vegetables  had  been  his 
delight  in  youth  and  his  necessity  when  life-work  began. 
During  his  two  years  at  Mount  Pleasant  Academy,  while 
preparing  for  college,  he  had  found  a  sympathetic  instructor 
in  an  old  gardener,  who  taught  him  much,  and  he  had  never 
been  without  a  vital  and  practical  interest  in  those  mat- 
ters. In  his  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  "  Pleasant  Talk 
about  Fruits,  Flowers,  and  Farming,"  a  collection  of  his 
articles  from  the  Western  Farmer  and  Gardener,  which 
he  edited  while  he  was  in  Indianapolis  (by  way  of  resting 
from  his  pulpit  labors),  he  says: — 

"  It  may  be  of  some  service  to  the  young  as  showing  how  valu- 
able the  fragments  of  time  may  become,  if  mention  is  made  of 
the  way  in  which  we  became  prepared  to  edit  this  journal.     The 


TEN  YEARS   OF  MISSIONARY   WORK'.  51 

continued  taxation  of  daily  preaching,  extending  through  months, 
and  once  through  eighteen  consecutive  months  without  the  ex- 
ception of  a  single  day,  began  to  wear  upon  our  nerves,  and 
made  it  necessary  for  us  to  seek  some  relaxation.  Accordingly  we 
used,  after  each  week-night's  preaching,  to  drive  the  sermon  out 
of  our  heads  by  some  alterative  reading. 

"In  the  State  Library  were  Loudon's  works — his  encyclopedias 
of  Horticulture,  of  Agriculture,  and  of  Architecture.  We  fell 
upon  them,  and,  for  years,  almost  monopolized  them.  In  our 
little  one-story  cottage,  after  the  day's  work  was  done,  we  pored 
over  these  monuments  of  an  almost  incredible  industry,  and  read, 
we  suppose,  not  only  every  line,  but  much  of  it  many  times  over. 
.  .  .  .  In  this  way,  through  several  years,  we  gradually  accu- 
mulated materials  and  became  familiar  with  facts  and  principles, 
which  paved  the  way  for  our  editorial  labors.  '  Lindley's  Horti- 
culture' and  '  Gray's  Structural  Botany'  came  in  as  constant  com- 
panions. And  when,  at  length,  through  a  friend's  liberality  we 
became  the  recipients  of  the  London  Gardener  s  Chronicle,  edited 
by  Professor  Lindley,  our  treasures  were  inestimable.  Many 
hundred  times  have  we  lain  awake  for  hours,  unable  to  throw  off 
the  excitement  of  preaching,  beguiling  the  time  with  imaginary 
visits  to  the  Chiswick  Garden,  and  to  the  more  than  Oriental 
magnificence  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  grounds  at  Chatsworth. 
We  have  had  long  discussions,  in'that  little  bedroom  at  Indianap- 
olis, with  Van  Mons  about  pears,  with  Vibert  about  roses,  with 
Thompson  and  Knight  about  everything  under  the  heavens  in  the 
horticultural  world. 

"  This  employment  of  waste  hours  not  only  answered  a  purpose 
of  soothing  excited  nerves  then,  but  brought  us  into  such  rela- 
tions to  the  material  world,  that  we  speak  with  entire  moderation 
when  we  say  that  all  the  estates  of  the  richest  duke  in  England 
could  not  have  given  us  half  the  pleasure  which  we  derived  from 
pastures,  waysides,  and  unoccupied  prairies." 

There  was  probably  no  one  feature  of  Mr.  Beecher's 
writing  or  speaking  upon  any  topic  whatsoever,  so  notice- 
able as  his  accurate  and  apparently  intuitive  knowledge  of 
the  natural  world.  But  his  knowledge  was  worked  for; 
the  wonder  was  his  power  of  assimilation.  "  Natural 
genius,"  he  says,  "  is  but  the  soil,  which,  let  alone  runs  to 
weeds.  If  it  is  to  bear  fruit  and  harvest  worth  the  reap- 
ing, it  must  be  plowed  and  tilled  with  incessant  care." 
And  again:    "Though  a  man  be  born  to  genius,  a  natural 


52  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

reader  and  a  natural  reasoner,  these  endowments  give  him 
but  the  outlines  of  himself,  and  lilling  up  means  incessant, 
painstaking  study  and  work.  ...  It  may  be  impas- 
sioned, facile,  and  fruitful,  remunerating  him  as  it  goes  on; 
nevertheless,  there  must  be  incessant  work.  Work  may  be 
light,  unburdensome,  as  full  of  song  as  the  merry  brook 
that  turns  the  miller's  wheel;  but  no  wheel  is  ever  turned 
without  the  rush  and  weight  of  the  stream  upon  it." 

And  yet  again:  "  No  man  can  preach  well  except  out  of 
an  abundance  of  well-wrought  material.  Some  sermons 
seem  to  start  up  suddenly,  soul  and  body;  but  no,  they  are 
the  product  of  years  of  experience.  .  .  .  It  is  only  the 
form,  like  the  occasion,  that  is  extemporaneous.  No  man 
preaches  except  out  of  the  stores  that  have  been  gathered 
in  him." 

And  now,  by  way  of  rounding  up  the  period  of  his  West- 
ern ministry, — the  two  years  at  Lawrenceburg  and  the 
eight  at  Indianapolis, — let  us  make  one  more  quotation 
illustrative  of  his  power  of  adapting  truth  to  circumstances; 
showing  his  growth  in  the  art  of  maintaining  principles 
which  should  be  consistent  in  themselves,  while  presenting 
different  fronts  to  different  winds: — 

"  When  my  ministry  -was  in  the  West,  what  did  I  find  ?  A  loose 
and  heterogeneous  mass  of  men  who  had  come  from  everywhere, 
— the  detritus  from  the  stream  of  immigration.  As  at  the  delta 
of  the  Mississippi  is  gathered  refuse  which  floats  down  from  the 
region  above,  so  in  the  West  were  gathered  human  beings  from 
almost  every  nation  on  the  globe;  and  there  the  principle  of  in- 
dividualism was  the  predominant  one.  I  insisted  upon  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  Sabbath  day;  I  insisted  upon  the  absolute  necessity  of 
churches  and  church  forms;  and  I  insisted  upon  the  indispensa- 
bleness  of  authority  and  of  obedience  to  that  authority.  I 
preached  every  Sunday  against  individualism,  and  in  favor  of 
association.  By  and  by  I  was  transferred  to  the  East ;  and  there 
I  found  society  hard-ribbed,  vigorous.  Men  were  lopped  off  on 
every  side  to  make  them  fit  into  crowded  populations.  Society 
was  tyrannical.  And  ever  since  I  came  East  I  have  fought  society, 
and  tried  to  get  individual  men  to  be  free,  independent,  and  large. 
I  was  right  both  times.  I  did  not  care  for  abstract  theories.  My 
object  was  to  get  men.     .     .     .     Now  if  I  had  to  study  the  propor- 


TEN  YEARS   OF  MISSIONARY   WORK.  53 

tions  of  a  philosophy,  I  should  probably  study  in  such  a  way  that 
I  would  save  my  philosophy  but  lose  my  men.  .  .  .  Who  cries 
for  symmetry  in  medicine?     Symmetry  in  health  is  what  we  want." 

Mr.  Beecher's  Western  life  was  full  of  distresses  and  dis- 
comforts, but  glowing  with  conscious  advancement  in 
inner  life  and  in  outward  success  in  his  calling.  He  said 
during  a  visit  to  Indianapolis  in  1876:  "  I  went  to  Indian- 
apolis in  the  fall  of  1839  with  a  little  sick  babe  in  my  arms 
which  showed  the  first  symptons  of  recovery  after  eating 
blackberries  which  I  gathered  by  the  way.  The  city  had 
then  a  population  of  four  thousand  [now,  in  1887,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand].  With  the  exception  of  two 
or  three  streets  there  were  no  ways  along  which  could  not 
be  seen  the  original  stumps  of  the  forest;  I  have  bumped 
against  them  in  a  buggy  too  often  not  to  be  well  assured  of 
the  fact.  Here  I  preached  my  first  real  sermon;  here, 
for  the  first  time  I  strove  against  death  in  behalf  of  a  child, 
and  was  defeated;  here  I  built  a  house  and  painted  it  with 
my  own  hands;  here  I  had  my  first  garden,  and  became 
the  bishop  of  flowers  for  this  diocese;  here  I  first  joined 
the  editorial  fraternity,  and  edited  the  Fanner  and  Gar- 
dener;  here  I  had  my  first  taste  of  chills  and  fever;  here 
for  the  first  time,  I  waded  to  church  ankle-deep  in  mud 
and   preached   with  pantaloons  tucked  into  my   boot-tops. 

.  .  It  is  now  a  mighty  city,  full  of  foundries,  manu- 
factories, wholesale  stores,  and  with  a  magnificent  court- 
house, beautiful  dwellings,  noble  churches,  wide  and  fine 
streets,  and  railroads  more  than  I  could  mention,  radiating 
to  every  point  of  the  compass."  He  alludes  in  another 
passage  to  "  the  days  of  sickness,  chills  and  fever,  the 
gardening  days,  my  first  editorial  experience,  my  luck  in 
horses  and-pigs,  my  house-building,  and  not  a  few  scrapes; 
being  stalled  in  the  mud,  half  drowned  in  crossing  rivers, 
long,  lonely  forest  rides,  camp  meetings,  preachings  in 
camps,  sleepings  in  the  open  air." 

If  the  physical  aspects  of  these  days  were  dark  to  the 
sturdy,  vigorous,  elastic  preacher,  to  his  young  wife, — 
nurtured  in  the  serenity  of  a  New  England  town,  accus- 
tomed  to  the   conveniences   and    pleasant    industries   of  a 


54  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

New  England  home, — this  being  plunged  into  the  rude- 
nesses of  an  almost  frontier  life  and  the  drain  both  phys- 
ical and  mental  of  a  rapidly  increasing  family  of  little 
children,  was  darkness  almost  unrelieved.  Her  health 
failed,  her  spirits  were  depressed,  and  her  condition  was  a 
source  of  the  keenest  anxiety  to  the  loving  husband.  The 
spring  of  1847,  therefore,  found  young  Ececher  in  a  very 
uncertain  state  of  mind.  Vital  and  springy  in  bodily  con- 
dition; mentally  active,  intense,  out-reaching,  greedily 
acquiring  and  prodigally  pouring  forth  the  treasures  acces- 
sible to  him;  encouraged,  stimulated,  conscious  of  grow- 
ing power,  and  having  a  heart  aflame  with  zeal  for 
Christ  and  love  for  man, — he  was,  on  the  other  hand, 
weighted  with  wearing  anxiety  for  his  dear  wife,  worrying 
about  his  children  and  home,  and — even  in  intellectual 
matters — while  craving  books  and  art  and  music  and  the 
means  of  a  wider  and  finer  culture,  he  was  cabined,  cribbed, 
confined,  by  his  own  poverty  and  the  scanty  resources  of 
the  community  in  which  he  lived.  So  that  all  causes  com- 
bined to  make  it  a  glad  thing  for  him  to  receive,  as  he  did 
at  that  time,  an  invitation  to  go  East  with  his  wife  to  at- 
tend what  was  then  known  as  "  Anniversary  Week,"  in 
New  York  City,  and  to  deliver  one  of  the  addresses  before 
the  Home  Missionary  Society. 

As  it  seemed  then,  it  was  in  itself  the  great  event  of  his 
life;  as  we  see  it  now,  it  was  in  itself  a  very  small  affair, 
except  as  being  the  initiative  step  of  his  real  career. 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  55 


IV. 
PLYMOUTH   CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS. 

Congregationalism,  as  a  denomination,  had  down  to 
1840  made  but  small  progress  outside  of  New  England.  A 
movement  for  its  extension  began  very  actively  about 
that  time.  One  of  the  very  earliest  efforts  of  that  activity 
was  the  founding  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  in  the  city 
of  Brooklyn  in  1844.  Shortly  after  its  successful  inaugura- 
tion, some  of  its  members  determined  to  start  another  Con- 
gregational church  and  proceeded  actively  to  accomplish 
that,  by  purchasing  the  building  of  the  Old  First  Presby- 
terian Church,  then  just  vacated  for  a  new  one.  The  first 
services  were  held  on  Sunday,  May  16,  1847. 

Mr.  Beecher,  who  had  met  with  a  welcome  at  the  Anni- 
versary meetings  in  New  York  largely  on  account  of  his 
father  and  elder  brothers,  had  made  a  marked  impression 
there  by  his  own  addresses.  Mr.  William  P.  Cutter,  of 
New  York,  who  had  known  and  admired  him  in  the  West, 
had  already  mentioned  him  to  the  gentlemen  who  had 
initiated  the  new  church  project;  and  the  young  preacher 
was  invited  to  be  present  at  the  opening  services  of  the 
church  and  preach  the  first  sermons,  which  he  did  with 
marked  acceptability,  morning  and  evening.  The  church 
was  organized  on  Sunday,  June  13,  with  twenty-one  mem- 
bers. The  wife  of  one  of  the  promoters  had  suggested 
"Plymouth  Brethren"  as  a  name,  and  "  Plymouth  Church" 
was  the  title  adopted.  Young  Beecher,  who  had  gone  on 
to  Boston  after  his  first  preaching,  returned  a  few  weeks 
later  and  preached  again,  for  two  successive  Sundays; 
the   consequence    being   that    on    June    14,   1847,    ne    was 


5  6  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

unanimously  invited  by  the  church  and  society  to  become 
their  pastor.  With  many  misgivings  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
leaving  his  Presbyterian  associations  and  his  well-loved 
parish  in  the  West,  Mr.  Beecher  was  influenced  primarily 
by  the  evident  improvement  in  his  wife's  health  and  also  by 
the  marked  heartiness  and  earnestness  and  activity  of  the 
people  who  had  called  him  to  work  with  them,  and  decided 
to  accept  the  invitation;  preferring  it  to  a  position  offered 
him  with  the  old  Park  Street  Church  in  Boston  (where  his 
father  and  his  brother  Edward  had  preceded  him),  because 
in  Plymouth  he  should  be  able  to  begin  the  work  in  his 
own  way.  From  that  day,  during  the  forty  years  which 
intervened  until  his  death,  his  history  and  that  of  Ply- 
mouth Church  are  one  and  the  same.  They  are  known  to 
all  men  in  America,  and  throughout  the  English-speaking 
world  more  widely  than  those  of  any  other  man  or  church 
in  Christendom.  It  will  not  therefore  be  necessary  to  do 
more  than  touch  upon  a  few  salient  points;  and  those,  as 
bearing  upon  his  personality  and  methods  of  working. 

When  in  October,  1847,  Henry  Ward  Beecher  assumed 
the  pastorate  of  Plymouth  Church,  he  was  thirty-four 
years  and  four  months  old.  His  compact,  vigorous  fig- 
ure, five  feet  nine  inches  in  height;  his  long  dark  hair; 
broad  brow;  large  blue  eyes, — now  luminous  with  in- 
tensity, now  twinkling  with  merriment;  rather  large, 
straight  nose;  peculiarly  well  formed  mouth,  mobile  with 
feeling;  ruddy  complexion;  and  a  garb  decidedly  uncler- 
ical,  presented  an  unusual  appearance. 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  have  the  pulpit  cut  away, 
and  upon  the  broad  platform  was  set  a  rather  low  ma- 
hogany desk,  open  beneath.  He  had  the  natural  instinct  of 
the  orator,  and  felt  that  for  him  to  get  at  his  listeners  the 
listeners  must  be  able  to  see  the  speaker.  Throughout 
his  whole  career  it  is  rather  remarkable  that  one  so 
apparently  careless  of  appearances  should  have  been,  as 
this  man  was,  uniformly  successful  in  doing  the  right 
thing  so  far  as  concerned  all  physical  carriage  in  his  pub- 
lic appearances.  His  instincts  were  those  of  a  gentleman, 
and  whenever  he  shocked  the  sense  of  propriety  of  church- 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRALTS.  57 

goers  (as  he  occasionally  did),  it  was  never  by  any  ungain- 
liness  or  impropriety  of  action,  but  always  by  some  sudden 
and  unexpected  turn  of  thought,  of  a  kind  to  which  peo- 
ple were  unaccustomed  in  Sunday  services.  Yet,  even  so, 
those  little  shocks  to  their  conventional  nerves  invariably 
resulted  in  arousing  attention  and  fixing  the  listeners' 
mind  upon  the  thought  to  be  presented.  They  were 
sometimes  the  unconscious  results  of  his  original  way  of 
looking  at  things,  and  sometimes  the  intentional  arts  of 
the  orator,  who  sought  not  to  exhibit  himself  as  a  model 
clergyman  but  to  "catch  men." 

To  show  the  underlying  reason  why  he  took  his  stand 
upon  a  platform  rather  than  in  the  pulpit,  read  this  little 
passage  from  his  "  Lectures  on  Preaching:" — 

"  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  man,  because  he  may  not  be  able  to 
stand  like  the  statue  of  Apollo,  should  stand  ungracefully.  He 
loses,  unconsciously,  a  certain  power  ;  for,  although  he  does  not 
need  a  very  fine  physical  figure  (which  is  rather  a  hindrance,  I 
think),  yet  he  should  be  pleasing  in  his  bearing  and  gestures.  A 
man  who  is  very  beautiful  and  superlatively  graceful  sets  people 
to  admiring  him  ;  they  make  a  kind  of  monkey  god  of  him,  and  it 
stands  in  the  way  of  his  usefulness.  From  this  temptation  most 
of  us  have  been  mercifully  delivered.  On  the  other  hand,  what 
we  call  naturalness,  fitness,  good  taste,  and  propriety  are  to  be 
sought.  You  like  to  see  a  man  come  into  your  parlor  with,  at 
least,  ordinary  good  manners  and  some  sense  of  propriety,  and 
what  you  require  in  your  parlor  you  certainly  have  a  right  to  ex- 
pect in  church.  One  of  the  reasons  why  I  condemn  these  churns 
called  pulpits  is  that  they  teach  a  man  bad  habits ;  he  is  heedless 
of  his  posture  and  learns  bad  tricks  behind  these  bulwarks.  He 
thinks  that  people  will  not  see  them.  So  with  gestures.  There 
are  certain  people  who  will  never  make  many  gestures,  but  they 
should  see  to  it  that  what  they  do  make  shall  be  graceful  and 
appropriate.  There  are  others  who  are  impulsive,  and  so  full  of 
feeling  that  they  throw  it  out  in  every  direction,  and  it  is,  there- 
fore, all  the  more  important  that  their  action  shall  be  shorn 
of  awkwardness  and  constrained  mannerism.  Now  and  then  a 
man  is  absolutely  dramatic,  as,  for  instance,  John  B.  Gough,  who 
could  not  speak  otherwise.  It  is  unconscious  with  him.  It  is 
inherent  in  all  natural  orators  ;  they  put  themselves  at  once,  un- 
consciously, in  sympathy  with  the  things  they  are  describing." 


58  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

We  shall  return  to  this  matter  again  when  considering 
Mr.  Beecher's  oratory,  but  meanwhile,  it  is  significant  of 
what  his  life  and  work  among  the  people  had  done  for 
him  during  the  ten  years  of  missionary  labor  in  the  West, 
that  his  first  act  when  he  found  himself  raised  to  an 
Eastern  pulpit  was  to  get  out  of  it  nearer  to  his  hearers. 

He  had  accepted  the  responsibility  of  a  position  in  the 
city  already  called  the  "  City  of  Churches,"  itself  well  fur- 
nished with  clergymen  of  ability  and  repute,  and  practi- 
cally a  part  of  that  greater  city,  its  near  neighbor  across 
the  East  River.  As  to  comparing  himself  with  others  or 
worrying  about  his  new  and  untried  field,  these  unneces- 
sary girdings  were  entirely  foreign  to  his  nature.  He 
worked  for  the  love  of  working;  the  grinding  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility he  felt  to  be  uncongenial  to  the  faith  and 
trust  of  a  Christian  life.  He  refused  to  entertain  anxieties, 
but  put  in  all  the  forces  he  possessed  as  a  farmer  puts  in 
his  labor  and  his  seed;  and  he  left  the  germination,  like 
the  sunshine  and  the  rain,  to  the  providence  of  God.  He 
says  in  one  place:  "  In  general  I  have  never  performed  my 
work  but  once;  whereas  many  others  perform  theirs  three 
times, — first  by  anticipation;  then  in  realization;  and 
afterward  by  rumination." 

He  began  as  he  afterward  continued,  and  his  own  de- 
scription of  it  will  be  the  best.     He  says: — 

"  I  have  often  been  asked  by  what  secret  I  retain  health  and 
vigor  under  labors  multiform  and  continuous.  I  owe  much  to  a 
good  constitution  inherited  from  my  parents,  not  spoiled  by 
youthful  excesses  or  weakened  by  over-study ;  much  also  to  an 
early-acquired  knowledge  of  how  to  take  care  of  myself,  to  secure 
invariably  a  full  measure  of  sleep,  to  regard  food  as  an  engineer 
does  fuel  (to  be  employed  economically,  and  entirely  with  refer- 
ence to  the  work  to  be  done  by  the  machine)  ;  much  to  the  habit 
of  economizing  social  forces,  and  not  wasting  in  needless  conver- 
sation and  pleasurable  hilarities  the  spirit  that  would  carry  me 
through  many  days  of  necessary  work  ;  but,  above  all,  to  the 
possession  of  a  hopeful  disposition  and  natural  courage,  to  sym- 
pathy with  men,  and  to  an  unfailing  trust  in  God ;  so  that  I  have 
always  worked  for  the  love  of  working." 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  59 

With  these  interior  impulses,  and  wise  powers  of  guid- 
ance and  restraint;  with  a  mind  well  stored  by  years  of 
studious  reading  and  thinking;  with  ten  years'  growth  in 
the  experience  of  working  directly  upon  the  souls  of  men, 
and  an  original  aptitude  in  the  "art  of  putting  things"  by 
which  he  had  already  grown  facile  and  expert,  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  this  man  found  himself  instantly  at 
home  in  the  turmoil  of  the  great  cities  where  thronged  the 
very  game  he  was  after — men.  Lovers  of  the  conventional 
complained  that  he  was  not  smooth,  he  lacked  polish;  which 
perhaps  was  not  without  a  certain  amount  of  truth,  for  he 
took  hold  like  a  new  file.  Not  only  individual  men,  but 
the  community  at  large,  very  soon  felt  that  there  was  a 
fresh  and  unusual  kind  of  force  at  work. 

The  old  church  building  was  cramped  and  packed  with 
the  throngs,  and  when  after  a  few  months  it  took  fire  and 
was  badly  damaged,  the  people  of  the  church  saw  that  it 
was  their  opportunity  not  to  rebuild  the  old,  but  to  build 
anew  ;  and  they  reared  the  great  broad-shouldered  ampli- 
tude of  Plymouth  Church  as  it  stands  to-day. 

True  to  his  intention  of  getting  at  the  people,  Mr. 
Beecher  had  the  organ,  with  space  for  a  large  volunteer 
choir,  set  at  the  back  of  the  platform,  in  front  of  the  audi- 
ence, thus  thrusting  the  speaker  well  forward  into  the 
midst  of  the  throng.  He  did  away  with  the  broad  middle 
aisle,  and  filled  that  cold,  blank  space  with  people.  The 
pews  were  arranged,  so  far  as  possible,  in  circling  fashion 
about  the  platform.  The  galleries  were  about  twice  the 
ordinary  depth,  and  the  seating  capacity  of  the  house  about 
twenty-seven  hundred,  although  with  the  hinged  aisle-seats 
which  they  were  soon  compelled  to  add,  the  congregation 
usually  numbered  about  three  thousand.  Not  a  dollar  was 
spent  upon  unnecessary  ornament,  but  everything  was 
plain  and  simple,  the  main  object  being  to  have  a  well- 
lighted,  well-ventilated,  commodious  audience-room,  of 
good  acoustic  properties,  arranged  to  seat  the  people  with 
their  faces  convergent  toward  the  platform,  and,  with  the 
great  choir  before  them,  forming  a  natural   social   circle 


60  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

in  which  it  would  be  easy  to  focalize  thought  and  feeling, 
whether  for  instruction,  prayer,  or  praise. 

Mr.  Beecher  recognized  the  danger  of  bareness  and  lean- 
ness which  always  hangs  over  the  non-liturgical  churches. 
The  Roman  service,  and  to  a  great  extent  the  Episcopal 
service,  touch  the  devout  imagination,  reaching  toward  if 
not  actually  inspiring  veneration  and  awe,  and  seeking  for 
chords  whose  response  is  worship;  and  he  felt  that  the 
characteristic  fault  of  the  plainer  church  services  was  their 
preponderance  of  instruction  and  lack  of  provision  for  the 
element  of  worship.  This  he  proposed  to  supply,  and  with 
a  very  grand  success  did  supply,  by  means  of  music,  and 
especially  by  means  of  so  interesting  the  entire  audience 
that  it  should  not  only  listen  and  be  played  upon,  but  should 
also  take  part.  He  was,  in  fact,  together  with  that  noble 
old  organist,  John  Zundel,  the  pioneer  of  congregational 
singing  in  America. 

It  was  not  until  1S55  that  he  succeeded  in  getting  his 
"  Plymouth  Collection  of  Hymns  and  Tunes  "  published, 
and  the  people  all  furnished  with  words  and  music  so  as  to 
make  Plymouth  congregational  singing  the  fine  art  that  it 
became  shortly  after  that;  and  yet,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, with  a  large  voluntary  choir  and  a  persistent  urging 
upon  the  congregation  that  they  should  take  hold,  and  the 
use  of  tunes  that  everybody  knew,  he  did  succeed  in  bring- 
ing in  that  powerful  aid, — that  "  provision  for  the  esthetic 
feeling,  the  fancy  and  the  imagination  and  the  more  facile 
emotions,  which  is  not  provided  for  by  any  framework  fur- 
nished to  the  preacher,  and  which,  according  to  his  various 
abilities  and  endowments  or  moods,  circumstances  may  or 
may  not  have  partially  provided  for  in  him." 

In  his  instructions  ("Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching")  on  the 
relations  of  music  to  worship,  he  goes  very  carefully  and 
suggestively  into  the  function  of  the  organ  both  in  open- 
ing voluntaries  and  interludes  and  in  hymn  accompani- 
ments and  closing  voluntaries. 

And    speaking   of   John    Zundel,  he    says  :    "  To    make 

music  to  him  means  worship  and  the  organ  means  religion. 

So  long  had  he  been   trained,  that   what  words 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRALTS.  61 

are  to  us,  notes  were  to  him;  and  he  expressed  every 
thought  and  feeling  that  he  had,  upon  the  instrument.  In 
his  inspired  moments  upon  the  organ,  it  has  brought  tears 
to  my  eyes  a  hundred  times;  I  have  gone  in  jaded  and 
unheartened,  and  have  been  caught  up  by  him  and  lifted 
so  that  I  saw  the  flash  of  the  gates.  I  have  been  com- 
forted, I  have  been  helped,  and  if  I  have  preached  to  him 
and  helped  him, — and  I  know  I  have, — he  has  preached  to 
me  and  helped  me;  and  he  knows  not  and  never  will  know 
how  much." 

Mr.  Beecher  then  gives  his  ideas  of  the  choir  and  of  con- 
gregational singing  and  of  the  choice  of  hymns  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  co-operation  with  the  mood  of  thought  or  feeling 
into  which  he  wishes  to  bring  his  auditors;  which  show 
the  keenest  susceptibility  to  the  power  of  music  in  himself 
and  the  quickest  sympathy  and  intuitive  knowledge  of  its 
effect  upon  a  gathering  of  persons  brought  together  for  a 
purpose,  and  a  remarkable  capacity  for  philosophizing 
upon  the  facts  thus  gained  from  experience  and  observa- 
tion, with  a  facility  for  reducing  them  to  a  systematic 
practice  for  subserving  his  own  aims.  Nor  does  he  make 
any  cast-iron  system,  but  in  accordance  with  what  more 
and  more  appears  to  have  been  the  plan  of  his  whole  life, 
he  deduces  vital  principles  which  must  receive  varied  ap- 
plication according  to  varying  circumstances. 

It  was  a  common  remark  in  those  days  that,  whereas  the 
average  church  congregation  was  made  up  in  the  propor- 
tion of  five  women  to  one  man,  in  Plymouth  Church  the 
proportion  ran  the  other  way.  Men  sought  him  because 
he  was  strong  and  helped  them,  but  women  and  little 
children  no  less  were  attracted  by  his  winning  qualities. 
The  church  flourished;  it  grew  strong;  it  multiplied  rapidly; 
its  Sunday-school  was  thronged;  it  began  mission  work  in 
the  city,  and  in  all  practical  ways  offered  prompt  evidence 
of  the  genuine  value  of  the  Christian  inspiration  it  received, 
by  giving  as  bountifully  as  it  had  received.  Strangers 
quickly  learned  to  seek  it  out;  and  in  its  proper  work  as  a 
Christian  church,  it  soon  entered  upon  a  vigorous  activity. 

Basing   his    philosophy    and    his    practical    methods    of 


62  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

attracting  men  to  a  higher  life  rather  upon  the  facts  of 
human  nature,  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  the  working 
methods  of  the  Apostles,  than  upon  the  skillfully  devised 
theological  systems  of  the  schools  (not  because  he  was 
unfamiliar  with  the  latter,  but,  because,  knowing  them  so 
well,  he  thought  them  less  likely  to  be  useful  than  the 
methods  of  the  earlier  day)  he  naturally  gained  friends 
faster  among  the  common  people  who  heard  him  gladly 
than  he  did  among  the  professional  members  of  the  priest- 
hood and  conservators  of  the  traditions  of  the  elders. 

And  yet,  even  among  those  he  found  many  firm  and 
constant  friends.  The  broad  foundation  on  which  he 
stood  made  him  broadly  liberal  toward  all  beliefs  which 
accepted  Christ  and  successfully  labored  to  make  men 
Christ-like.  Indomitable  in  the  assertion  of  his  own  be- 
liefs, he  was  no  less  vigorous  in  maintaining  the  rights  of 
others  to  theirs.  One  of  his  most  characteristic  sermons 
is  entitled  "Other  Men's  Consciences."  His  church  re- 
ceived into  its  communion  members  from  all  the  Christian 
sects,  who  found  there  a  common  ground  on  which  to 
stand  and  to  work.  This  commingling  of  elements  gave 
him  a  body  of  men  and  women  knit  together  by  the  pro- 
foundest  sympathy  in  a  simple  faith  and  by  an  ardent 
love  for  the  man  who  had  released  them  from  the  bonds 
of  petty  sectarianism,  and  opened  to  them  the  larger  lib- 
erty of  Christian  manhood. 

Among  the  most  potent  influences  which  Mr.  Beecher 
immediately  developed  in  his  new  and  peculiar  church- 
membership,  was  the  social  element.  The  strength  of 
associated  hearts  and  wills  and  minds  upon  a  common 
object,  the  play  of  mutual  sympathy,  the  possibility  of 
consentaneous  purpose,  was  an  element  of  human  nature 
upon  which  he  counted  much  and  with  which  he  accom- 
plished much.  With  the  profoundest  belief  in  the  imma- 
nence of  God  throughout  all  nature,  including  the  spirit  of 
man, — indeed,  in  the  direct  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
upon  the  souls  of  men,  he  was  yet  a  sturdy  believer  in  the 
necessity  of  bringing  about  all  effects  through  natural 
causes. 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL   TRAITS.  63 

"  The  gifts  of  the  Divine  Spirit,"  he  says,  "  are  not  exceptional, 
or  capricious,  without  rule,  without  definite  purpose ;  but  they 
are  to  be  just  as  definitely  expected  as  the  results  which  the  far- 
mer seeks  when  he  sows  his  seed.  ...  In  regard  to  the  whole 
department  of  spiritual  experiences,  I  say  they  are  in  analogy 
with  mental  experiences  ;  not  that  they  are  on  the  same  level,  but 
that  the  administration  of  God  over  the  human  soul  is  in  analogy 
with  his  administration  over  the  lower  or  physical  elements  in 
man,  and  the  intermediate  emotions  of  the  social  and  the  intel- 
lectual processes.  Spiritual  developments  are,  all  of  them,  under 
law,  administered  by  law,  as  much  as  any  other  part  of  nature, 
and  to  be  studied  therefore  as  we  study  every  other  part  of  human 
life.  And  in  regard  to  the  moral  elements,  all  the  graces  of  the 
Spirit,  and  all  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are  to  be  developed  by  edu- 
cation just  as  much  as  any  other  part  of  the  mind.  .  .  .  That 
we  perfect  man's  physical  and  intellectual  nature  by  education, 
every  one  knows.  .  .  .  but  when  we  come  to  religion,  men  fly 
the  track.  They  seem  to  think,  'Here  is  vagueness;  here  is  a 
realm  too  sacred  to  suppose  that  law  operates  in  it.'  And  it  is 
just  there  that  I  say,  in  respect  emphatically  to  revivals  of  re- 
ligion, that  they  are  conformable  to  law,  and  that  that  conform- 
ableness to  law  lies  in  the  foundation  of  knowledge  and  educa- 
tion, in  the  production  of  emotion,  and  in  the  production  and 
conduct  of  all  spiritual  processes.  .  .  .  It  is  such  statements 
that  many  feel  to  be  an  upheaval  of  the  foundations  and  a  de- 
parture from  the  faith  of  the  fathers.  '  Does  not  such  a  view  as 
this  confound  Nature  and  Grace?  Is  it  not  bringing  all  gracious 
operations  down  to  the  level  of  nature?  '  What  is  nature,  then  ? 
.  .  .  Everything  that  God  ever  organized  into  being  or  main- 
tained is  nature.  .  .  .  Wherever,  along  the  lines  of  space,  the 
word  of  God  has  thrilled  and  something  has  happened,  there  is  nat- 
ure ;  and  nothing  is  or  can  be,  that  does  not  circle  into  that.  To 
reduce  things  '  to  the  level  of  nature,'  then,  is  to  reduce  them  to  the 
level  of  God,— which  ought  not  to  be  a  very  great  degradation  ! " 

In  this  very  same  lecture,  in  which  Mr.  Beecher  was  in- 
sisting upon  the  necessity  of  using  proper  means  for  the 
bringing  about  of  spiritual,  as  well  as  physical,  intellect- 
ual, and  moral  effects,  he  was  asked  by  one  of  the  stu- 
dents:— 

"  Would  it  not  be  consistent  with  your  view  to  hold  that 
prayer  is  more  essential  to  the  production  of  a  revival  than  it  is 
essential  to  the  product  of  effects  in  farming  ?  " 


64  HENRY    WARD   BEECH ER. 

Answer: — 

"  Certainly.  That  is  to  say,  prayer  is  more  nearly  related  to 
the  result  you  want  to  produce.  Guano  is  better  for  farming 
than  prayer,  but  prayer  is  the  guano  of  spiritual  life.  Pray 
always.  The  praying  always  means  that  the  thought,  the  feeling, 
the  taste,  the  sense  of  pleasure,  the  social  gladness,  all  the  while 
effervesce,  so  that  they  take  the  upward  tendency,  they  report 
themselves  continually  through  the  higher  feelings  towards  God  ; 
and  that  I  suppose  to  be  prayer, — communion,  God  with  us." 

With  these  rather  uncommonly  sensible  views,  which  on 
the  one  hand  may  be  called  scientific,  but  which  on  the 
other  hand  were  inspired  by  the  profoundest  trust  in  God's 
fatherly  interest,  and  in  the  uniformity  of  the  operations 
of  the  Divine  Power  so  that  its  laws  are  discoverable,  Mr. 
Beecher  made  much  of  the  prayer-meetings. 

The  sense  of  God's  fatherhood  and  of  the  naturalness  of 
approach  to  him,  was  most  characteristic  of  his  entire  life 
and  work. 

And  this  same  atmosphere  of  the  naturalness  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  permeated  and  enveloped  his  every  activity  in 
private  and  in  public.  It  was  what  made  his  prayer- 
meetings  unique  in  all  Christendom.  The  simple,  hearty, 
effective  singing  of  the  throng  of  seven  or  eight  hundred 
people,  led  compactly  and  yet  sympathetically  by  a  piano 
played  with  a  clear,  firm  touch;  the  informal,  cordial, 
friendly,  joyous  way  in  which  he  taught  his  people  to  come 
into  these  meetings — at  once  the  cause  and  the  effect  of 
the  sense  of  fellowship ;  the  singularly  intelligible,  natural, 
effective  way  in  which  Mr.  Beecher  always  read  the  Bible — 
utterly  avoiding  the  professional  "  holy  tone  "  but  develop- 
ing the  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  passage  (whether  simply 
narrative,  or  dramatic,  or  devotional,  or  instructive,  or 
hortative)  precisely  as  he  would  have  done  a  passage  from 
any  other  book,  led  people  into  an  interest  before  they 
knew  it.  Then,  the  frank,  familiar  style  in  which  he  would 
state  the  generic  truth  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptural  pas- 
sage,— sitting  meanwhile  pleasantly  in  his  chair,  as  rather 
in  social  converse  than  in  formal  discourse, — bringing  the 
generic   into    the   specific   and   multitudinous   with   ready 


PLYMOUTH    CHURCH:     PERSONAL    TRAITS.  65 

illustration;  the  way  in  which  he  developed  the  gifts  of 
the  different  members  by  calling  them  out  on  some  per- 
sonal point  of  explanation,  or  making  rapid  and  familiar 
interplay  of  question  and  answer;  the  patience  and  tact  he 
showed  with  the  inevitable  bores;  the  variety  he  managed 
to  infuse  from  week  to  week, — all  these  things  made  his 
prayer-meeting  a  power  in  the  church  itself,  and  a  con- 
stant attraction  to  outsiders. 

In  getting  at  the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  Ply- 
mouth Church,  which  made  it  what  it  was,  it  is  necessary 
to  mention  the  frequent  revivals  of  religion  which  took 
place  during  the  early  years.  Mr.  Beecher's  philosophy  of 
these  occasional  impulses,  as  already  stated,  was  that  they 
were  dependent  upon  regular  laws,  and  yet  that  there  are 
favoring  circumstances  which  determine  times  and  seasons. 
All  methods  are  not  alike  wise,  neither  are  all  seasons  alike 
propitious. 

"Among  hundreds  of  revivals,"  he  says,  "  I  have  known  only 
one  that  occurred  in  the  midst  of  harvest ;  because-  men  cannot 
spare  the  time  from  the  harvest  field.  _,.  .  .  Business  has 
much  to  do  with  times  and  seasons.  For  instance,  sometimes 
men  are  hot  with  speculation,  and  the  whole  air  is  full  of  it. 
That  is  not  a  favorable  time  for  any  processes  leading  toward  this 
production  of  common  moral  feeling.  ...  As  you  adapt  all 
the  economies  of  industry  to  the  varying  seasons,  so  you  are  to 
adapt  your  moral  culture  of  men  to  those  peculiarities  of  God's 
providence,  which,  with  a  little  care  and  observation,  every  one 
may  discern.  .  .  .  It  is  not  every  man  that  plows  well  and 
sows  well,  who  gets  his  harvest;  but  still,  that  is  the  average 
course  of  things,  and  the  probability  is  such  as  to  encourage 
everybody." 

And  again: — 

"  We  have  occasion  to  bless  God  for  these  outpourings  of  the 
Spirit,  that  come  as  the  wind  comes.we  know  not  always  whence, 
and  that  go  as  the  wind  goes,  we  know  not  always  whither,  but 
which,  like  the  wind  in  the  mariner's  sail,  may  be  so  studied  and 
so  used  that  there  shall  be  over  it  a  substantial  control." 

Mr.  Beecher  entered  with  zeal  upon  all  these  modes  of 
fertilizing  his  church,  of  calling  into  action  its  latent  forces, 
and  of  utilizing  the   forces  so  developed   not  only   for  the 


66  HENRY    WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

purpose  of  enlarging  the  numerical  strength  of  the  new 
organization,  but  also  of  making  it  active  in  work,  of  mak- 
ing it  felt  as  a  force  for  good  in  the  community  at  large. 
His  wisely  directed  power  was  astonishingly  successful  in 
effects. 

Between  1S47  and  1856  was  a  period  when  men's  minds 
were  seething  and  fermenting.  The  excitement  ran  largely 
along  the  lines  of  temperance  agitation,  and  the  growth  of 
the  anti-slavery  sentiment  as  a  moral  political  force. 

None  felt  more  profoundly  than  he  the  working  of  that 
reform-leaven.  He  knew  intuitively  that  he  was  set  at  a 
focal  point.  Finding  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  intensest 
commercial  activities  of  the  country,  being  essentially  a 
part  of  New  York,  although  not  within  its  civic  boundaries; 
seeing  that  the  throngs  who  came  week  after  week  to  his  Sun- 
day preachings,  and  Wednesday  evening  lectures,  and  Fri- 
day evening  prayer-meetings,  were  very  largely  composed 
of  active  business  men,  a  great  proportion  of  whom  were 
between  twenty-five  and  forty  years  of  age,  and  recognizing 
that  as  his  church  grew  and  consolidated  it  was  made  up 
of  much  of  this  same  element,  he  seems  to  have  laid  out 
for  himself  then  the  general  course  that  he  consistently 
pursued  to  the  end.  Not  that  he  was  gifted  with  preter- 
natural foresight  of  what  the  years  were  to  bring  forth, 
but  that  he  had  the  sensitive  temperament  which  brings 
subtle  knowledge  of  atmospheric  disturbance.  And  in  this 
case  it  was  a  disturbance  which  aroused  his  whole  nature 
to  preparations  for  the  coming  storm.  In  every  aspect  of 
the  reform  questions  of  the  day,  which  on  all  sides  were 
dividing  men's  sympathies  and  opinions,  splitting  organ- 
izations, overturning  established  forms,  he  saw  not  so  much 
the  superficial  effects,  as  the  underlying  causes.  To  him, 
political  parties,  Bible  and  Tract  Societies,  Missionary 
Boards,  Christian  sects  and  churches,  were  always  means 
and  not  ends.  Just  as  he  turned  away  in  disgust  from 
theological  quarrels  which  in  the  name  of  God  and  things 
holy  he  had  frequently  seen  to  degenerate  into  the  most 
scandalous  personal  enmities,  so  too,  he  looked  at  all  the 
organized  instrumentalities  of  moral  and  religious  instruc- 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL   TRAITS.  67 

tion  among  men, valuing  them  not  for  what  they  were  called, 
but  for  what  they  could  do,  and  turned  away  from  them  as 
valueless  when  they  became  the  subjects  of  violent  contro- 
versy and  bitter  dissension  instead  of  being  instruments 
for  good.  He  judged  men  and  institutions  according  to 
that  simple  but  searching  test  given  by  Jesus,  "  By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

"When  they  said  to  me,  'You  are  not  orthodox,'  I  replied, 
'Very  well,  be  it  so;  I  am  out  on  other  business:  I  understand 
that  call  that  has  been  sounding  down  through  two  thousand 
years,  and  I  will  obey  it:  Follow  me  and  I  will  make  you  fishers 
of  men.' 

"What  about 'original  sin'?  There  has  been  so  much  actual 
transgression  that  I  have  not  had  time  to  go  back  on  to  that." 

It  was  thus  his  practical  manner  of  applying  broad  gen- 
eric principles  to  every  present  condition  of  human  life 
that  made  his  genius  effective. 

And  the  first  thing  that  he  did  to  prepare  for  the  great 
conflict  that  had  already  begun  and  that  was  more  and 
more  extending  itself  amid  the  various  organizations  of 
the  country,  was  to  collect  and  to  inspire  with  enthusiasm 
for  the  fatherly  God  and  the  brotherly  Saviour  and  the 
needy  human  brotherhood,  a  body  of  men  and  women 
who  became  a  great  center  of  power  along  those  essential 
practical  lines.  And  as  in  regard  to  all  other  organiza- 
tions, so  in  regard  to  Plymouth  Church:  while  it  was  the 
thing  he  loved  best,  yet  it  was  always  with  him  but  a 
means  to  the  one  great  aim  of  his  life.  He  did  not  set 
himself  to  the  purpose  of  making  a  "prominent  church," 
but,  recognizing  the  great  opportunity  for  effective  wrork, 
he  leaped  eagerly  into  the  field  and  gathered  his  forces 
together. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  his  main  and  indeed  only 
thought  in  all  his  wise  and  earnest  labors  in  Plymouth 
Church  in  those  early  days,  was  his  strong  desire  to  "catch 
men,"  yet  every  fiber  of  his  being  was  a-tingle  with  the 
electric  conditions  of  the  time.     He  says: — * 

*Address  before  the  London  Congregational  Board,  Sept.  28,  18S6;  from 
"A  Summer  in  England  with  H.  W.  Beecher  "  (1887). 


68  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

"  I  came  insensibly  into  connection  with  public  questions;  I  was 
sucked  into  the  political  controversies  and  the  moral  reformations 
of  the  age;  and,  just  at  that  time,  that  question  was  coming  up 
which  involved  every  principle  of  rectitude,  of  morality,  of  hu- 
manity, and  of  religion.  My  father  was  too  old  ;  the  controversy 
came  on  when  he  was  failing;  he  was  cautious  in  his  way;  he  was 
afraid  that  his  son  Henry  would  get  himself  into  difficulties.  But 
I  took  no  counsel  with  man.  When  I  came  to  Brooklyn,  some 
dear  men  who  are  now  at  rest  said,  with  the  best  intention,  'You 
have  a  blessed  chance,  and  you  can  come  to  very  good  influence 
if  you  do  not  throw  yourself  away;'  and  then  warned  me  not  to 
preach  on  slavery  and  on  some  other  topics  which  at  that  time 
were  up  in  the  public  mind.  I  do  not  know  what  it  is  in  me — 
whether  it  is  my  father  or  my  mother  or  both  of  them — but  the 
moment  you  tell  me  that  a  thing  that  should  be  done  is  unpop- 
ular, I  am  right  there,  every  time.  I  fed  on  the  privilege  of  mak- 
ing men  hear  things,  because  I  was  a  public  speaker.  I  glorified 
in  my  gifts,  not  because  they  brought  praise,  for  they  brought  the 
other  thing  continually;  but  men  would  come,  and  would  hear, 
and  I  rejoiced  in  it.  .  .  .  Jesus  knows  that  for  his  sake  I 
smote  with  the  sword  and  with  the  spear,  not  because  I  loved 
controversy,  but  because  I  loved  truth  and  humanity;  and  be- 
cause I  saw  weak  men  flinch,  and  because  I  saw  base  men  truckle 
and  bargain,  and  because  I  saw  that  the  cause  of  Christ  was  likely 
to  suffer:  and  I  will  fight  to  the  end." 

It  will  not  be  expected  that  this  sketch  can  enter  upon 
the  details  of  Mr.  Beecher's  active  life.  His  teachings  were 
vital,  and  as  he  laid  more  stress  upon  the  Christian  art  of 
right  living  than  the  theologic  science  of  right  dying,  they 
penetrated  with  power  into  many  a  circle,  and  aroused 
torpidity  to  life.  The  elderly  were  startled  and  shocked; 
the  young  were  electrified  and  stimulated;  the  mercantile 
community  were  stirred  with  both  interest  and  anger  at 
his  bold  expositions  of  commercial  temptation  and  dis- 
honest practice;  respectable  politicians  were  angered  to 
find  themselves  openly  coupled  with  those  whom  they 
despised  but  with  whom  they  were  yoked  in  practical 
politics. 

Gifted  with  all  his  father's  quick  insight  and  genial 
humor  and  forceful  aptitude  in  exposition,  but  freed  from 
the   theological   partisanship  which   had   been  at  once  the 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  6g 

strength  and  the  limitation  of  the  elder  man's  career,  Mr. 
Beecher  had  a  fresh  and  original  way  of  putting  things, 
even  when  the  underlying  thought  was  a  familiar  one, 
which  instantly  arrested  the  attention  of  hearers  or  readers; 
for  he  very  soon  began  to  write  as  well  as  to  speak  to  the 
public.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  his  singular  lack 
of  verbal  memory,  making  it  impossible  down  to  the  end 
of  his  life  for  him  to  quote  anything  except  the  briefest 
and  most  familiar  passages  of  the  Bible  (and  hardly  those 
with  accuracy)  made  many  of  his  statements  seem  ques- 
tionable simply  because  they  were  not  arrayed  in  the 
phraseology  to  which  the  orthodox  religious  minds  were 
accustomed.  Looking  at  matters  from  the  natural  and 
reasonable,  rather  than-  from  the  ecclesiastical  and  theolog- 
ical side,  he  constantly  availed  himself  of  such  truth  as  he 
thought  he  found  in  the  old  doctrines  without  putting 
them  into  the  old  language,  and  many  earnest  and  excellent 
men  and  women  who  were  drawn  into  his  church  and  felt 
the  stimulating  power  of  his  preaching,  were  yet  in  their 
hearts  troubled,  because  they  missed  the  old  familiar  and 
hackneyed  phrases. 

One  of  his  earliest  Brooklyn  friends  one  day  asked  him: 
"Mr.  Beecher,  do  you  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ?" 
With  surprise  he  answered,  "I  know  no  other  God."  "Do 
you  believe  in  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit?"  "I  be- 
lieve," said  he,  "in  the  direct  impact  of  God  upon  the 
human  heart.  Is  it  possible  that  you  do  not  yet  know  a 
doctrine  without  its  old-fashioned  label  tied  to  it?" 

Such  misunderstandings  in  his  very  flock  make  it  less  to 
be  wondered  at  that  his  fellow-clergymen,  who  were  soaked 
and  steeped  in  theologic  terms,  often  failed  to  catch  the 
inner  meaning  of  his  talk  because  they  missed  the  ancient 
shibboleth.  Moreover,  it  was  not  long  before  those  keen- 
sighted  purveyors  for  the  public  taste  and  need — the 
journalists — lit  upon  the  fact  that  the  people  were  inter- 
ested in  Beecher,  and  they  began  to  report  him  in  the  daily 
press.  His  own  statement  of  the  general  result  of  this,  as 
made  in  his  address  before  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn 
Association  of   ministers  and  churches,  in   October,  1884, 


70  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

while  based  upon  the  experience  of  many  years,  is  yet  an 
apt  putting  of  the  case  as  it  was  from  the  first: — 

"You  must  bear  in  mind  that  great  as  is  their  usefulness — and 
I  bear  willing  testimony  to  the  great  usefulness  of  the  ubiquitous 
body  of  reporters — they  are  not  all  apostolic  in  theology,  they  are 
not  Platos  in  philosophy,  they  are  not  all  the  most  eminent  dis- 
ciples of  the  school  of  metaphysics,  and  they  are  ->et  to  do  that 
which  not  one  man  of  genius  even  in  ten  thousand  can  do — the 
rarest  thing  in  the  world — to  put  a  discourse  of  one  whole  hour 
into  a  reading-space  of  five  minutes.  To  do  that  is  one  of  the 
supremest  works  of  intellectual  genius.  But  they  are  sent  to  the 
churches  as  well  as  to  other  meetings,  and  are  expected  to  make 
a  report  that  folks  will  read ;  so  they  catch  here  and  they  catch 
there  shining  passages,  grotesque  ones,  or  some  that  raise  a  little 
laughter.  They  go  over  to  the  office  and  the  night  editor  says: 
'  I  want  a  quarter  of  a  column  of  Beecher.'  '  Well,  but  I  have  got 
a  whole  column.'  'Cut  it  down,  cut  it  down.'  And  they  cut  it 
here  and  they  cut  it  there,  and  keep  in  things  that  they  think  will 
attract  attention, — and  that  is  the  report  of  my  sermon !  Well,  I 
do  not  blame  them ;  but  I  tell  you  what  I  do  blame.  I  blame  the 
want  of  honor  in  ministers  and  editors  who  live  within  an  hour's 
walk  or  an  hour's  postage  of  my  house,  and  who  could  write  to 
me  and  say,  'I  see  in  the  papers  this  morning  such  and  such 
things  are  reported  as  having  been  said  by  you.  I  wish  to  know 
whether  that  is  a  correct  representation  of  your  views.'  Not  they ! 
They  sit  down  and  write  a  long  critique  and  send  it  to  the  Con- 
gj-cgationalist  or  the  Advance  or  somewhere  else,  based  on  my 
'views.'  If  it  is  worth  my  while,  and  I  turn  around  and  say,  '  I 
was  misrepresented;  I  didn't  say  so;'  they  will  cry,  'Oh,  he  is 
backing  down  as  usual!'  So  then,  for  more  than  twenty-five 
years,  there  is  not  a  man  on  the  globe  that  has  been  reported  so 
much  as  I  have  been — in  my  private  meetings,  in  my  street  con- 
versations, on  the  platforms  of  public  meetings,  and  steadily  in 
the  pulpit;  a  great  many  times  admirably,  many  times  less  ad- 
mirably, and  sometimes  abominably.  This  has  been  going  on 
week  after  week,  and  year  after  year.  Do  you  suppose  I  could 
follow  up  all  misstatements  and  rectify  them?  ...  A  man 
might  run  around  like  a  kitten  after  its  tail,  all  his  life,  if  he  were 
going  around  explaining  all  reports  of  his  expressions  and  all  the 
things  he  had  written.  Let  them  go.  They  will  correct  them- 
selves. The  average  and  general  influence  of  a  man's  teaching 
will  be  more  mighty  than  any  single  misconception,  or  misappre- 
hension through  misconception."  ' 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  71 

Thus  it  was  that  while  he  was  constantly  misappre- 
hended, both  in  speech,  in  sentiment,  and  in  general  effect, 
by  means  of  these  fragmentary  reportings  of  tongue  and 
pen,  nevertheless  his  influence  constantly  enlarged  among 
those  who  had  the  opportunity  or  the  sense  to  apprehend 
his  meaning  and  follow  the  general  trend  of  his  teaching. 

Many  attempted  analyses  of  Mr.  Beecher's  powers  as 
orator  and  preacher  have  been  made.  Perhaps  the  best 
was  that  made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs  in  his  Ad- 
dress at  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  celebration  ("  Silver 
Wedding")  of  Plymouth  Church,  in  1872.  The  following 
selected  passages  (italics  being  ours)  give  somewhat  of 
his  ideas: — 

"The  sources  of  that  power  in  him,  in  which,  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  you  have  been  all  the  while  rejoicing,  are  very 
deep  and  manifold.  It  used  to  amuse  and  provoke  me,  years  ago, 
when  men  would  speak  as  if  his  strength  lay  in  some  one  thing; 
in  his  voice,  perhaps,  or  in  his  gesture,  or  his  power  of  illustra- 
tion, or  something  else\  Some  single  element,  it  was  now  and 
then  thought,  was  the  hair  of  this  Samson,  in  which  his  strength 
resided  ;  and  if  he  were  shorn  of  that  he  would  become  like  other 
men.  Nonsense!  You  know,  as  well  as  I  do,  that  his  power 
comes  from  many  sources.  It  is  like  a  rushing,  royal  river,  which 
has  its  birthplace  in  a  thousand  springs.  It  is  like  a  magnificent 
oak,  which  has  its  grand  uplift  of  trunk  and  stem,  and  its  vast 
sweep  of  branches,  by  reason  of  the  multitudinous  roots  which 
strike  down  deep,  and  spread  through  the  soil  in  every  direction. 
These  supply  the  mighty  timbers  of  the  battle-ship  and  the  build- 
ing! 

"Now,  if  I  were  to  go,  as  I  shall  not,  into  a  thorough  analysis 
of  his  power  as  a  preacher,  I  should  occupy  your  time  for  a  great 
while ;  but  there  are  certain  elements  of  that  power  which  are 
familiar  to  you,  and  which  redound,  not  to  his  praise  or  yours, 
but  to  the  praise  of  Him  who  made  him  what  he  is,  and  sent 
him  thither. 

"  First  among  these  elements,  I  should  put  a  thoroughly  vital- 
ized mind ;  a  mind  so  vitalized  that  its  very  process  becomes  as 
vital  as  himself;  so  that  there  is  no  reproduction  of  past  proc- 
esses; no  memorizing  of  what  has  previously  been  in  the  mind. 
His  creative  faculties  are  in  play  all  the  time.     .     .     . 

"  I  think  I  should  put  second,  immense  common  sense ;  a  won- 
derfully self-rectifying  judgment,  which  gives  sobriety  and  sound- 


72  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

ness  to  all  his  main  processes  of  thought.  I  don't  know  but  I 
have  been  more  impressed  by  that  in  Mr.  Beecher  than  by  any 
other  one  element  of  strength  in  him.  A  man  who  has  not  com- 
mon sense,  this  sound,  self-rectifying  judgment,  on  which  the 
machinery  of  his  mind  is  to  work,  flashes  out  very  soon.     .     .     . 

"  I  should  put  next  to  this,  I  think,  his  quick  and  deep  sympa- 
thy with  men  ;  his  wonderful  intuitive  perception  of  moods  of 
mind,  which  makes  these  stand  out  before  him  like  a  procession 
passing  in  the  street.  You  say,  'This  is  genius.'  Of  course  it  is; 
but  it  is  the  genius,  you  observe,  not  of  the  dramatist  nor  of  the 
poet;  it  is  the  genius  of  the  great  Preacher,  who  catches  his  sug- 
gestion, his  inspirations  even,  from  the  eyes  or  the  faces,  shining 
or  tearful,  of  the  people  before  him. 

"Then,  still  further,  comes  that  mental  sensibility,  that  emo- 
tional responsiveness,  which  has  made  him  apt  and  ready  for 
every  occasion,  that  responsiveness  which  is  called  for  in  every 
minister,  but  which  has  been  called  upon  in  him  more  than  any 
other  man,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  American  pulpit,  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years.  He  has  never  been  found  wanting  in  read- 
iness for  the  occasion,  no  matter  what  the  subject  may  have  been, 
or  what  the  scene.  His  mind  has  been  full  of  vigor,  and  has 
kindled  spontaneously,  by  collision  with  persons,  or  with  themes, 
or  with  circumstances,  whenever  the  occasion  has  been  pre- 
sented. 

"This  intimate  and  immediate  responsiveness  to,  and  sympathy 
with,  subjects  and  occasions,  is  an  immense  gift — charming  not 
only,  but  always  fertilizing,  and  always  refreshing. 

"  Then  put  beyond  that  (for  certainly  it  properly  goes  beyond 
and  farther  off)  his  wonderful  animal vigor,  his  fullness  of  bodily 
power;  his  Toice,  which  can  thunder  and  whisper  alike;  his  sym- 
pathy with  Nature,  which  is  so  intimate  and  confidential  that  she 
tells  him  all  her  secrets,  and  supplies  him  with  continual  images  ; 
and,  above  all,  put  as  the  crown  upon  the  whole  that  enthusiasm 
for  Christ  to  which  he  has  himself  referred  this  evening,  and 
which  has  certainly  been  the  animating  power  in  his  ministry — 
the  impression  upon  his  soul  that  he,  having  seen  the  glory  of 
the  Son  of  God,  has  been  set  here  to  reflect  that  glory  upon 
others;  to  inspire  their  minds  with  it;  to  touch  their  hearts  with 
it;  to  kindle  their  souls  with  it,  and  so  to  prepare  them  for  the 
heavenly  realm — put  all  these  together,  and  you  have  some  of  the 
elements  of  power  in  this  great  Preacher — not  all  of  them,  but 
some,  snatched  hurriedly  from  the  great  treasure-house.  There 
you  have  a  few,  at  any  rate,  of  the  traits  and  forces  of  him  whose 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  73 

power  has  chained  you,  and  quickened  and  blessed  you,  during 
all  these  years." 

The  abounding  physical  vigor  of  the  man,  his  sunny 
good  nature,  the  loving  spirit  with  which  he  regarded  his 
God  and  every  work  of  his  Father's  hands  down  through 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  animals,  and  plants, 
to  the  face  of  inanimate  nature;  his  quick  sense  of  humor, 
of  the  incongruities  not  only,  but  of  the  aptitudes  of  life; 
and  the  fresh  impulse  by  which  his  mouth  uttered  the 
abundance  of  the  heart,  all  these  elements  were  a  part  of 
his  power;  but  also  offered  one  of  the  most  frequent  objec- 
tions made  to  him.  Very  frequently  the  ripple  of  a  laugh 
would  run  over  the  face  of  the  congregation,  and  when 
after  the  service  the  new-come  listener,  shocked  to  find 
that  he  had  laughed  in  church,  stopped  to  analyze  the 
matter,  he  found  that  it  was  not  mere  fun  or  a  joke  at 
which  he  had  laughed,  but  that  he  had  been  startled  by 
some  unlooked-for,  unaccustomed  simile,  and  that  it  was 
quite  as  much  the  novelty  of  the  idea  and  the  surprising 
deftness  of  the  illustration  which  had  provoked  his  risibles 
as  any  sense  of  jocosity.  Still,  while  this  was  the  frequent 
case,  there  was  indeed  no  lack  of  humor  in  itself — though 
never  for  itself,  in  public  ministrations.     He  says: — 

"  To  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  have  Christ  so  melted 
and  dissolved  in  you  that  when  you  preach  yourself  you  preach 
Him,  as  Paul  did,  to  have  every  part  of  you  living  and  luminous 
with  Christ,  and  thus  to  make  use  of  everything  that  is  in  you, 
your  analogical  reasoning,  your  logical  reasoning,  your  imagina- 
tion, your  mirthfulness,  your  humor,  your  indignation,  your  wrath, 
to  take  everything  that  is  in  you,  all  steeped  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
to  throw  yourself  with  all  your  power  upon  the  congregation — 
that  has  been  my  theory  of  preaching  the  gospel.  A  good  many 
folks  have  laughed  at  the  idea  of  my  being  a  fit  preacher  because 
I  laughed,  and  because  I  made  somebody  else  laugh.  I  never 
went  out  of  my  way  to  do  it  in  my  life;  but,  if  some  sudden  turn 
of  a  sentence,  like  the  crack  of  a  whip,  sets  men  off,  I  do  not  think 
worse  of  it  for  that — not  a  bit !  I  have  felt  that  man  should  con- 
secrate every  gift  that  he  has  got  in  him  that  has  any  relation  to 
the  persuasion  of  men  and  to  the  melting  of  men — that  he  should 
put  them  all  on  the  altar,  kindle  them  all,  and  let  them  burn  for 
Christ's  sake." 


74  HENRY   WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

There  is  another  point  in  this  regard  that  may  as  well 
be  mentioned  here.  That  is,  that  his  humorous  passages, 
although  perfectly  natural  and  frequently  unconscious, 
were  quite  as  often  the  result  of  intuition  and  intention. 
In  his  "Yale  Lectures,"  in  answer  to  the  question  of  one 
of  the  students  as  to  whether  it  was  a  proper  thing  to  make 
an  audience  laugh  by  an  illustration,  he  replied: — 

"Never  turn  aside  from  a  laugh  any  more  than  you  would  from 
a  cry.  Go  ahead  on  your  Master's  business  and  do  it  well.  And 
remember  this,  that  every  faculty  in  you  was  placed  there  by  the 
dear  Lord  for  his  service's  sake.  Never  try  to  raise  a  laugh  for 
the  laugh's  sake,  or  to  make  men  merry  as  a  piece  of  sensation- 
alism, when  you  are  preaching  on  solemn  things;  that  is  allow- 
able on  a  picnic,  but  not  in  the  pulpit,  where  you  are  preaching 
of  God  and  of  man's  destiny.  But  if  a  laugh  comes  up  naturally 
do  not  stifle  it.  Strike  that  chord ;  and  particularly  if  you  want 
to  make  an  audience  weep.  If  I  can  make  them  laugh,  I  do  not 
thank  anybody  for  the  next  move;  I  will  make  them  cry.  Did 
you  ever  see  a  woman  carrying  a  pan  of  milk  quite  full,  and  it 
slops  over  on  one  side,  that  it  did  not  immediately  slop  over  on 
the  other  also  ? 

"If  you  quote  stale  jokes;  if  you  make  queer  turns  because 
they  will  make  people  laugh,  and  to  show  that  you  have  power 
over  the  congregation,  you  will  prove  yourselves  contemptible 
fellows.  But  if,  when  you  are  arguing  any  question,  the  thing 
comes  upon  j'ou  so  that  you  see  a  point  in  a  ludicrous  light,  you 
can  sometimes  flash  it  at  your  audience,  and  accomplish  at  a 
stroke  what  you  are  seeking  to  do  by  a  long  turn  of  argument; 
and  that  is  entirely  allowable.  In  such  a  case  do  not  attempt  to 
suppress  laughter;  it  is  a  part  of  the  nature  God  gave  us,  and 
which  we  can  use  in  his  service.  When  you  are  fighting  the 
devil,  shoot  him  with  anything." 

True  to  his  instinct  of  keeping  his  sympathies  alive  to- 
ward the  people  and  entering  into  the  life-conditions  of 
men  whom  he  was  trying  to  influence,  he  habituated  him- 
self to  study  men  and  seek  them  out.  Saturday  especially 
he  always  made  a  play-day  in  preparation  for  Sunday.  A 
day  of  genial,  pleasurable,  social  exhilaration,  a  day  of 
seeing  agreeable  things,  of  looking  at  pictures,  of  standing 
on  the  street  and  watching  the  people  and  teams  go  by  (he 
was  very  fond  of  horses),  of  crossing  the  ferry  and  going 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:    PERSONAL  TRAITS.  75 

up  into  the  pilot-house,  where  he  was  on  friendly  and  famil- 
iar terms  with  all  the  pilots,  of  going  along  the  docks  and 
on  to  the  ships,  into  ship-yards,  into  foundries  and  loco- 
motive works.  He  liked  to  go  to  Tiffany's,  where  he  would 
ask,  '  What  are  the  men  doing  to-day  ? '  And  so,  with  some 
member  of  the  house  he  would  go  down  to  the  ateliers  and 
watch  the  workmen  silver-plating  and  engraving,  and  learn 
to  understand  what  they  were  doing,  and  why,  and  not 
only  that,  but  to  get  a  sympathetic  insight  into  their  feel- 
ings and  ideas.  Thus  he  constantly  fed  his  heart  with  the 
sympathies  of  humanity,  refreshed  his  blood  and  nerves 
and  brain,  and  stored  his  mind  with  a  great  amount  of 
curious  and  interesting  knowledge,  which  reappeared  in 
figures  and  illustrations  and  apt  arguments. 

In  regard  to  his  gathering  of  knowledge,  which  he  was 
diligently  doing  by  incessant  study  of  books  and  men,  he 
never  did  it  in  the  formal  and  methodical  way  of  having 
each  subject  done  up  by  itself,  labeled  and  docketed  and 
filed  away  in  its  own  pigeon-hole,  but  his  broad  mind  re- 
ceived facts  and  ideas  much  as  the  soil  receives  the  seed, 
and  showers,  and  sunshine.  They  disappeared  and  became 
a  part  of  himself,  to  reappear  in  newer  forms  of  vital 
strength  and  beauty. 

He  was,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  continued  to  be,  a 
great  reader.  He  made  close  study  of  the  constitutional 
history  of  the  United  States,  and  was  diligent  in  mastering 
the  ideas  of  great  rulers.  He  found  when  he  came  to  the 
East  great  stores  of  intellectual  and  artistic  wealth,  which 
opened  to  him  new  worlds.  His  pecuniary  means  were 
already  enlarged.  He  received  at  first  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  per  annum,  which  was  a  large  advance  upon  the 
four  hundred,  and  six  hundred,  of  his  Western  pastorates, 
and  which,  as  the  Plymouth  society  grew  in  wealth  and 
strength,  was  properly  enlarged  from  time  to  time.  He 
made  it  a  point  to  follow  up  in  literature,  as  well  as  in 
practical  research,  every  topic  that  especially  interested 
him.  Sometimes  it  was  the  general  history  of  art,  or  the 
special  development  of  architecture,  of  painting,  of  sculpt- 
ure, of  engraving,  of  etching;  and  his  library  showed  illus- 


^6  HENRY    WARD   B  EEC  HER. 

trations  of  all  those  splendid  lines  of  thought  and  achieve- 
ment: and  it  was  not  upon  his  book-shelves  and  walls  alone 
but  in  himself  that  could  be  found  unusual  stores  of  knowl- 
edge. Music  and  organ-building;  soap  and  cosmetics; 
pottery  and  porcelains;  large  additions  to  his  already  ex- 
tensive knowledge  of  flowers,  trees,  and  methods  of  culti- 
vation; general  literature,  history,  theology,  metaphysics, 
natural  science,  and  especially  the  whole  line  of  philosophic 
literature  which  tends  towards  the  co-ordination  of  these 
great  departments;  physiology,  anatomy,  and  medicine, — ■ 
and  in  short  a  large  array  of  books  upon  topics  of  interest 
to  all  humanity,  and  therefore  not  foreign  to  him,  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  incessant  labor  with  which  he  stored  his  grow- 
ing mind. 

These  things  of  course  began  by  slow  degrees  and  en- 
larged and  accumulated  more  and  more  rapidly  as  the 
years  increased  his  pecuniary  means  and  his  power  of 
assimilating  the  mental  stores  thus  gathered.  But  the 
point  here  is  to  show  his  method,  and  to  emphasize  the 
idea  which  he  has  in  many  places  laid  stress  upon,  that 
genius  is  but  the  power  of  combustion,  and  needs  fuel  if  it 
is  to  produce  light  and  heat. 

There  is  always  a  temptation,  in  considering  events 
which  have  successively  issued  along  a  course  of  years, 
to  read  the  beginnings  in  the  light  of  later  developments. 
From  one  point  of  view  this  is  of  course  natural  and  nec- 
essary, for  we  can  better  understand  the  bearings  of  early 
matters  when  we  have  their  consequences  before  us.  For 
our  present  purpose,  however,  we  do  not  need  to  impute 
undue  wisdom  to  the  mind  of  this  young  reformer,  in 
the  idea  that  he  foresaw  all  the  wonderful  crisis  of  his 
first  twenty-five  years  in  Plymouth  Church,  but  it  is  essen- 
tial, as  we  believe,  to  a  comprehension  of  his  modes  of 
action  and  the  resulting  influence  which  he  exerted,  that 
we  insist  from  the  first  upon  his  disinterested,  loyal, 
ardent  devotion  to  God  as  apower  manifest  in  unselfish  love 
rather  than  in  autocratic  foree;  and  the  consistent  applica- 
tion of  that  belief  as  a  guiding  principle  in  all  the  affairs 
of  life.     Out  of  this  grew  his  intense  devotion  to  the  inter- 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH:   PERSONAL   TRAITS.  77 

ests  of  man  as  God's  child;  his  insistence  upon  the  constant 
need  of  the  elevating  influences  of  unselfishness  as  personi- 
fied in  Christ  and  the  constant  importance  of  infusing  this 
spirit  into  human  institutions  of  every  character, — the  fam- 
ily,the  church,  society,the  city,  the  state, — all  the  outgrowths 
of  man's  organic  social  tendency.  If  his  life  be  followed  by 
the  indications  of  this  cardinal  principle,  it  will  be  seen  to 
have  been  nobly  persistent  and  earnestly  steady.  All 
those  variations  which  men  have  been  accustomed  to  call 
"inconsistency,"  "errors  of  judgment,"  "the  great  mis- 
take of  his  life  "  (of  which  he  committed  a  great  many, 
each  one  being  "the  greatest"  according  to  the  point  of 
view  of  the  specific  interests — personal,  ecclesiastical,  or 
political — which  he  at  the  time  opposed)  will  be  seen  to 
have  been  impulses  along  the  general  line  which  he  had 
laid  down  for  himself  from  the  first,  and  by  the  inspira- 
tion of  which  he  builded  the  foundations  and  the  super- 
structure of  Plymouth  Church,  that  strong  fortress  of 
human  hearts,  in  which  he  abode  and  from  which  his 
power  went  forth  during  forty  years. 


78  HENRY   WARD  BE  EC  HER. 


V. 

POLITICAL  CAREER. 

The  portion  of  Mr.  Beecher's  work  covered  by  this  vol- 
ume grew  directly  out  of  his  nature,  training,  convictions, 
and  the  enlargement  of  his  powers  as  set  forth  in  the  fore- 
going chapters.  It  includes  many  of  his  appeals  to  the 
public  intelligence  and  conscience  with  reference  to  slavery, 
freedom,  war,  and  the  general  development  of  civil  liberty 
in  the  United  States.  The  simplest  way  of  getting  at  the 
relations  and  the  influence  of  these  appeals  will  be  to 
make  a  brief  running  account  of  the  public  affairs  of  the 
time,  noting  especially  the  points  accented  by  the  addresses 
selected  for  reprinting. 

The  time  covered  by  these  addresses  has  been  divided 
into  three  periods:  I.  Freedom  and  Slavery,  1847-1861; 
II.  Civil  War,  1861-1S65;  III.  Civil  Liberty,  1865-18S5;— 
thirty-eight  years  in  all. 

The  pivot  upon  which  the  history  of  the  Uhited  States 
turned  during  the  entire  fifty  years  of  Mr.  Beecher's  public 
work,  was  unquestionably  American  Slavery,  with  its  con- 
sequences. While  his  relations  to  it  were  the  most  notice- 
able feature  of  his  own  life,  the  subject  itself  is  of  course 
too  large  to  be  entered  upon  here  except  roughly;  but  the 
facts  that  in  it  was  the  storm-center  of  all  those  tumultu- 
ous times,  and  that — while  thousands  of  other  patriotic 
and  sensible  Christian  men,  as  well  as  pious  Christian 
ministers,  were  not  able  to  see  the  dangers  of  it — this  man's 
love  for  the  Father-God,  and  his  esteem  and  sympathy 
for  his  brother-man,  were  outraged  by  the  existence  and 
still  more  by  the  attempted  extension  of  that  great  evil, 
give  the  key-note  which  must  be  accepted  in  order  to  re- 
solve his  whole  life  into  harmony. 

He  conceived  it  to  be  his   duty,  not  only,  but   his  neces- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  79 

sity,  to  think,  to  speak,  to  instruct  in  all  the  higher  views  of 
their  daily  duty  the  people  who  were  following  him;  their 
duty  not  only  towards  God  but  also  towards  their  fellow- 
men, — whether  in  the  family,  or  more  broadly  in  society, 
or  in  the  close  interplay  of  commercial  activities,  or  in 
the  still  higher  organic  relations  of  the  city  and  of  the 
state  and  of  the  country  at  large.  And  thus  it  was  that, 
whatever  line  of  private  or  public  duty  made  demands 
upon  individuals,  the  moral  and  spiritual  side  of  it  found 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  promptly  at  work,  endeavoring  to 
throw  light  upon  the  practical  path  of  right  doing. 

In  a  sermon  entitled  "The  Sphere  of  the  Christian 
Minister"  (January  24,  1869)  occurs  the  following  pas- 
sage:— 

"There  is  a  popular  impression— and  it  seems  to  men  like  a 
philosophical  truism — that  every  man  understands  his  own  busi- 
ness best ;  that  he  need  not  be  meddled  with,  at  least  till  he  asks 
advice  ;  and  that  even  then  no  one  can  counsel  him  so  wisely  as 
one  of  the  same  craft.  Complaint  is  often  made  on  that  ground, 
of  ministers,  that  they  meddle  with  things  that  they  do  not  un- 
derstand. I  think  they  do,  too,  when  they  preach  theology. 
There  is  an  amazing  deal  of  '  wisdom  '  that  will  be  called  '  rubbish  ' 
one  of  these  days.  But  when  ministers  meddle  with  practical 
life,  with  ethical  questions  and  relations,  they  are  meddling  with 
just  what  they  do  understand, — or  ought  to.  If  they  do  not  under- 
stand these  things,  they  have  failed  to  prepare  themselves  for  one 
of  the  most  important  functions  to  which  they  could  address 
themselves,  as  ministers.     .     .     . 

"  There  is  nothing,  however,  more  untrue  than  that  every  man 
understands  his  own  business  best,  if  by  that  you  mean  that  he 
understands  it  in  its  largest  relations — in  its  results  upon  the 
general  welfare  ;  and  more  particularly  if  you  mean  that  he  under- 
stands his  own  business  best  in  its  moral  influence  upon  himself, 
upon  his  fellows,  and  upon  society.  Usually,  none  understand 
the  moral  bearing  of  a  business  so  little  as  the  men  who  are  em- 
barked in  it.  .  .  .  The  baker  knows  more  about  kneading 
dough,  about  the  time  it  should  require  to  rise,  and  about  how 
long  it  should  be  in  baking;  but  when  it  is  done,  and  I  take  the 
loaf  and  eat  it,  then  I  am  as  good  a  judge  of  bread  as  he  is.  -And 
so  it  is  with  various  kinds  of  business.  They  bring  out  results 
here  and  there,  and  the  community  is  made  to  take  the  benefit 
or  damage,  as  the  case  may  be.     And  moral  teachers  who  stand 


8o  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

and  look  on — who  have  discrimination,  large  reflection,  clear  in- 
tuition, and  who,  above  all,  judge  from  a  moral  stand-point — 
such  men  are  competent  to  be  critics  of  everything  that  there  is 
in  human  society.  .  .  .  The  moment  a  man  so  conducts  his 
profession  that  it  touches  the  question  of  right  and  wrong,  he 
comes  into  my  sphere.  There  I  stand;  and  I  put  God's  measure, 
the  golden  reed  of  the  sanctuary,  on  him  and  his  course;  and  I 
am  his  master,  if  I  be  a  true  seer  and  a  true  moral  teacher;  and  I 
am  not  meddling.  He  has  brought  his  business  up  to  me  the 
moment  when  it  comes  into  the  sphere  of  right  and  wrong.  .  . 
"A  man  may  preach  politics  too  much.  A  man  may  do  it  fool- 
ishly. So  a  man  may  administer  a  bank  foolishly,  manufacture 
foolishly,  or  carry  on  any  other  business  foolishly;  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  a  bank  should  not  be  established,  why  a  man  may 
not  engage  in  manufacturing,  or  why  business  of  any  sort  should 
not  be  carried  on.  A  minister  may  not  be  discreet  in  preaching 
upon  secular  topics,  but  that  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not 
be  preached  upon.  There  have  been  indiscreet  ministers  from 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  and  it  would  be  strange  if  in  the  future 
there  should  not  be  found  here  and  there  one  that  is  not  discreet. 
But  the  duty  of  introducing  such  topics  is  now  generally  ac- 
knowledged. I  think  that  question  is  settled,  for  your  life  and 
mine  at  least." 

So  it  is;  and  it  was  settled  very  largely  by  the  courage 
and  persistence,  the  intense  moral  earnestness,  and  the 
large  conservative  wisdom  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  Who- 
ever will  read  the  contents  of  this  volume  —  which  offers 
examples  of  his  newspaper  writing,  discourses  in  Plymouth 
pulpit,  political  speeches  pure  and  simple,  and  popular  ad- 
dresses on  themes  of  general  interest  —  will  be  struck, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  present  time,  with  the 
breadth  and  steadiness  of  his  position  in  the  earlier  days 
of  excitement.  His  arguments  are  based  on  the  law  and 
the  constitution  of  the  land  as  well  as  those  of  humanity, 
and  it  is  surprising  to  note  his  steadfast  course,  not  only 
amid  the  turmoil  about  him  but  also  under  the  pressure 
of  his  own  interior  impulsive  forces.  The  strength  of  his 
position  and  the  wholesomeness  of  his  advice  —  tempora- 
rily "enforced  by  his  eloquence  but  generally  justified  by 
events  —  went  far  to  make  his  theory  of  the  clergyman's 
business  practicable. 


POLITICAL    CAREER.  8 1 

Division  I. —  Freedom  and  Slavery. 

Just  at  the  time  when  young  Beecher  came  to  Brook- 
lyn (the  autumn  of  1847)  the  question  of  slavery  had 
again  arisen  for  discussion  in  Congress  and  throughout 
the  country.  The  Mexican  war,  following  on  the  heels  of 
the  annexation  of  Texas  in  the  interests  of  the  extension 
of  slavery  into  new  and  unexhausted  territory,  had  just 
closed,  although  peace  was  not  formally  declared  until 
July  4,  1848.  Florida,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  were  shortly 
afterward  admitted  as  States;  Texas  also;  gold  was  dis- 
covered in  California;  and  the  admission  of  California 
as  a  State  was  complicated  with  the  attempted  extension 
of  slavery  into  that  territory  as  well  as  into  Utah  and  New 
Mexico.  The  "  Free-soil  Party  "  was  organized  among  the 
people  in  1848,  under  the  lead  of  ex-President  Martin 
Van  Buren;  the  "  Wilmot  Proviso  "  in  Congress,  excluding 
slavery  from  the  new  territories,  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's resolution  limiting  the  right  of  Congress  to  inter- 
fere; agitation  grew  hotter  and  hotter.  Webster  and  Cal- 
houn in  the  Senate  only  typified  the  growing  excitement 
throughout  the  country;  for  the  seeds  planted  years  before 
by  Giddings  and  Garrison  and  other  heroes  of  conscience, 
and  wet  with  the  tears  and  bloody  sweat  of  social  martyr- 
dom, were  slowly  bearing  their  fruit,  and  from  year  to  year 
extending  their  harvests  in  the  Northern  soil.  But  the  time 
of  triumph  was  a  weary  way  off, —  not  yet  to  be  descried 
even  by  the  eye  of  faith;  nay,  the  fight  seems  to  have  been 
carried  on  almost  without  hope,  sustained  only  by  a  sturdy 
love  for  God  and  mankind. 

The  late  Senator  H.  S.  Foote  of  Mississippi,  in  his  "War 
of  the  Rebellion,  or  Scylla  and  Charybdis,"*  undertakes 
to  show  that  the  "  irrepressible  conflict "  between  freedom 
and  slavery  "  could  not  have  arisen  but  for  the  most  un- 
skillful and  blundering  management  of  the  men  in  power — 
the  incessant  agitation  of  sectional  factionists,  both  in  the 
North  and  in  the  South,  and  the  unwise  disregard  of  that 
august  spirit  of  conciliation  and  compromise  in  which  our 


*  New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers,  1S66. 

6 


82  HENRY    WARD  BEECHER. 

complex  frame  of  government  is  known  to  have  had  its 
origin."  But  he  miscalculates  what  were  the  necessities 
of  slavery  for  more  territory  to  grow  in,  and  ignores  the 
deep  hold  which  the  spirit  of  freedom,  in  spite  of  political 
and  commercial  interests,  had  upon  the  Northern  people. 
Far  clearer-eyed  were  the  anti-slavery  men  of  the  North, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  men  like  Senator  John 
C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina,  who  was  doubtless  what  Mr. 
Foote  describes  him — "  one  of  the  most  intellectual  and 
pure-minded  men  that  have  ever  lived,"  and  who  held 
the  view  that  the  free  States  and  the  slave  States  could  not 
continue  to  live  together  harmoniously,  but  the  latter 
would  soon  find  it  necessary  to  resort  to  separation. 

•'  Early  in  the  eventful  year  of  1850,"  says  Mr.  Foote,  "  he 
[Calhoun]  avowed  to  me  .  .  .  his  own  painful  and  firmly 
riveted  conviction  on  this  subject,  and  declared,  in  language  of 
extraordinary  emphasis,  that  he  regarded  a  peaceful  withdrawal 
from  the  Union  as  altogether  practicable,  provided  its  execution 
should  be  attempted  under  the  lead  of  Maryland  and  Virginia; 
making  known  at  the  same  time  that  he  had  already  drawn  out 
a  Constitution  for  the  new  republic  which  he  contemplated,  in 
which  the  slave-holding  principle  had  been  given  a  predominant 
influence." 

When,  in  1850,  after  much  heated  discussion  both  in 
Congress  and  throughout  the  country,  Henry  Clay,  the 
author  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  182 1,  proposed  to 
consolidate  all  past  compromises  involving  slavery, — 
covering  the  disputed  subjects  of  Texas  boundary,  Utah 
and  New  Mexico  territories,  California,  partial  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  rendition  of  fugi- 
tive slaves,  and  other  matters — into  one  "  Omnibus  bill  "  of 
thirty-nine  sections,  the  excitement  grew  more  intense  than 
ever.  The  essential  element  of  the  bill  was  the  yielding 
on  the  part  of  the  South  of  the  admission  of  California  as 
a  free  State,  and  on  the  part  of  the  North  the  fugitive 
slave  clause,  which  not  only  allowed  Southerners  to  re- 
claim escaping  slaves  but  made  it  the  duty  of  Northern- 
ers to  help  them. 

In  1849  the  Congregationalists  had  established  in  New 


c^/^^^^ 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  &3 

York  the  weekly  religious  paper  called  The  Independent, 
having  as  its  editors,  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  Dr.  Richard  S. 
Storrs,  Jr.,  and  Dr.  Joseph  P.  Thompson.  To  this  paper 
Mr.  Beecher  was  asked  to  contribute;  and,  as  the  growing 
conflict  between  slavery  and  freedom  was  at  that  time  the 
motive  of  pretty  much  all  political  and  much  social  and 
commercial  activity,  it  was  inevitable  that  that  should  be 
the  line  of  discussion  most  attractive  to  him.  His  utter- 
ances were  so  bold  and  ringing  that  the  editors,  highly  as 
they  appreciated  the  value  of  his  contributions,  both  as 
moral  forces  and  as  journalistic  attractions,  did  not  care  to 
be  held  responsible  for  them,  and  so  it  came  about  that  his 
articles  were  usually  signed  with  a  star,  or  large  asterisk. 

Many  an  article  on  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  subjects 
went  into  these  "Star  Papers,"  and  made  its  mark  upon 
the  sentiment  and  opinions  of  the  times  ;  but  the  paper 
which,  it  maybe  almost  said,  made  Henry  Ward  Beecher  a 
national  rather  than  a  local  force  was  the  one  which  stands 
first  in  the  "Addresses"  reprinted  in  this  volume,  in  the 
division  entitled  "  Freedom  and  Slavery,"  an  article  sin- 
gling out  from  Mr.  Clay's  "  Omnibus  bill"  its  vital  points, 
and  asking  the  question,  "  Shall  We  Compromise  ?" 

The  Congressional  agitation  had  been  going  on  for 
months.  The  North  was  profoundly  stirred  by  the  con- 
test, discussing  all  the  ins  and  outs  of  the  complicated 
legislative  proposal.  The  Independent  had  several  strong 
articles  on  the  situation,  but  when  on  February  21,  1850, 
this  article  appeared,  disregarding  the  artificial  complica- 
tions and  setting  forth  in  all  plainness  the  issue — "  Slavery 
is  right ;  slavery  is  wrong.  Slavery  shall  live ;  slavery 
shall  die.  Slavery  shall  extend;  slavery  shall  not  extend" 
— it  struck  the  key-note  towards  which  succeeding  events 
toned  up  the  North  until  Fort  Sumter  brought  the  great 
outburst,  and  the  war,  begun  by  the  South,  killed  slavery 
and  gave  the  South  new  life.  The  article  was  copied 
everywhere,  and  cleared  the  atmosphere.  The  eyes  of 
many  were  opened.  It  penetrated  to  the  South  and  ar- 
rested the  earnest  attention  of  the  dying  Calhoun.  Mr. 
Beecher's  position  was  that  slavery  must  extend — or  die; 


84  HENRY    WARD   B  EEC  HER. 

that  it  was  both  constitutional  and  morally  right  for  the 
North  to  refuse  to  consent  to  its  extension,  while  it  was 
a  base  betrayal  of  the  right  to  yield  extension  for  the  sake 
of  a  temporary  and  fallacious  peace. 

But  the  conscience  of  the  people  grows  slowly;  and  that 
of  their  "  representative  "  politicians  and  statesmen  slower 
yet.  The  fight  in  Congress  went  on,  the  Southern  de- 
mands growing  higher  and  haughtier,  until  the  most 
trusted  champion  of  the  Northern  views,  Daniel  Webster, 
on  the  7th  of  March  lowered  his  banner  and  made  the 
famous  plea  for  conciliation  which,  whatever  its  motive, 
was  his  own  final  disgrace  and  death-blow.  Calhoun,  who 
from  his  dying  bed  still  sent  his  influence  forth,  had  his 
last  address  read  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Mason,  and  died  on 
the  31st  of  the  same  month. 

After  eight  months  of  discussion,  Mr.  Clay's  "  Omnibus 
Compromise"  failed,  but  the  several  elements  of  it,  in- 
cluding the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  passed  singly,  as  separate 
bills,  during  the  ensuing  summer  (1S50). 

Of  course  the  passage  of  these  bills,  which  instead  of 
being  merely  a  friendly  arrangement  of  opposing  policies 
were  really  a  compromise  of  moral  principle,  did  not  bring 
peace.  The  year  1850  closed  and  185 1  opened  in  the  midst 
of  seething  agitation.  The  "  May  Anniversaries  "  of  the 
various  reformatory  and  religious  societies  formed  a  great 
feature  of  those  days  in  New  York,  and  among  the  others 
the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  one 
whose  meetings  in  the  old  Broadway  Tabernacle  were  al- 
ways densely  thronged, — and  not  always  with  sympathiz- 
ers in  the  cause  which  the  Society  had  at  heart. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  from  his  first  coming  a  favorite  speaker 
at  those  meetings,  and  in  their  turbulent  audiences  gained 
much  of  the  training  that  served  him  so  well  in  later  davs. 
In  one  of  his  speeches  there,  delivered  May  9,  1850,  he 
had  been  exhibiting  the  necessity  of  slavery  to  keep  men 
brutal.  "  The  slave,"  said  he,  "  is  made  just  good  enough 
to  be  a  slave,  and  no  more.  It  is  a  penitentiary  offense  to 
teach  him  more."  Here  a  person  in  the  gallery  who  had 
been  one  of  a  group  frequently  interrupting  the  proceed- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  85 

ings,  exclaimed,  "It's  a  lie  !  "  The  audience  was  shocked 
into  a  kind  of  consternation,  but  Mr.  Beecher  promptly  and 
smilingly  said:  "  Well,  whether  it  is  a  penitentiary  offense 
or  not,  I  will  not  argue  with  the  gentleman.  Doubtless  lie 
has  been  there,  and  ought  to  know."  Of  course  the  tumultu- 
ous laughter  and  applause  gave  him  the  immediate  control 
of  the  audience  again,  and  he  proceeded. 

The  second  of  the  Addresses  in  this  volume  is  one  de- 
scribing the  nature  of  "American  Slavery,"  which  was 
delivered  before  the  Society  on  May  6,  185 1.  This  address, 
devoted  to  a  discussion  of  American  Slavery  from  the 
stand-point  of  a  Christian  minister,  was  at  once  a  helpful 
impulse  to  all  the  anti-slavery  workers,  and  a  stinging 
rebuke  to  the  men  of  his  own  profession,  who  with  notably 
few  exceptions  systematically  avoided  mention  of  the  sin 
of  those  times.  In  one  of  his  speeches  in  England,  in 
1863,  Mr.  Beecher  said: — 

"  You  never  can  understand  what  emasculation  has  been  caused 
by  the  indirect  influence  of  slavery.  I  have  mourned  all  my 
mature  life  to  see  men  growing  up  who  were  obliged  to  suppress 
all  true  conviction  and  sentiment,  because  it  was  necessary  to 
compromise  between  the  great  antagonisms  of  North  and  South. 
There  were  the  few  pronounced  anti-slavery  men  of  the  North, 
and  the  few  pronounced  slavery  men  of  the  South,  and  the  Union 
lovers  (as  the}''  were  called  during  the  latter  period)  attempting 
to  hold  the  two  together,  not  by  a  mild  and  consistent  adherence 
to  truth  plainly  spoken,  but  by  suppressing  truth  and  conviction, 
and  saying,  '  Everything  for  the  Union.'  .  .  .  They  were  at- 
tempting to  lasso  anti-slavery  men  by  this  word  '  Union,'  and  to 
draw  them  over  to  pro-slavery  sympathies  and  the  party  of  the 
South,  by  saying,  '  Slavery  may  be  wrong  and  all  that,  but  we 
must  not  give  up  the  Union.'  Not  until  the  sirocco  came,  not 
until  that  great  convulsion  that  threw  men  as  with  a  backward 
movement  of  the  arm  of  Omnipotence  from  the  clutches  of  the 
South  and  from  her  sorceress-breath — not  until  then  was  it,  that 
with  their  hundreds  and  thousands  the  men  of  the  North  stood 
on  their  feet  and  were  men  again." 

In  this  Anti-Slavery  Society  address  may  be  seen  others 
of  Mr.  Beecher's  felicitous  dealings  with  interruptions 
and  questions  from  hostile  hearers,  put  with   the  intent  to 


86  HENRY    WARD   BEECHER. 

embarrass  the  speaker,  but  always  having  the  opposite 
effect  of  giving  him  a  chance  to  turn  the  point  against  his 
attackers. 

The  third  address  is  an  article  from  the  Independent  con- 
cerning the  notable  Presidential  contest  of  1856,  between 
James  Buchanan,  the  Democratic  candidate,  and  John  C. 
Fremont,  the  candidate  of  the  newly  formed  Republican 
party,  which  had  grown  up,  suddenly  but  solidly,  within 
four  years. 

On  the  admission  of  California  as  a  State,  in  1850,  Fre- 
mont had  been  sent  to  Washington  as  one  of  its  Senators. 
In  1843-5,  as  captain  of  a  government  exploring  party,  he 
had  located  the  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  through 
which  to-day's  immense  railway  traffic  is  pouring;  in  1846 
he  had  raised  the  "Bear  flag"  and  declared  the  independ- 
ence of  California,  and,  by  prompt  co-operation  on  land 
with  Commodore  Stockton  by  sea,  had  practically  con- 
quered and  secured  to  the  United  States  the  possession  of 
that  magnificent  territory.  He  had  acted  for  some  time 
as  Military  Governor,  and  had  taken  prominent  part  in 
forming  the  Constitution,  being  the  man  by  whose  in- 
fluence the  phrases  that  forever  excluded  slavery  from 
the  State  were  incorporated  into  that  document.  Events 
moved  rapidly,  both  among  the  people  and  in  Congress. 
In  185 1  Mrs.  Stowe's  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  appeared,  and 
thrilled  the  world  with  the  dreadful  possibilities  of  Ameri- 
can slavery:  the  effect  of  that  book  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. In  1852  died  Clay  and  Webster,  while  Charles 
Sumner  entered  the  Senate  as  Webster's  successor  from 
Massachusetts:  the  day  of  compromises  was  passing. 

The  administration  of  Pierce,  1853  to  1857,  was  signal- 
ized by  the  appearance  of  a  new  idea,  put  forth  by  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  (Democratic)  senator  from  Illinois,  who,  am- 
bitious to  reach  the  Presidency,  proposed — as  a  measure 
that  should  please  the  Democrats  of  both  sections,  North 
and  South — the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  allowing  the  people 
of  those  Territories  to  decide  for  themselves  as  to  the  exist- 
ence or  non-existence  of  slavery ,when  they  should  apply  for 
admission  as  States.     This  idea,  popularly  called  "  Squatter 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  87 

Sovereignty,"  was  an  express  abrogation  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  of  182 1,  as  both  Kansas  and  Nebraska  lay 
north  of  the  line  agreed  upon  and  fixed  as  the  permanent 
extreme  northern  limit  of  slave-holding  States.  The  con- 
test was  long  and  bitter,  but  the  bill  passed,  and  was  signed 
by  the  President  in  May,  1854.  Then  followed  the  horrors 
of  "bleeding  Kansas,"  the  rush  of  immigration  thither  from 
North  and  from  South,  and  the  hideous  turmoil  of  border 
warfare.  The  free-soil  men  were  determined  to  save  the 
territory  from  slavery,  and  the  pro-slavery  men  equally 
determined  to  inoculate  it  with  that  cancerous  disease. 
Throughout  the  North  the  free-soil  ardor  grew  and  in- 
tensified. Money,  furniture,  implements  of  industry,  arms, 
and  ammunition  were  contributed  for  the  use  of  the  immi- 
grants, who  were  exhorted  to  defend  their  own  lives  and 
political  rights,  and  to  secure  the  territory  for  freedom. 
Mr.  Beecher  and  Plymouth  Church  took  active  part  in  all 
this  concentration  of  purpose  and  of  force  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  Kansas.  The  political  tangle  of  the  time  is  clearly 
outlined  in  Hay  and  Nicolay's  elaborate  "  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  "  {Century  Magazine,  1887,)  not  only  as  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  debates  with  Douglas  in  Illinois  (which  did  so 
much  to  nationalize  the  name  and  just  fame  of  the  former), 
but  also  as  to  the  struggle  in  Kansas,  it  is  shown  how  the 
"border-ruffian"  from  Missouri  was  the  convenient  tool  of 
Southern  policy  to  outvote  and  even  to  destroy  the  bona  fide 
settlers. 

Mr.  Beecher's  activity  at  this  time  was  marked  and  influ- 
ential, but  we  have  not  found  any  single  address  which 
seemed  to  represent  his  customary  way  of  setting  forth 
the  general  principles  of  a  particular  crisis. 

Out  of  the  Kansas  struggle  came  the  beginning  of  the 
Republican  Party.  The  Free-soil  Party  had  organized  at 
Buffalo  under  Van  Buren,  bolting  from  the  Whigs,  in  1848; 
this  was  the  germ:  in  1852  the  Whigs  had  finally  gone 
under,  when  Pierce  was  elected:  in  1856  the  Kansas  troub- 
les had  permeated  the  entire  North  with  discussion,  and 
the  expression  of  resentment  at  the  perfidy  of  the  Com- 
promise repeal  took  on  increasingly  the  form  of  a  deter- 


88  HENRY    WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

mination  that  slavery  should  not  be  extended,  on  any  pretext, 
into  new  territories.  This  was  the  heart  of  the  declarations 
of  the  new  party;  and  John  Charles  Fremont,  "the  Path- 
finder;" the  conqueror  of  California;  South  Carolinian  by 
birth,  but  anti-slavery  in  principle;  son-in-law  of  Senator 
Benton  of  Missouri  (a  life-long  Southern  anti-slavery  man, 
and  the  projector  of  trans-continental  traffic);  husband 
of  the  brilliant  and  fascinating  Jessie  Benton;  —  a  man 
combining  a  remarkable  number  of  qualities,  achieve- 
ments, and  associations  to  surround  his  name  with  a 
halo  of  romance — was  made  the  hero  and  the  standard- 
bearer. 

The  great  cry  of  the  Republicans  was  "  Non-extension 
of  slavery  !  "  of  the  Democrats,  "  Non-interference  with 
Southern  domestic  institutions  ! "  and  of  a  third  party 
(the  "Americans,"  with  Millard  Fillmore  as  candidate), 
"Peace  at  any  price;  peace  and  union!"  Mr.  Beecher, 
with  the  full  consent  of  his  church,  threw  himself  into  this 
political  contest  with  all  the  force  of  his  nature.  He 
preached  and  spoke  and  wrote,  constantly  and  vehemently. 
He  worked  throughout  the  State  of  New  York,  speaking 
two  and  three  times  a  week,  for  three  hours  at  a  time,  to 
open-air  audiences  of  from  eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand, 
and  was  universally  recognized  as  a  very  potent  factor  in 
the  rapid  growth  of  Republican  sentiment.  Besides  this, 
Fremont's  campaign  headquarters  were  in  the  business 
office  of  one  of  Mr.  Beecher's  earliest  friends  and  parish- 
ioners; so  that  Plymouth  Church  had  a  large  share  in  the 
formation  and  early  direction  of  the  Republican  party.  A 
new  growth  out  of  an  old  stem,  Republicanism  was  cut 
off  from  the  decaying  Whig  stock,  and,  planted,  in  justice 
and  nourished  with  the  love  of  freedom,  it  increased 
mightily  in  strength  and  bore  glorious  fruit. 

Mr.  Beecher's  article  (June  26,  1856)  entitled  "On 
Which  Side  is  Peace?"  (reproduced  page  196),  pre- 
sents the  main  theme  of  the  discussions  of  that  cam- 
paign, and  shows  how  unerringly  he  struck  at  the  central 
element  of  every  matter  in  question.  There  was  great 
fear  lest  the  South  be  angered  by  the  election  of  a  free- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  89 

soil  President,  and  war  ensue;  but  Mr.  Beecher's  pre- 
diction, that  war  was  much  more  likely  to  grow  out  of 
further  truckling  to  the  slave-power,  in  four  years  became 
fact. 

The  success  of  James  Buchanan  (although  Mr.  Beecher 
and  many  other  leading  Republicans  believed  that  Fre- 
mont was  elected,  but  "  counted  out  "  in  the  returns  from 
Pennsylvania,  a  State  whose  large  number  of  electors  de- 
termined that  election)  is  well  known.  So  also  are  the  suc- 
ceeding events  of  the  next  few  years:  Chief  Justice  Taney's 
Dred  Scott  decision;  the  passing  of  personal-liberty  laws  in 
several  of  the  free  States  to  counteract  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law;  the  continued  outrages  and  massacres  of  free-soil 
settlers  in  Kansas;  and  finally  the  rash  enterprise  of  old 
John  Brown  of  Ossawatomie, —  a  man  always  fanatical 
and  ill -balanced,  and  at  last  crazed  by  strife  and  the 
murder  of  several  of  his  family  in  Kansas, —  who,  with 
seventeen  companions,  seized  the  United  States  arsenal 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  Va.,  with  the  hope  of  obtaining  arms 
and  establishing  an  insurrectionary  center  for  the  libera- 
tion of  slaves. 

It  was  on  Sunday,  October  30,  1859,  while  Brown  and 
his  little  company  lay  in  prison  awaiting  trial,  that  Mr. 
Beecher  preached  in  Plymouth  Church  his  sermon  entitled 
"The  Nation's  Duty  to  Slavery"  (page  203).  Its  faithful 
assertion  of  the  principles  of  liberty  and  the  abominations 
of  slavery,  combined  with  Christian  kindness  to  the  South 
and  the  duty  of  wise  forbearance  in  action, —  for  the  sake 
of  the  slave,  of  the  master,  and  of  the  country,  North  and 
South, —  shows  the  discretion,  nobleness  of  thought,  and 
sincerity  of  belief  in  God  and  the  force  of  moral  ideas, 
which  go  far  to  explain  how  it  was  that  conservative  peo- 
ple felt  willing  to  submit  themselves  to  the  influence  of 
Mr.  Beecher's  eloquence.  No  Southerner  to-day  would  be 
able  to  dissent  from  his  doctrine  as  expounded  in  that  dis- 
course, or  could  help  a  warming  of  heart  toward  a  man 
who,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  tempest  of  popular  excitement 
along  the  line  of  principles  which  he  himself  had  done  so 
much  to  inspire,  could  yet  so  temperately  and  consider- 


9° 


HENRY    WARD   BEECHRR. 


ately  and  Christianly  stretch  forth  the  restraining  hand  of 
wisdom. 

Mr.  Beecher's  influence  in  the  formative  days  of  the  Re- 
publican party  was  wider  than  appeared  on  the  surface. 
He  was  in  relations  of  friendly  intercourse  and  interchange 
of  counsel  with  men  like  Horace  Greeley  and  Henry  J. 
Raymond,  the  two  journalists  who  were  foremost  in  the 
shaping  of  principles  and  policies,  and  all  the  leaders  in 
the  reform-politics  of  the  time  looked  to  him  not  only  for 
the  eloquent  enforcement  of  courses  laid  out  but  for  wis- 
dom in  preliminary  councils.  The  newspapers  reported 
his  every  word, — in  pulpit,  lecture-room,  prayer-meeting, 
public  assembly,  special  interview  or  casual  street  remark. 
When  we  consider  how  constantly  and  mercilessly  reports 
of  Mr.  Beecher's  utterances  were  put  into  the  public  prints 
— sometimes  correct,  often  erroneous,  and  even  maliciously 
perverted — and  how  unreservedly  he  poured  forth  at  any 
and  all  times  his  honest  thought  or  feeling,  it  is  amazing 
that  so  much  wisdom  should  appear  in  his  history,  and  so 
little  foolishness.  How  many  men  could  endure  such  a 
record, — not  once  or  twice,  or  during  four  years  of  a  presi- 
dential term,  but  for  forty  continuous  years  of  public  life 
at  the  metropolis  of  the  nation?  No  other  human  being 
has  ever  been  put  to  such  a  test.  His  influence,  then,  was 
in  some  sense  atmospheric;  it  passed  from  him,  consciously 
and  unconsciously;  it  spread  abroad,  and  permeated  not 
only  the  great  metropolitan  community  in  which  he  lived 
but  the  country  at  large. 

Those  who  insist  on  a  division  line  between  "sacred" 
and  "  secular  "  things  can  hardly  understand  how  it  should 
be  that  this  man,  to  whom  all  lines  of  life  and  duty  were 
sacred  and  infused  with  the  conscious  inspiration  of  divine 
and  human  love,  could  pass  as  he  did  with  his  church  from 
the  heats  of  the  political  struggle  of  1856  into  a  period  of 
intense  spiritual  and  religious  labor.  His  theories, —  the 
healthfulness  of  enthusiasm,  provided  that  a  proper  varia- 
tion of  its  objects  relieved  the  tension  of  one  line  of  facul- 
ties by  bringing  others  into  play;    the  natural   modes   of 


^V/^'C^^^( 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  9 1 

appropriation  of  the  all-pervasive  influences  of  the  Divine 
Spirit;  and  the  practical  strengthening  effect'  of  such 
"  seasons  of  refreshment "  for  work  in  the  world, — seem 
to  have  received  justification  at  this  time.  From  1857 
to  1859,  Plymouth  Church  enjoyed  a  very  high  state 
of  religious  activity  and  growth;  at  one  time — in  May, 
1858 — as  large  a  number  as  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight  came  into  the  church  on  the  same  Sunday:  and  the 
works  of  beneficence  and  charity  were  proportionally 
increased. 

It  was  in  October,  1859,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  in- 
vited to  deliver  a  lecture  in  Cooper  Institute,  New  York, 
which  he  agreed  to  do  if  he  might  make  it  a  discussion  of 
political  questions.  On  February  27,  i860,  he  made  his 
speech,  and  the  Tribune  of  the  following  day  said:  "No 
man  ever  before  made  such  an  impression  on  his  first  ap- 
peal to  a  New  York  audience."  Mr.  Lincoln  "went  with 
the  multitude"  to  hear  Beecher;  and  naturally  was  not 
only  deeply  interested  in  the  preacher,  but  took  pains  to 
see  him,  and  in  their  social  intercourse  began  a  mutual 
confidence  and  friendship  that  bore  rich  fruit  for  the  nation. 
Mr.  Beecher  became  an  ardent  advocate  of  Lincoln's  nom- 
ination (which  was  made  in  Chicago,  May  16,  i860),  was  a 
potent  force  in  his  election,  and — in  spite  of  his  bombard- 
ments of  the  Administration  on  the  emancipation  question 
in  the  first  two  years  of  war — was  one  of  the  President's 
most  helpful  supporters  during  his  four  awful  years  of 
responsibility. 

On  Thanksgiving  Day,  November  29,  i860,  Lincoln  hav- 
ing been  elected  after  a  campaign  of  unparalleled  intensity 
— in  which,  as  before,  Plymouth  Church  and  its  pastor 
were  forward  in  active,  every-day  furtherance  of  the  doc- 
trines preached  on  Sundays — Mr.  Beecher  made  a  review 
of  the  situation  in  a  discourse  entitled  "  Against  a  Com- 
promise of  Principle  "  (page  224).  In  it,  after  glancing  at 
the  growth  of  Christ's  kingdom  all  over  the  world,  as 
measured  by  the  initiatory  declaration  of  Jesus  that  he 
came  to  teach,  to  heal,  to  deliver,  the  poor  and  the  op- 
pressed— the  people — he  rejoices  at  the  practical  national 


92  HENRY    WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

verdict  against  the  extension  of  slavery  as  declared  in  Lin- 
coln's election,  and  then  appeals  for  manhood  in  the 
maintenance  of  that  position,  not  only  in  spite,  but  even 
because, of  the  threatening  storms: — 

"  It  is  always  safe  to  be  right ;  and  our  business  is  not  so  much 
to  seek  peace  as  to  seek  the  causes  of  peace.  Expedients  are  for 
an  hour,  but  principles  are  for  the  ages.  Just  because  the  rains 
descend  and  winds  blow,  we  cannot  afford  to  build  on  shifting 
sands.  Nothing  can  be  permanent  and  nothing  safe  in  this  ex- 
igency that  does  not  sink  deeper  than  politics  or  money.  We 
must  touch  the  rock,  or  we  shall  never  have  firm  foundations." 

About  a  month  later,  January  4,  1861,  came  a  day  which 
President  Buchanan  appointed  for  national  fasting  and 
humiliation  and  prayer,  beseeching  the  Divine  interference 
in  behalf  of  peace.  Of  course  the  South  and  its  Northern 
allies  charged  all  the  agitations  to  the  fanatical  opponents 
of  slavery.  Mr.  Beecher  preached  a  sermon  entitled  "  Our 
Blameworthiness  "  (page  246),  in  which  he  showed  that 
the  troubles  were  upon  the  nation  because  not  too  much  but 
too  little  had  been  done  for  liberty. 

The  winter  passed;  March  came;  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
inaugurated  president.  The  Southern  leaders  had  already 
found  that  Secession  was  easier  to  plan  than  to  effect,  for 
throughout  the  South  were  many  conservative  Whig  com- 
munities, followers  of  the  earlier  teachings  of  Alexander 
Stephens  and  his  like,  who  sturdily  held  to  the  traditional 
love  for  the  old  Union  and  distrust  of  their  life-long  po- 
litical opponents,  the  Democrats.  The  South  was  not 
"solid,"  at  that  time.  But  whatever  forces  men  into  mut- 
ual association  for  common  interest  does  very  effectively 
solidify  their  action,  and,  by  narrowing  the  channels  of 
thought  and  feeling  to  a  single  line,  unitizes  their  opin- 
ions, for  all  practical  purposes.  To  "  fire  the  Southern 
heart"  and  complete  the  severance  which  had  been  well 
advanced,  Fort  Moultrie  and  Fort  Sumter  were  besieged, 
fired  on,  and  the  gallant  Anderson  with  his  little  force  of 
United  States  troops  forced  to  lower  the  national  flag  and 
march  out.  The  political  contest  between  "  Freedom  and 
Slavery  "  was  at  an  end. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  93 

Division  II. — Civil  War. 

On  Sunday,  April  14,  during  the  siege  of  Sumter,  Mr. 
Beecher  preached  from  the  text:  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto  me  ?  Speak  unto  the 
children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward." — Exod.  xiv.  15. 
The  discourse  has  been  entitled  "The  Battle  Set  in  Array  " 
(page  269),  and  introduces  the  second  division  of  the  Ad- 
dresses, "  Civil  War." 

The  story  of  "  the  uprising  of  a  great  people  "  has  been 
well  and  often  told.  Fort  Sumter  did  a  double  work: 
it  fired  the  Southern  heart,  but  it  also  aroused  the  North- 
ern soul.  Men  were  white  hot  with  indignation;  yet  Mr. 
Beecher's  discourse  of  that  day  shows  a  calm,  rational 
pursuit  of  the  history  of  the  conflict,  a  discriminating  in- 
quiry as  to  the  duty  of  the  North  in  this  crisis,  before  com- 
ing to  his  solemn  appeal  for  steady  determination  and  his 
final  trumpet-blast  of  inspiration  to  "  go  forward  "  in  the 
cause  of  human  liberty. 

After  this,  the  reader  will  find  a  succession  of  discourses 
as  to  men's  duties  during  the  war,  the  titles  of  which  are 
largely  self-explanatory.  And  any  man  who  lived  through 
the  intensities  of  that  time  is  to  be  pitied  if  to-day  he  can 
read,  in  cold  type,  these  appeals  to  the  highest  and  most 
unselfish  feelings  of  the  heart  without  wet  eyes  and  a 
bounding  pulse.  The  discourses  are  as  follows:  "The 
National  Flag," — on  presentation  of  colors  to  two  Com- 
panies of  the  "Brooklyn  Fourteenth  Regiment;  "  "The 
Camp,  its  Dangers  and  Duties," — May,  1861;  "Modes  and 
Duties  of  Emancipation," — November  26,  1861,  setting  forth 
the  declarations  of  Confederate  Vice-President  Stephens 
as  to  Slavery  being  the  "corner-stone  "  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  considering  the  condition  of  the  thousands  of  escaping 
slaves  and  the  probable  results  of  national  emancipation; 
"  The  Success  of  American  Democracy," — April  13,  1862, 
the  anniversary  Sunday  of  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter, — 
one  of  his  felicitous  tracings  of  the  force  of  generic  prin- 
ciples in  the  development  of  events;  "National  Injustice 
and  Penalty," — September  22,    1S62,  just  after  Lincoln's 


94  HENRY   WARD   BEECH ER. 

preliminary  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  and  Suspension 
of  the  Habeas  Corpus, — in  strong  maintenance  of  the  Presi- 
dent's war-powers  and  gratulation  that  at  last  the  Nation 
had  officially  repudiated  the  sin  which  had — by  inevitable 
action  of  physical  and  moral  law  —  evoked  such  terrible 
punishment;  "The  Ground  and  Forms  of  Government," — 
November  22,  1862, — a  philosophical  consideration  of  the 
character  of  peoples  as  the  soil  out  of  which  their  national 
governments  must  and  do  grow,  with  especial  reference  to 
a  maintenance  of  moral  principle  in  the  then  pending 
election  in  the  State  of  New  York;  and,  finally,  "  Liberty 
under  Laws," — December  28,  1862,  while  the  confirmatory 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  expected  from  the 
President, — a  discourse  showing  the  necessity  of  obedience 
to  the  law  of  any  principle,  in  order  to  make  that  principle 
effective,  and  the  responsibilities  of  benevolent  action  for 
the  freedom  of  other  men,  which  are  assumed  by  those  who 
claim  liberty  for  themselves. 

These  few  sermons  do  not  begin  to  indicate  the  conti- 
nuity and  intensity  of  Mr.  Beecher's  active  exertions  during 
the  years  mentioned.  He  was  at  all  times  one  of  the  focal 
points  of  heat  and  light,  vitalizing  the  heart  and  clarifying 
the  vision  of  the  country.  In  the  newspapers,  on  the 
platform,  in  his  own  pulpit  and  lecture-room,  in  social  and 
commercial  and  religious  and  benevolent  and  patriotic  and 
political  gatherings  he  was  to  be  found,  and  always  at 
work.  To  arouse  and  enlighten  the  public  conscience  and 
drive  up  the  official  heads  of  the  nation  to  emancipation, 
and  to  sustain  the  authorities  and  the  army  in  forward- 
ing the  war  to  that  end,  as  the  only  safe  and  permanent, 
because  the  only  just,  foundation  for  peace  between  North 
and  South  —  this  was  his  consuming  desire.  In  many 
powerful  articles  he  urged  emancipation  on  the  President, 
whose  apparent  reluctance  to  follow  this  advice  was  not 
then  fully  understood.  In  the  light  of  later  events,  we 
have  learned,  as  Mr.  Beecher  did,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
willing  and  glad  to  go  just  as  fast  and  as  far  as  he  would 
be  sustained  in  doing  by  public  opinion,  but  no  more; 
and  conscientiously  believed  that  to  be  his  wisest  course. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  95 

Doubtless  he  was  right;  and  yet  it  was  needful  that  there 
should  be  also  such  moral  seers  as  Beecher  to  divine,  and, 
like  flaming  beacons  on  the  headlands,  to  throw  light  upon 
the  course  the  people  must  take. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  Mr.  Beecher  was  worn  out  with  his 
labors,  for  he  had  spared  nothing  of  himself,  and  his  physi- 
cian and  his  Plymouth  people  pushed  him  off  to  Europe  for 
some  months  of  recuperation.  The  narrative  of  this  trip 
in  the  companionship  of  his  friend,  Dr.  John  H.  Raymond, 
then  president  of  Vassar  College,  has  been  told  by  both  of 
them,  and  may  be  found — full  of  beauty  and  interest  and 
refreshment — in  Dr.  Raymond's  "  Life  and  Letters  "  before 
referred  to  (page  40).  It  was  said  at  the  time  that  Mr. 
Beecher  had  been  sent  by  the  Government  to  try  to  influ- 
ence English  opinion;  but  that  was  of  course  untrue.  He 
went  simply  for  rest,  and  in  passing  through  England 
refused  to  speak  there  at  all,  except  at  a  complimentary 
"Breakfast"  tendered  him  by  Congregational  clergymen 
and  laymen  in  London. 

His  mind  about  it  may  be  found  in  the  following  extract 
from  a  private  letter  written  at  Brussels,  Sept.  9,  1863,  just 
before  the  two  friends  started  to  leave  the  Continent: — 

"John  begins  to  feel  homesick.  His  face  is  set  toward  the 
West.  Mine  would  be  also  but  that  I  know  not  what  I  shall 
have  to  do  in  England,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  get  up  a  fever  of 
returning  and  then  find  myself  obliged  to  remain  several  weeks 
longer.  So  I  contrive  not  to  think,  except  at  intervals.  How 
glad  I  shall  be  if  when  in  London  I  find  that  I  need  not  speak! 
In  truth,  my  friend,  I  have  no  heart  for  it.  England  is  selfish 
and  cannot  be  made  to  recognize  it.  Her  opinion  of  us  has  very 
little  value.  We  do  not  need  her,  and  she  is  in  little  danger  of 
going  into  the  fight.  Why  should  we  attempt  to  ameliorate  her 
prejudices  and  to  thrust  unwelcome  truth  down  her  incredulous 
throat?  I  should  not  hesitate  to  pass  on,  refusing  to  speak,  but 
for  one  circumstance.  There  is  a  struggling  band  of  noble  men 
who  from  the  first  have  been  true  to  us  and  are  advocating, 
through  good  report  and  evil  report,  American  ideas  in  England. 
Should  they  say  to  me,  '  You  owe  it  to  true  friends  who  have 
been  faithful  to  you  in  the  darkest  hours,  to  strengthen  their 
hands  and  give  them  whatever  influence  your  presence  may  exert,' 


96  HENRY   HARD  BEECHER. 

I  do  not  see  how  I  could  refuse  to  listen,  and  comply.  But  I  long 
to  get  home.  I  am  well,  have  escaped  my  catarrh,  am  rested, 
and  now  desire  to  go  to  work  again." 

On  his  return  to  England  he  did  speak,  however,  and  all 
the  world  knows  how  and  with  what  effect.  We  have  re- 
produced, as  prefatory  to  his  speeches  in  England,  the 
article  by  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  which  on  Mr. 
Beecher's  return  was  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
January,  1864.  It  is  entitled  "  The  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary,"— a  joke  which,  like  most  of  Dr.  Holmes's  wit,  is 
instinct  with  wisdom  and  truth.  This  article  (page  422)  is 
the  best  description  of  Mr.  Beecher's  extraordinary  triumph 
in  England  that  has  ever  been  published,  and  it  shows  the 
profound  effect  which  his  unauthorized  but  splendidly  au- 
thenticated mission  had,  both  abroad  and  at  home. 

The  public  speeches  at  Manchester,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh, 
Liverpool,  London,  and  those  at  several  farewell  break- 
fasts, follow  next  in  the  volume;  and  it  has  seemed  of 
especial  interest  to  give  also  the  essential  portion  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  own  account  of  the  speeches  (page  640) — not  a 
formal  written  document,  but  an  off-hand  talk  to  friends, 
one  of  whom  had  thoughtfully  provided  the  presence  of 
Mr.  Ellinwood,  for  so  many  years,  before  and  since,  Mr. 
Beecher's  regular  stenographic  reporter. 

Following  this  is  his  address  (page  654)  delivered  after 
his  return  at  the  enthusiastic  home-reception  by  his  fellow 
citizens  of  Brooklyn  (November  19,  1863),  in  which  he 
describes  to  them  how  it  was  that  the  upper  classes  of 
Great  Britain  were  adverse  to  the  Federal  cause  in  the  War 
and  yet  were  restrained  from  unfriendly  action  by  the 
great  heart  of  the  common  people,  who,  although  non- 
voting, exercised  a  strong  influence  upon  the  governing 
and  commercial  classes.  It  is — like  portions  of  his  speeches 
in  England — a  rational  and  affecting  appeal  to  men  to 
"  Put  yourself  in  his  place  "  and  look  at  things  from  other 
people's  point  of  view;  to  see  the  other  side;  to  make 
allowances  for  differing  circumstances  and  consequent 
opinions  and  sentiments;  and  so — in  consonance  with  his 
theological   and   religious   teachings — a  catholic   plea  for 


POLITICAL  CAREER.  97 

liberty  of  opinion  with  harmony  of  feeling.  It  produced 
almost  as  marked  an  effect  on  American  resentment  against 
England,  as  his  efforts  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  did 
upon  English  misunderstanding  and  prejudice  against  the 
North,  during  the  war. 

The  years  1864-5  entailed  less  exhausting  work  upon  Mr. 
Beecher  than  had  been  laid  on  him  in  the  foregoing  years. 
The  re-election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1864  enlisted  his  ar- 
dent efforts;  but  the  tide  of  war  had  turned,  and  moreover 
the  entire  enginery  of  the  North  had  now  become  organized 
and  was  in  regular  operation — socially,  commercially,  fis- 
cally, industrially,  and  in  all  lines  of  material  and  moral 
force — sustaining  the  Government  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Side  currents  there  were,  eddies  of  discontent  and  reaction, 
turbulent  passages  caused  by  temporary  obstructions,  but 
the  great  flood  of  life  in  all  the  Northern  States  flowed 
full  and  strong  in  one  direction.  In  March,  1864,  Congress 
revived  the  grade  of  Lieutenant-General  in  order  to  con- 
fer it  on  Grant,  whose  continued  Western  successes  had 
drawn  all  eyes  upon  him,  and  he  was  brought  to  the  East 
and  put  in  command  of  all  the  armies,  with  especial  con- 
trol of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  which,  down  to  this  time, 
had  done  magnificent  fighting  but  under  generals  who 
allowed  their  victories  to  remain  indecisive  and  fruitless. 

This  now  was  changed,  and  the  battles  of  The  Wilder- 
ness, Spottsylvania,  Five  Forks,  Petersburg,  mark  the 
dreadful,  bloody,  but  irresistible  steps  that  led  to  Appo- 
mattox and  peace.  On  April  9,  1865,  the  Confederate 
army  laid  down  their  arms,  were  paroled  as  prisoners  of 
war,  and  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes.  In  the  "  Life 
of  Robert  E.  Lee"  we  read:  "  The  victors  were  magnani- 
mous ;  they  abstained  from  every  appearance  of  insult 
toward  the  vanquished.  Abundant  victuals  were  distrib- 
uted to  the  prisoners  who  were  dying  of  hunger."  And 
this  was  not  only  the  official  action  of  commanders,  but 
the  Federal  soldiers  themselves,  gallantly  appreciating 
the  gallantry  of  their  recent  foes,  joyfully  fraternized  with 
them,  offering  their  own  rations,  tobacco,  and  good  fellow- 
ship generally. 


98  HENRY   WARD  BEECH EK. 

Of  men  in  responsibility,  perhaps  the  two  who  had 
borne  the  heaviest  burdens  of  care,  and  who  were  person- 
ally most  interested  in  ending  the  rebellion,  were  President 
Lincoln  and  General  Grant.  On  March  28,  occurred  an 
interview  between  the  President  and  Generals  Grant  and 
Sherman,  at  City  Point,  Virginia,  at  which  time  the  two 
soldiers  thought  that  it  would  require  one  more  severe 
battle  to  compel  submission.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  deeply 
moved,  exclaiming  that  there  had  been  blood  enough  shed, 
and  asking  if  it  could  not  be  avoided.  ''That  depends," 
was  the  answer,  "on  Jefferson  Davis  and  General  Lee." 
And  to  General  Sherman*  the  President  said  that  "all  he 
wanted  for  us  was  to  defeat  the  opposing  armies  and  to 
get  the  men  composing  the  Confederate  armies  back  to 
their  homes,  at  work  on  their  farms  and  in  their  shops" 
and  "to  restore  all  the  men  of  both  sections  to  their 
homes."  General  Grant  was  like-minded,  and  upon  Lee's 
surrender  urged  the  disbanding  and  separating  of  the 
rebel  armies.  He  imposed  no  humiliating  conditions,  but 
sent  home  the  disbanded  Southern  men  with  food  and 
seed-corn  and  even  allowed  them  to  take  their  horses  for 
the  working  of  their  farms.  Sherman's  impulses  were  still 
more  generous  in  receiving  the  surrender  of  Johnston's 
North  Carolina  army,  and  Grant  was  sent  to  modify  the 
terms  granted,  making  them  conform  to  those  given  Lee 
at  Appomattox.  In  short,  the  men  who  spent  themselves  in 
fighting  the  rebellion  were  the  first  and  the  freest  in  reconcilia- 
tion with  the  conquered  rebels. 

The  whole  hollow  Confederacy — exhausted  and  emptied 
— now  fell  in.  Among  the  hitherto  resistant  points  was 
the  city  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  where  the  active 
rebellion  began;  now  —  desolated  by  war  and  fire  and 
poverty — it  was  re-occupied,  and  preliminary  to  the  work 
of  restoring  its  obstructed  harbor  and  rebuilding  the  shat- 
tered shores,  the  Government  thought  it  well  to  signal- 
ize the  downfall  of  Secession  and  the  original  treason  of 
attacking  the  national   Hag,  by  formally  raising   the  stars 

♦Memoirs  of  William  T.  Sherman.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
18S3. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  99 

and  stripes  on  the  ruins  of  Fort  Sumter,  whence  they  had 
been  hauled  down  April  14,  1861,  four  years  before.  The 
ceremonies  were  imposing:  all  departments  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  represented,  and  the  governors  of  the  loyal 
States,  with  many  invited  guests  of  eminent  position  or 
influence.  Mr.  Beecher  was  chosen,  as  the  natural  ex- 
ponent of  the  loyal  North,  to  deliver  the  oration  of  the 
day;  Major  (by  that  time,  however,  Major-General)  Robert 
Anderson,  the  gallant  commander  of  Moultrie  and  Sumter 
under  the  "  baptism  of  fire,"  with  his  own  hands  hauled  up 
the  identical  flag  that  had  been  lowered,  and  a  salute  of 
one  hundred  guns  was  fired — participated  in  "from  every 
fort  and  rebel  battery  that  fired  on  Sumter."  Mr.  Beecher's 
oration  (page  676)  is  a  grand  summing  up  of  the  four 
dreadful  years — their  meaning,  their  suffering,  their  achieve- 
ments; the  benefits  accruing  from  the  war  to  the  nation  at 
large,  to  the  North,  to  the  South;  the  lessons  that  had 
been  taught,  and  the  spirit  in  which  should  be  undertaken 
the  new  work  of  "rebuilding  the  republic."  With  this 
address  is  fitly  closed  the  division  of  "Civil  War," — an  era 
of  great  events  that  developed  great  men,  yet  a  period 
during  which  it  is  fairly  within  the  bounds  of  probability 
to  say  that  the  power  exerted  by  the  heart  and  brain  of 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  not  equaled  by  the  merely 
personal  influence  of  any  other  single  man. 

Division  III. — Civil  Liberty. 

On  the  evening  of  the  very  day  in  which  the  nation's  joy 
was  thus  symbolized  and  expressed  at  Sumter,  President 
Lincoln  was  assassinated.  That  was  on  Friday:  on  Tues- 
day the  steamers  brought  the  crushing  news,  and  early 
the  next  day  the  sad  party  were  speeding  northward  again. 
On  Sunday  of  the  following  week  (April  23),  Mr.  Beecher 
made  a  discourse  on  "Abraham  Lincoln."     Said  he: — 

"  Never  did  two  such  orbs  of  experience  meet  in  one  hemi- 
sphere, as  the  joy  and  the  sorrow  of  the  same  week  in  this  land. 
The  joy  of  final  victory  was  as  sudden  as  if  no  man  had  expected 
it,  and  as  entrancing  as  if  it  had  fallen  a  sphere  from  heaven.  It 
rose  up  over  sobriety,  and  swept  business  from  its  moorings,  and 


ioo  HENRY    WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

ran  down  through  the  land  in  irresistible  course.  Men  embraced 
each  other  in  brotherhood,  that  were  strangers  in  the  flesh. 
They  sang,  or  prayed,  or,  deeper  yet,  many  could  only  think 
thanksgiving  and  weep  gladness.     .     .     . 

"  In  one  hour,  under  the  blow  of  a  single  bereavement,  joy  lay 
without  a  pulse,  without  a  gleam,  or  breath.  A  sorrow  came  that 
swept  through  the  land  as  huge  storms  sweep  through  the  forest 
and  field,  rolling  thunder  along  the  sky,  disheveling  the  flowers, 
daunting  every  singer  in  thicket  or  forest,  and  pouring  blackness 
and  darkness  across  the  land  and  upon  the  mountains.  Did  ever 
so  many  hearts,  in  so  brief  a  time,  touch  two  such  boundless  feel- 
ings? It  was  the  uttermost  of  joy;  it  was  the  uttermost  of  sor- 
row ; — noon  and  midnight  without  a  space  between  !  " 

We  have  selected  this  discourse  (page  497)  as  the  open- 
ing address  of  the  division  entitled  "Civil  Liberty,"  be- 
cause in  it  is  to  be  found  recorded  the  sentiment  of  the 
great  President  in  relation  to  the  land  he  died  for,  and 
the  spirit  of  conservative  wisdom  and  Christian  consider- 
ation which  was  shown  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher  as  an  in- 
structor of  the  people  in  the  trying  times  that  followed. 

The  salient  points  were:  Faith  in  American  institu- 
tions; a  determination  to  see  slavery  finally  ended;  and  a 
spirit  of  generous  conciliation  towards  the  vanquished 
South. 

"  The  blow,  however,  has  signally  failed.  The  cause  is  not 
stricken  ;  it  is  strengthened.  This  nation  has  dissolved — but  in 
tears  only.  It  stands,  four-square,  more  solid,  to-day,  than  any 
pyramid  in  Egypt.  This  people  are  neither  wasted,  nor  daunted, 
nor  disordered.  Men  hate  slavery  and  love  liberty  with  stronger 
hate  and  love  to-day  than  ever  before.  The  Government  is  not 
weakened,  it  is  made  stronger.  How  naturally  and  easily  were 
the  ranks  closed  !  Another  stepped  forward,  in  the  hour  that  the 
one  fell,  to  take  his  place  and  his  mantle.  .  .  .  Republican 
institutions  have  been  vindicated  in  this  experience  as  they  never 
were  before.  .  .  .  God,  I  think,  has  said,  by  the  voice  of 
this  event,  to  all  nations  of  the  earth,  '  Republican  liberty,  based 
upon  true  Christianity,  is  firm  as  the  foundation  of  the  globe.' 

"  Even  he  who  now  sleeps  has,  by  this  event,  been  clothed  with 
new  influence.  .  .  .  Men  will  receive  a  new  impulse  of  pa- 
triotism for  his  sake,  and  will  guard  with  zeal  the  whole  coun- 
try which  he  loved  so  well :  I  swear  you,  on  the  altar  of  his  mem- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  ioi 

ory,  to  be  more  faithful  to  the  country  for  which  he  has  perished. 
Men  will,  as  they  follow  his  hearse,  swear  a  new  hatred  to  that 
slavery  against  which  he  warred,  and  which  in  vanquishing  him 
has  made  him  a  martyr  and  a  conqueror :  I  swear  you,  by  the 
memory  of  this  martyr,  to  hate  slavery  with  an  unappeasable 
hatred.  Men  will  admire  and  imitate  his  unmoved  firmness,  his 
inflexible  conscience  for  the  right;  and  yet  his  gentleness,  as  ten- 
der as  a  woman's,  his  moderation  of  spirit,  which  not  all  the  heat 
of  party  could  inflame,  nor  all  the  jars  and  disturbances  of  this 
country  shake  out  of  its  place:  I  swear  you  to  an  emulation  of 
his  justice,  his  moderation,  and  his  mercy." 

These  three  articles  of  faith  were  soon  to  be  put  to  the 
test.  It  is  hardly  necessary  here  to  enter  upon  a  full  dis- 
cussion of  the  theories  that  arose  at  the  end  of  the  war  as 
to  the  "  rebuilding  of  the  republic,"  and  yet  some  note 
must  be  made  of  them  to  understand  the  continuity  of 
Mr.  Beecher's  course,  and  the  first  variance  between  his 
line  of  action  and  that  of  the  Republican  party. 

The  elements  to  be  harmonized  at  that  time  were  many 
and  discordant.     Mr.  Beecher  tersely  says  (page  736): — 

"  President  Lincoln  had  been  assassinated,  and  Johnson  had  as- 
sumed his  place.  The  statesmen  whose  vigor  and  courage  had 
carried  the  country  through  the  civil  war  were  less  adapted  to 
the  delicate  task  of  restoring  the  discordant  States  to  peace  and 
unity  than  they  had  been  to  the  sudden  duties  of  war. 

"In  a  general  way  there  were  two  parties;  one  counseling  a 
speedy  re-adjustment,  and  the  other,  a  longer  probation. 

"  President  Lincoln  and  Governor  Andrew  of  Massachusetts,  in 
the  last  conversations  which  I  had  with  them,  inclined  to  the 
policy  of  immediate  restoration;  and  their  views  had  great  weight 
with  me." 

President  Johnson,  a  man  arisen,  like  Lincoln,  from  the 
"  poor  white  "  class  of  a  border  State,  had  been  a  sturdy 
Tennessee  Unionist  throughout  the  war,  and  had  suffered 
bitterly  from  the  rebellion.  He  hated  secession  and  its 
leaders  with  an  almost  savage  hatred,  and  was  conspicuous 
after  Lincoln's  death  among  those  who  cried  that  "treason 
should  be  made  odious."  He  instituted  the  military  com- 
mission that  tried  the  conspirators  who  compassed  Lin- 
coln's murder,  and  proclaimed  large  rewards  for  the  capt- 


102  HENRY   WARD   BEECH ER. 

ure  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  Confederate  leaders. 
He  even  wished  to  arrest  General  Lee,  but  General  Grant 
sturdily  blocked  that  procedure.  The  President  was  a 
good  man  for  a  fight,  but  a  dangerous  one  for  the  adjust- 
ments of  a  peaceful  settlement. 

Mr.  Johnson,  however,  was  loyal,  not  only  to  the  Union, 
but  also  to  the  plan  for  its  restoration  which  his  great 
predecessor,  Lincoln,  had  mapped  out;  and  upon  this 
he  squarely  planted  himself.  Its  chief  feature  was:  that 
the  seceded  States  should  be  replaced  as  they  had  been, 
except  that  they  should  first,  as  States,  acquiesce  in  the 
abolition  of  slaver}'-,  repudiate  the  rebel  debt,  and  repeal 
the  ordinances  of  secession. 

President  Lincoln  had  already,  a  year  and  a  half  before 
(December,  1863),  issued  a  proclamation  of  pardon  and 
restoration  of  the  rights  of  property  (except  in  slaves)  to 
all  rebels  who  should  abandon  their  purposes  and  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  agreeing  to  abide  by  the  governmental 
acts  and  proclamations  concerning  slavery;  and,  moreover, 
providing  for  a  reorganization  of  any  State  government 
by  not  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  number  of  voters  of  the 
State.     Hi^  views  were  positive  and  clear. 

The  Thirty-eighth  Congress  had  closed  its  session  a 
month  before  the  collapse  of  the  rebellion,  on  March  3, 
1865;  Lincoln's  assassination  was  on  April  14;  the  next 
Congress  was  not  to  assemble  till  December  4:  so  that 
Mr.  Johnson  came  into  the  presidency  during  an  interval. 
The  rebellion  had  suddenly  ceased  to  be;  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  act.  The  constitutional  provisions  which  made  it 
possible  for  the  Government  to  move  steadily  forward,  with- 
out hesitation  or  convulsion, — even  in  the  face  of  such  colos- 
sal events  as  the  instantaneous  silence  of  peace  after  four 
clangorous  years  of  war  and  the  assassination  of  the  head 
of  the  nation  in  the  midst  of  the  protections  of  a  great 
capital, — were  at  the  time  the  wonder  and  admiration  of 
the  world.  And  it  is  right,  in  judging  of  the  acts  of  a  man 
of  Mr.  Johnson's  antecedents  and  nature, — strong  and  hon- 
est as  an  ox,  stubborn  and  vengeful  as  a  mule, — that  we 
should  consider  what  would  naturally  be  the  mental  atti- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  103 

tude  of  one  thus  unexpectedly  placed  in  position  of  great 
responsibility.  Mr.  Lincoln — sagacious  and  patient,  while 
tenacious  of  his  purposes — would  probably  have  assembled 
Congress  in  extra  session;  and,  acting  by  influence  rather 
than  by  authority,  having  the  gratitude  of  the  South  and 
the  confidence  of  the  North,  would  perhaps  have  found 
means  of  letting  Congress  have  their  say  while  they  gave 
him  his  way.  But  some  elation  after  so  sudden  a  rise  was 
natural  to  Mr.  Johnson  or  the  average  man  (Mr.  Lincoln 
was  not  an  average  man);  and  thus  the  new  President 
boldly  accepted  the  responsibility  of  action  and  assumed 
the  power. 

He  issued  an  amnesty  proclamation,  excepting  from  it 
all  who,  after  having  been  civil  or  militar)'  officers  of  the 
United  States,  had  held  office  under  the  so-called  Con- 
federacy. Between  May  29  and  July  13  he  appointed  Pro- 
visional Governors  over  seven  States,  with  instructions  to 
assemble  Constitutional  Conventions  which  should  form- 
ally accept  the  terms  and  conditions  above  mentioned, 
and  then  proceed  to  elect  State  legislators  and  congres- 
sional representatives.  This  was  all  done;  and  the  State 
legislatures  also  elected  their  United  States  Senators,  so 
that  nearly  all  were  ready  to  enter  the  Thirty-ninth  Con- 
gress on  its  assembling,  Dec.  4,  1865. 

The  President's  plan  was  good,  as  far  as  it  went;  but, 
first,  it  was  incomplete,  making  no  provision  for  the  status 
of  the  liberated  slaves;  and,  secondly,  he  made  the  mistake 
of  acting  in  time  of  peace  as  if  under  martial  law,  and  of 
usurping  for  the  Executive  functions  that  belonged  to  the 
Legislative  branch  of  the  United  States  government.  Of 
course  this  instantly  bred  hot  dissatisfaction,  and  the  sum- 
mer of  1865  was  filled  with  cries  of  increasing  dissonance 
throughout  the  North. 

In  October,  shortly  after  returning  to  his  pulpit  from  his 
summer  rest,  Mr.  Beecher  preached  a  discourse  (which  will 
be  found  at  page  713),  entitled,  "Conditions  of  a  Restored 
Union."  In  this,  as  was  usual  with  him,  he  carefully  went 
over  the  antecedent  grounds  of  fact  and  of  principle, — 
in  reference  to  the  war,  the  end  of  the  rebellion,  the  condi- 


104  HENRY   WARD   BEECH ER. 

tion  of  the  South  and  its  people,  white  and  black,  the  Presi- 
dent's ideas  and  acts, — and  then  laid  down  the  lines  along 
which  he  conceived  that  the  country  could  best  be  re- 
united, with  the  most  equitable  and  therefore  the  most 
secure  hope  of  permanent  stability. 

A  few  sentences  selected  from  successive  portions  of  the 
discourse,  although  not  immediately  connected,  may  give 
briefly  the  drift  of  his  thought: — 

"  I  can  scarcely  regard  the  state  of  mind  that  has  existed  for 
years  in  the  South  as  other  than  a  political  insanity,  and  I  cannot 
expect,  nor  ask  you  to  expect,  that  in  one  hour  they  will  get  over 
their  enmities,  their  life-long  prejudices  and  their  humiliation. 
.  .  .  We  are  to  remember  that  convalescence  is  often  slower 
and  longer  than  the  run  of  the  disease  itself." 

"  Nor  are  we  to  demand  a  surrender  of  theories  and  philoso- 
phies as  a  condition  of  confidence  and  trust.  .  .  .  Let  men 
say  that  secession  ought  to  have  been  allowed — if  they  accept  the 
fact  that  it  is  forever  disallowed  by  the  people  of  this  continent." 

"  It  is  said  that  there  should  be  a  spirit  of  humility  on  the  part 
of  the  South,  .  .  .  that  God  does  not  receive  sinners  back  till 
they  are  humbled.  When  you  are  God  you  need  not  receive  your 
brethren  back  till  they  are  humbled." 

"  I  think  that  he  will  be  the  wisest  and  most  politic  statesman 
who  knows  how  to  carry  them  through  this  terrible  and  painful 
transition  with  the  least  sacrifice  of  their  pride,  and  with  the 
greatest  preservation  of  their  self-respect ;  and  if  it  can  be  done 
by  the  generosity  of  the  North,  a  confidence  will  spring  up  at  the 
South  in  the  future  that  will  repay  us  for  the  little  self-sacrifice 
that  we  may  make." 

"  I  am  anxious  that  those  who  have  hitherto  been  most  active 
for  liberty  and  humanity  should  produce  the  first  and  deepest 
impression  on  our  brethren  in  the  South  by  real  kindness;  and  I 
am  very  thankful  that  those  who  have  been  representative  men 
in  the  North,  in  the  main — Gerritt  Smith,  Mr.  Garrison,  and 
others  such  as  they — have  been  found  pleading  for  lenity,  and 
opposed  to  rigor  and  uncharitableness." 

"  It  is  desirable,  on  every  account,  that  the  South  should  be 
restored  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  to  a  participation  in 
our  common  government.  It  is  foreign  to  our  American  ideas 
that  men  should  be  dispossessed  of  civil  rights,  if  we  expect  to 
treat  them  in  any  other  way  than  as  criminals." 

"  But  there  are  some  conditions  precedent." 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  105 

"  It  is  right  that  State  conventions  should  be  required  to 
abolish  slavery,  and  to  assist  in  the  amendment  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  in  that  regard." 

"And  they  must,  in  convention,  not  only  annul  their  act  of 
secession,  but  pronounce  it  to  have  been  ab  initio  void." 

"  I  think  that,  also,  before  the  States  of  the  South  are  re-in- 
stated, these  conventions  should  have  ascertained,  and  prescribed, 
and  established,  the  condition  of  the  freedman.  They  should 
have  established,  first,  his  right  to  labor,  and  to  hold  property, 
with  all  its  concomitants.  They  should  have  established  his 
right  to  labor  as  he  pleases,  where  he  pleases,  and  for  whom  he 
pleases,  and  to  have  sole  and  undivided  the  proceeds  of  his  own 
earnings,  with  the  liberty  to  do  with  them  as  he  pleases,  just  as 
any  other  citizen  does.  They  should  also  have  made  him  to  be 
the  equal  of  all  other  men  before  the  courts  and  in  the  eye  of  the 
law.  He  should  be  just  as  much  qualified  to  be  a  witness  as  the 
man  that  assaults  him.  He  should  be  under  the  protection  of 
the  laws,  with  all  the  opportunities  of  availing  himself  of  their 
benefits  which  any  other  citizen  has." 

"  It  would  have  been  wise,  also,  for  these  conventions  to  have 
given  him  the  right  of  suffrage — for  it  is  always  inexpedient  and 
foolish  to  deny  a  man  his  natural  rights." 

"  I  do  not  think  it  consistent  with  the  nature  of  our  institutions 
for  the  Federal  Government,  in  and  of  itself,  to  attempt  perma- 
nently to  take  care  of  four  millions  of  freedmen  by  military  gov- 
ernment. These  men  are  scattered  in  fifteen  States;  they  are 
living  contiguous  to  their  old  masters ;  the  kindness  of  the  white 
men  in  the  South  is  more  important  to  them  than  all  the  policies 
of  the  nation  out  together.  And  the  best  intentions  of  the  gov- 
ernment will  be  defeated  if  the  laws  that  are  made  touching  this 
matter  are  such  as  are  calculated  to  excite  the  animosity  and 
hatred  of  the  white  people  in  the  South  toward  the  black  people 
there.  I  except  the  single  decree  of  emancipation.  That  must 
stand,  though  men  dislike  it.  A  true  and  wise  statesmanship 
consists  in  conciliating  the  late  masters,  and  persuading  them  to 
accept  the  freedmen  in  a  spirit  of  kindness  and  helpfulness.  Call- 
ing names,  suspecting  motives,  objurgations,  will  not  help  the 
black  man.  President  Johnson  thinks  it  better  that  the  colored 
people  should  receive  their  rights  with  the  consent  of  the  South; 
and  he  waits  for  it,  and  influences  rather  than  commands  ;  and  I 
think  he  is  acting  with  enlightened  judgment." 

"  We  are  to  educate  the  negroes,  and  to  Christianly  educate 
them.     We  are  to  raise  them  in  intelligence  more  and  more,  until 


lo6  HENRY    WARD   B  EEC  HER. 

they  shall  be  able  to  prove  themselves  worthy  of  citizenship. 
For,  I  tell  you,  all  the  laws  in  the  world  cannot  bolster  a  man  up 
so  as  to  place  him  any  higher  than  his  own  moral  worth  and  nat- 
ural forces  put  him." 

"  We  have,  then,  a  heavy  work  before  us.  We  have  a  work  that 
will  tax  our  faith,  and  patience,  and  resources.  But  it  is  a  work 
which  we  may  pursue,  believing  that  He  who  hath  brought  us 
thus  far  in  it  will  carry  us  through  to  the  end." 

If  this  discourse  be  carefully  read,  it  will  be  seen  to  con- 
tain the  essence  of  all  the  guaranties  and  conditions  finally 
effected  after  years  of  renewed  struggle  under  the  Recon- 
struction Acts;  but  it  differed  from  the  position  of  the 
political  leaders  of  the  time  in  that  it  preferred  to  offer 
these  conditions  to  the  Southern  people  for  their  acceptance 
before  inviting  their  participation  in  the  government,  while 
the  Republican  managers  preferred  to  have  Congress  impose 
them,  in  the  guise  of  penalty  for  rebellion.  Mr.  Beecher 
read  human  nature  well.  But  his  "magnanimity"  was 
laughed  at  and  his  position  fiercely  denounced  as  an  aban- 
donment of  the  blacks;  his  forebodings  of  the  alternate 
evil,  however,  were  terribly  realized  in  history. 

For  by  this  time  the  political  passions  of  all  sides  were 
aroused.  The  Republican  leaders,  fearful  lest  the  Presi- 
dent should  commit  irretrievable  blunders,  and  bring  in 
anew  a  Southern  element  which  should  unite  with  the 
Democratic  opposition  of  the  North  and  weaken  their 
power,  were  blind  to  anything  good  in  the  Johnson  plan  or 
man,  and  the  political  press  was  wildly  violent;  the  Anti- 
slavery  element,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  wisest 
and  most  notable  of  the  old-time  leaders,  fearful  lest  the 
fruits  of  their  long  and  bitter  warfare  for  freedom  should 
be  sacrificed  in  the  very  hour  of  victory,  were  with  the 
foremost  in  denunciation  of  the  President  and  all  who 
supported  him.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Johnson, 
made  angry  by  the  outcry,  was  not  only  stubborn  in  hold- 
ing to  what  he  had  done  but  evinced  his  weakness  by  tak- 
ing pains  to  show  disfavor  to  representative  Northerners, 
and  favor  to  Southerners,  who  shrewdly  began  to  pay  court 
to  him.     His  action  was  impolitic  to  the  last  degree.     Yet. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  107 

inborn  and  inbred  prejudices  will  tell,  in  spite  of  reason; 
and  this  "  poor  white,"  whose  whole  life  had  been  a  deter- 
mined struggle  to  rise  in  the  social  scale,  could  not  see  his 
aristocratic  fellow  Southerners  at  his  feet  without  feeling 
the  flattery  of  the  situation,  and  yielding  to  it. 

In  December  Congress  reassembled;  but  while  the  South- 
ern States  had,  as  above  stated,  gone  forward  and  made 
their  preparations  subject  to  the  conditions  demanded  by 
the  President,  under  full  expectation  of  admission  to  the 
national  legislature,  their  representatives  were  met  by 
Congress  with  a  prompt  refusal  of  admission  and  referred 
to  a  committee  on  credentials,  who  kept  them  cooling  their 
heels  and  heating  their  tempers  in  the  lobby;  the  various 
grounds  of  opposition  to  their  entrance  being  the  illegality 
of  the  acts  of  the  Constitutional  Conventions,  of  the  writs 
under  which  the  legislators  and  congressmen  were  elected, 
and  other  proper  points  of  technicality  which  President 
Johnson  and  the  Southern  reorganizers  had  in  their  haste 
overlooked. 

Meantime  the  first  action  of  Congress  (Dec.  18)  was  the 
admirable  one  of  proposing  the  Thirteenth  Amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  by  which  slavery  was  forever  abolished 
and  Congress  given  power  to  enforce  the  provision  by 
appropriate  legislation.  This  was  promptly  ratified  by 
the  requisite  two-thirds  of  all  the  States,  Northern  and 
Southern.  But  the  winter  passed  in  strife,  the  point  of 
keenest  discussion  being  the  condition  of  the  freed  slaves: 
the  President  demanding  that  the  States  should  be  ad- 
mitted, and  allowed  to  regulate  that  themselves;  the  major- 
ity in  Congress  demanding  full  National  protection  to  the 
freedmen  before  any  of  the  States  should  be  readmitted. 
Indeed,  the  contest  now  took  on  the  aspect  of  a  question 
as  to  the  Restoration  or  the  Reconstruction  of  the  Southern 
States. 

But  another  element  was  all  this  time  rising  into  promi- 
nence and  increasing  power,  and  that  was  the  ancient  race- 
prejudice  of  the  Southern  whites  towards  the  blacks,  and 
their  dread — born  of  the  intemperate  contest  between  Pres- 
ident Johnson  and  his  opponents  at  the  North — lest  the 


108  HENRY   WAR  J)   BEECH KR. 

negro  should  be  given  political  power,  or,  as  they  expressed 
it,  "the  bottom  rail  put  on  top."  That  was,  in  effect,  the 
thing  threatened  at  the  North  (for  the  protection  of  the 
negro  and  the  continuance  in  power  of  the  Republican 
party)  and  regarded  at  the  South  with  a  mingled  feeling 
of  terror  and  unutterable  detestation. 

To  get  a  candid  view  of  the  ideas  and  mutual  miscon- 
ceptions that  this  era  bred  in  the  two  peoples — for  the 
South  and  the  North  had  been  educated,  and  still  con- 
tinued, on  two  distinct  and  unrelated  planes  of  political 
and  social  life — one  cannot  do  better  than  read  Judge 
A.  W.  Tourgee's  remarkable  study  of  those  times,  based 
on  his  pwn  experience  and  observation  of  seventeen  years' 
residence  as  a  Northern  man  at  the  South  after  the  war: 
"A  Fool's  Errand;  By  One  of  the  Fools."  Discussing  the 
plans  of  reconstruction,  he  notes  the  fact  that  none  of 
them  took  any  account  of 

"That  strange  and  mysterious  influence  which  ranges  all  the 
way  from  a  religious  principle  to  a  baseless  prejudice,  according 
to  the  stand-point  of  the  observer,  but  always  remains  a  most  un- 
accountable yet  still  stubborn  fact  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
governmental  organisms  of  the  South, —  the  popular  feeling  in 
regard  to  the  African  population  of  that  section.  That  a  servile 
race,  isolated  from  the  dominant  one  by  the  fact  of  color  and  the 
universally  accepted  dogma  of  inherent  inferiority,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  a  very  general  belief  of  its  utter  incapacity  for  the  civiliza- 
tion to  which  the  Caucasian  has  attained,  should  be  looked  on 
with  distrust  and  aversion,  if  not  with  positive  hatred,  as  a  co- 
ordinate political  power,  by  their  former  masters,  would  seem  so 
natural  that  one  could  hardly  expect  men  of  ordinary  intelligence 
to  overlook  it.  That  this  should  arouse  a  feeling  of  very  intense 
bitterness  when  it  came  as  the  result  of  conquest,  and  the  free- 
dom enjoyed  by  the  subject-race  was  inseparably  linked  with  the 
memory  of  loss  and  humiliation  in  the  mind  of  the  master,  would 
seem  equally  apparent.  But  when  to  these  facts  was  added  the 
knowledge  that  whoever  should  advocate  such  an  elevation  of 
the  blacks,  in  that  section,  was  certain  to  be  regarded  as  putting 
himself  upon  their  social  level  in  a  community  where  the  offender 
against  caste  becomes  an  outlaw  in  fact,  it  seems  impossible  that 
the  wise  men  of  that  day  should  have  been  so  blind  as  not  to 
have  seen  that  they  were  doing  the  utmost  possible  injury  to  the 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  109 

colored  race,  the  country,  and  themselves,  by  propounding  a  plan 
of  re-organization  which  depended  for  its  success  upon  the  effect- 
ive and  prosperous  administration  of  State  governments  by  this 
class  [the  negroes]  in  connection  with  the  few  of  the  dominant 
race,  who,  from  whatever  motives,  might  be  willing  to  put  them- 
selves on  the  same  level  with  them  in  the  estimation  of  their 
white  neighbors." 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  not  strange  that  the  rebuffed, 
humiliated,  and  alarmed  Southerners  should  in  their  State 
legislatures  begin  to  make  laws  for  the  practical  subjection 
of  the  freedmen,  who  were  already  talked  of  as  not  only 
freed  but  to  be  made  the  equals  of  their  late  owners,  and 
who,  with  political  power  in  their  hands,  in  places  where 
they  were  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants,  would  becdme  the 
practical  rulers.  The  laws  made  by  the  new  Provisional 
Southern  State  legislatures  were  in  truth  oppressive  and 
unjust  to  this  unfortunate  class,  thus  ground  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstone;  and  were  in  turn  met  in 
Congress  by  the  Civil  Rights  Bill,  which  not  only  declared 
the  blacks  citizens,  with  equal  rights  before  the  law,  but 
provided  many  specifications  looking  to  social  as  well  as 
political  equality  with  the  whites — which  of  course  inten- 
sified the  feeling  tenfold.  The  bill,  vetoed  by  the  Presi- 
dent, was  repassed  over  his  veto  (April  9,  1866),  as  were  the 
Freedman's  Bureau  and  Refugees  Bills.  In  June,  Congress 
proposed  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
providing: — 

(1)  The  citizenship  and  equality  before  the  law  of  all  persons 
born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States ;  (2)  the  apportionment  of 
representation  in  the  Federal  Congress  according  to  the  number 
of  inhabitants  in  each  State  [i.  e.,  counting  all  the  negroes  instead 
of  two-thirds  of  them  as  heretofore,  when  their  masters  voted  on 
them,  as  slaves],  any  abridgment  of  voting  privileges  except  for 
crime  to  reduce  the  representation  proportionately  [a  political 
inducement  not  to  prevent  the  blacks  from  voting] ;  (3)  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  men,  who  had  violated  an  oath  to  support  the  United 
States  Constitution,  from  Federal  or  State  office  until  relieved  of 
this  disability  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  Congress  [practical  dis- 
franchisement of  all  Southern  men  of  promi7ience\ ;  and  (4)  the 
validity  of  the  United  States  debt  and  invalidity  of  the  rebel  debt 
or  any  claim  of  compensation  for  loss  of  slaves. 


no  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

It  was  two  years  (1868)  before  this  amendment  was 
adopted  by  the  requisite  number  of  States,  and  meantime 
the  political  light  raged.  In  August,  1866,  the  sentiment 
of  those  in  the  North  who  for  various  reasons  thought  that 
President  Johnson's  plan  was  the  wiser,  even  though  it  had 
been  unwisely  forwarded  by  him,  and  who  believed  that 
the  quickest  and  most  natural,  and  therefore  the  most  en- 
during, road  to  peace  and  relations  of  mutual  interest  be- 
tween the  negroes  and  the  whites  (who  must  have  the  labor 
of  their  former  slaves)  would  come  by  the  gradual  re- 
adjustment of  industrial,  social,  and  political  conditions 
between  those  elements  themselves,  without  outside  inter- 
ference, took  shape  in  several  conventions  deprecating  the 
policy  of  Congressional  enactments  on  these  matters.  One 
of  these  assemblies  was  convened  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  that 
of  the  "Soldiers  and  Sailors"  (who  having  had  active  share 
in  putting  down  the  rebellion  had  some  opinions  to  offer 
about  the  treatment  of  the  rebels),  and  invited  Mr.  Beecher 
to  act  as  its  Chaplain.  He  could  not  go,  but  on  August  30, 
1866,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Convention,  giving  his  views  on 
the  situation.     It  became  known  as  "the  Cleveland  Letter." 

After  making  several  points: — no  place  for  a  State  under 
our  theory  of  government  except  in  the  Union;  the  in- 
crease of  complication  by  every  month  of  delay;  the  unfit- 
ness of  the  Federal  Government  to  exercise  minor  police 
and  local  restraint;  scorn  of  the  fear  that  the  impoverished 
South  would  again  rule  the  land  if  admitted — he  gave  the 
following  analysis  of  the  position  of  the  freedmen,  for 
whose  freedom  it  must  be  remembered  he  had  spent  the 
chief  power  and  interest  of  his  whole  previous  public  life. 

"The  sooner  we  dismiss  from  our  minds  the  idea  that  the 
freedmen  can  be  classified  and  separated  from  the  white  popula- 
tion, and  nursed  and  defended  by  themselves,  the  better  it  will  be 
for  them  and  us.  The  negro  is  part  and  parcel  of  Southern 
society.  He  cannot  be  prosperous  while  it  is  unprospered.  Its 
evils  will  rebound  upon  him.  Its  happiness  and  re-invigoration 
cannot  be  kept  from  his  participation.  The  restoration  of  the 
South  to  amicable  relations  with  the  North,  the  re-organization 
of  its  industry,  the  re-inspiration  of  its  enterprise  and  thrift,  will 


POLITICAL  CAREER.  m 

all  redound  to  the  freedman's  benefit.  Nothing  is  so  dangerous 
to  the  freedman  as  an  unsettled  state  of  society  in  the  South. 
On  him  comes  all  the  spite,  and  anger,  and  caprice,  and  revenge. 
He  will  be  made  the  scapegoat  of  lawless  and  heartless  men. 
Unless  we  turn  the  Government  into  a  vast  military  machine, 
there  cannot  be  armies  enough  to  protect  the  freedmen  while 
Southern  society  remains  insurrectionary.  If  Southern  society 
is  calmed,  settled,  and  occupied,  and  soothed  with  new  hopes  and 
prosperous  industries,  no  armies  will  be  needed.  Riots  will  sub- 
side, lawless  hangers-on  will  be  driven  off  or  better  governed,  and 
a  way  will  be  gradually  opened  to  the  freedmen,  through  educa- 
tion and  industry,  to  full  citizenship,  with  all  its  honors  and 
duties.     .     .     . 

"  If  the  colored  people  have  the  stamina  to  undergo  the  hard- 
ships which  every  uncivilized  people  has  undergone  in  its  upward 
progress,  they  will  in  due  time  take  their  place  among  us.  That 
place  cannot  be  bought,  nor  bequeathed,  nor  gained  by  sleight  of 
hand.  It  will  come  to  sobriety,  virtue,  industry,  and  frugality. 
As  the  nation  cannot  be  sound  until  the  South  is  prosperous,  so, 
on  the  other  extreme,  a  healthy  condition  of  civil  society  in  the 
South  is  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of  the  freedmen." 

Let  any  man  read  that  letter;  then  ponder  the  demoniac 
madness  developed  in  the  South  during  the  years  that 
followed,  when  the  Ku-Klux  Rebellion  gradually  took 
form  against  what  the  Southerners  deemed  a  wanton  in- 
tention to  humiliate  and  degrade  them,  and,  increasingly, 
against  the  rise  of  the  negroes  to  political  power  not  only 
of  votes  but  of  office, — the  days  when  the  few  steadfast  and 
intelligent  Unionists  of  Northern  and  Southern  birth  who 
undertook  to  guide  the  movement  at  the  South  were  over- 
whelmed by  the  mass  of  ignorance  and  rapacity  that  took 
possession  of  legislatures  and  governing  positions,  and 
who  made  the  name  of  the  "  Carpet-Bag  Governments  "  a 
badge  of  shameless  robbery.  Let  him  then  read  the  sec- 
ond of  these  "Cleveland  Letters,"  (page  742)  addressed  by 
Mr.  Beecher  to  his  church,  through  one  of  its  members, 
replying  to  the  excited  letters  and  protests  that  came 
pouring  in  upon  him  from  all  about, — a  letter  that  reaffirms 
the  first,  but  with  more  elaborate  reasoning  and  explana- 
tion, and  with  a  distinct  repudiation  of  the  absurd  violence 
and  "  increasing  indiscretions  "  of  President  Johnson,  who 


M2  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

in  the  mean  time  had  been  "swinging  round  the  circle" 
with  wild  speeches  and  almost  frantic  denunciations  of  all 
who  took  the  right  of  differing  from  what  he  called  "my 
policy."  Looking  at  Mr.  Beecher's  prophetic  utterances 
and  their  striking  verification,  the  reader  must  be  struck 
with  the  clear-eyed  foresight  of  political  conditions  and 
after-developments,  and  also  with  the  masterly  quietude  of 
a  great  man's  spirit  in  the  midst  of  turbulence  and  peril — 
not  physical  danger,  but  the  greater  evils  of  disruption 
in  friendly,  social,  political,  and  ecclesiastical  ties,  that 
threatened  him. 

As  this  point  marks  real  divergence  between  Mr.  Beecher 
and  his  party — although  he  continued  to  act  with  them 
because  their  aims  and  general  direction  were  more  nearly 
his  own  than  were  those  of  the  other  party — it  is  worth 
while  to  bring  out  a  little  more  clearly  his  position;  not 
that  it  is,  or  was,  at  all  questionable,  if  men  would  judge 
him  by  his  own  utterances,  but  that  their  partisan  blind- 
ness made  his  critics  incapable  of  seeing  two  sides  to  a 
question. 

In  his  second  letter  Mr.  Beecher  says  (we  italicize  some 
phrases) : — 

"  Upon  the  assembling  of  Congress  [Dec,  1865]  I  went  to  Wash- 
ington. I  found  Southern  men  lying  prostrate  before  Mr.  Johnson, 
and  appealing  to  his  tender-heartedness, — for  he  is  a  man  of 
kind  and  tender  heart, — disarming  his  war-rage  by  utter  submis- 
sion. I  found  Northern  men  already  uttering  suspicions  of  his 
fidelity,  and,  conscious  of  power,  threatening  impeachment.  The 
men  who  seemed  alive  to  this  danger  were,  unfortunately,  not 
those  who  had  the  management  of  affairs.  Bad  counsels  pre- 
vailed. The  North  denounced  and  the  South  sued :  we  fee  the  con- 
sequences. 

"  Long  after  I  despaired  of  seeing  the  President  and  Congress 
harmonious,  I  felt  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  good  men  to  leave  no 
influences  untried  to  lessen  the  danger  and  to  diminish  the  evils 
which  are  sure  to  come  should  the  President,  rebounding  from 
the  Republicans,  be  caught  by  those  Northern  men  who  were  in 
sympathy  and  counsel  with  the  South  throughout  the  war.  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  apportion  blame  where  both  sides  erred.  It 
is  enough  to  say  that  unity  secured  at  the  seat  of  Government 
would  be  a  noble  achievement  of  leadership. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  1 13 

"Deeming  the  speedy  admission  of  the  Southern  States  as 
necessary  to  their  own  health,  as  indirectly  the  best  policy  for 
the  freedmen,  as  peculiarly  needful  to  the  safety  of  our  Govern- 
ment, which,  for  the  sake  of  accomplishing  a  good  end,  incautious 
men  are  in  danger  of  perverting,  I  favored,  and  do  still  favor,  the 
election  to  Congress  of  Republicans  who  will  seek  the  early  admis- 
sion of  the  recusant  States.  Having  urged  it  for  a  year  past,  I 
was  more  than  ready  to  urge  it  again  upon  the  Representatives  to 
Congress  this  fall. 

" /;/  this  spirit  and  for  this  end  I  drew  tip  my  Cleveland  letter. 
I  deem  its  views  sound;  I  am  not  sorry  that  I  wrote  it.  I  regret 
the  misapprehension  which  it  has  caused,  and  yet  more  any  sor- 
row which  it  may  have  needlessly  imposed  upon  dear  friends. 
As  I  look  back  upon  my  course,  /  see  no  deviation  from  the 
straight  line  which  I  have  made,  without  wavering,  for  now  thirty 
years  in  public  life,  in  favor  of  justice,  liberty,  and  the  elevation  of 
the  poor  and  ignorant." 

And  to  show  how  serenely  he  viewed  the  whole  affair, 
while  hundreds  thought  him  ruined  forever  because  he 
dared  differ  from  the  other  opinion-shapers  of  the  party 
and  from  the  majority  of  his  own  friends,  this  paragraph 
is  apt : — 

"  The  attempt  to  class  me  with  men  whose  course  I  have  opposed 
all  my  life  long  will  utterly  fail.  /  shall  choose  my  own  place, 
and  shall  not  be  moved  front  it.  I  have  been  from  my  youth  a 
firm,  unwavering,  avowed,  and  active  friend  of  all  that  were  op- 
pressed. I  have  done  nothing  to  forfeit  that  good  name  which  I 
have  earned.  I  am  not  going  weakly  to  turn  away  from  my  settled 
convictions  of  the  public  weal  for  fear  that  bad  men  may  praise 
me  or  good  men  blame.  There  is  a  serious  difference  of  judgment 
between  men  as  to  the  best  policy.  We  must  all  remit  to  the 
future  the  decision  of  the  question.     Facts  will  soon  judge  us." 

In  a  private  letter  written  by  Mr.  Beecher  about  the  time 
of  the  foregoing  controversy,  recently  published  in  the 
Christian  Union  in  its  report  of  a  day  of  "  Beecher  reminis- 
cences "  held  this  summer  (1887)  in  Litchfield,  Connecti- 
cut, appears  the  following: — 

"  I  desire  that  the  constitutional  amendments  proposed  should 
all  be  passed,  except  that  of  disfranchisement,  which  I  think 
needless,  as  Congress  has  power  to  reject  any  who  are  sent  from 
the  South  who  are  disloyal.     To  oblige  the  South  to  disfranchise 


H4  HENRY    WARD  BEECH ER. 

their  most  trusted  and  honored  men  is  an  unnecessary  humili- 
ation; and  to  use  the  Constitution  as  a  mere  criminal  law  to 
punish  men  with,  to  foist  into  it  provisions  to  meet  a  transient 
exigency,  is  to  set  a  dangerous  example  and  pervert  our  funda- 
mental law  for  no  good  end.  ...  I  believe  that  the  great 
body  of  the  American  people  of  the  South,  who  are  honest  and 
have  been  misled,  would  have  come  back  with  a  sense  of  gratitude 
for  the  leniency  with  which  they  had  been  treated.  Now,  they 
are  in  danger  of  feeling  that  they  have  been  trodden  down  by 
their  conquerors." 

In  corroboration  of  this  forecast  read  the  words  of  the 
author  of  "A  Fool's  Errand"  (written  and  published  in 
1879),  who  certainly  will  never  be  charged  with  an  undue 
partiality  for  Southern  views,  but  who  does  show  a  remark- 
able power  of  understanding  what  he  does  not  accept,  and 
who  speaks  thus  of  the  disfranchisement  of  the  leaders: — 

"  Among  the  peculiarities  which  marked  the  difference  between 
Northern  and  Southern  society  was  one  so  distinct  and  evident, 
one  which  had  been  so  often  illustrated  in  our  political  history, 
that  it  seems  almost  impossible  that  shrewd  observers  of  that  his- 
tory should  for  a  moment  have  overlooked  or  underestimated  it. 
This  is  the  influence  of  family  position,  social  rank,  or  political 
prominence.  Leadership,  in  the  sense  of  a  blind,  unquestioning 
following  of  a  man,  without  his  being  the  peculiar  exponent  of  an 
idea,  is  a  thing  almost  unknown  at  the  North:  at  the  South  it 
is  a  power.  Every  family  there  has  its  clientelage,  its  followers, 
who  rally  to  its  lead  as  quickly,  and  with  almost  as  unreasoning 
a  faith,  as  the  old  Scottish  clansmen,  summoned  by  the  burn- 
ing cross.     .     .     . 

"  It  [disfranchisement]  was  a  fatal  mistake.  The  dead  leader 
has  always  more  followers  than  his  living  peer.  Every  hench- 
man of  those  lordlings  at  whom  this  blow  was  aimed  felt  it  far 
more  keenly  than  he  would  if  it  had  lighted  on  his  own  cheek. 
The  king  of  every  village  was  dethroned;  the  magnate  of  every 
cross-roads  was  degraded.  Henceforward,  each  and  every  one 
of  their  satellites  was  bound  to  eternal  hostility  toward*these 
measures  and  to  all  that  might  result  therefrom."     .     .     . 

"Time  went  on;  and,  twelve  years  from  the  day  when  Lee 
surrendered  under  the  apple  tree  at  Appomattox,  there  was  an- 
other surrender,  and  the  last  of  the  governments  organized  under 
the  policy  of  reconstruction  fell  into  the  hands  of  those  who  had 
inaugurated  and  carried  on  war  against  the   Nation,  who  had 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  115 

openly  opposed  the  theory  of  reconstruction,  had  persistently 
denied  its  legality  or  the  binding  nature  of  its  promises,  and  had 
finally,  with  secret,  organized  violence,  suppressed  and  neutral- 
ized the  element  on  which  it  had  depended  for  support." 

In  brief,  the  political  power  given  to  the  blacks  over  the 
heads  of  the  whites  resulted,  first,  in  a  chaos  of  misgovern- 
ment;  then  in  a  new  rebellion  which  annihilated  the  blacks 
as  a  political  element,  and  solidified  the  whites.  When 
that  had  been  effected,  came  peace;  not  instantly  but  grad- 
ually. The  blacks,  no  longer  feared,  were  at  first  tolerated, 
then  their  value  as  an  inseparable  element  of  the  commu- 
nity began  to  tell,  and  by  degrees  the  natural  development 
of  self-interest  had  its  opportunity  in  solving  the  question 
of  the  common  citizenship  of  the  two  races. 

Now,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  we  can  appreciate  how 
the  processes  which  have  latterly  advanced  so  far  in  har- 
monizing the  heterogeneous  elements  of  Southern  life  (to 
quote  Mr.  Beecher's  prophetic  phrase,  "  occupation,  new 
hopes,  prosperous  industries,  education,")  are  at  last  hav- 
ing their  normal  effect:  not  perfectly, — for  even  the  North 
is  not  yet  in  all  respects  perfect  in  the  smooth  working  of 
its  political,  judicial,  monetary,  industrial,  and  varied  cor- 
porate organisms! — but  hopefully. 

Passing  on,  then,  from  this  important  phase  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  public  ministrations,  we  may  rapidly  review  the 
next  decade,  during  which  the  Congressional  scheme  of 
Reconstruction  was  doing  its  work,  for  good  and  evil,  and 
Mr.  Beecher  retained  his  connection  with  the  Republican 
party,  and,  with  the  lapse  of  conflict  (for  he  never  was  an 
"  irreconcilable,"  and  despised  controversy  that  had  no  prac- 
tical end  in  fair  view),  regained  his  influence  in  all  directions. 
He  had  not,  in  the  slightest  degree,  given  any  reason  to 
think  that  he  wished  to  go  over  to  affiliation  with  the  pro- 
slavery  "Copperhead"  Democracy  of  that  time,  but  lie 
had  with  might  and  main  striven  to  hold  the  Republican 
party  and  the  President  together,  and  to  carry  out  the 
restoration  of  the  Union  according  to  the  spirit  and  plan  of 
the  lamented  Lincoln  and  that  which  his  own  broad  mind 
and  generous  heart  told  him  was  the  simpler,  safer,  speed- 


n6  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

ier  way — of  consulting  the  facts  of  human  nature.  The 
effort  had  failed,  by  reason  of  strenuous  wills  attempered 
to  war  and  incapable  of  sudden  change  to  the  sagacity  of 
peaceful  counsels.  lie  quietly  left  the  arena,  and  held  his 
peace.  He  was  not  one  who  insisted  that  his  way  was  the 
only  way:  he  recognized  the  patriotism,  and  ability,  and 
wisdom  of  the  majority  of  his  party's  leaders,  and,  while  he 
felt  that  they  were  taking  the  longest  road,  he  loyally  ac- 
cepted the  route  chosen  and  made  the  best  of  the  good  he 
found  in  it.  In  his  church  his  influence  had  not  been 
seriously  shaken.  His  remarkable  power  of  indignation 
and  even  invective,  when  roused  by  an  infraction  of  the 
rights  of  others,  was  never  used,  or  even  suggested  by 
any  expression  or  phrase,  when  his  own  liberty  of  action 
was  assailed.  He  had  trained  his  people  to  independent 
thought  and  expression  of  opinion,  and,  while  his  sensibili- 
ties were  undoubtedly  hurt  by  many  intemperate  and 
harsh  words  from  partisans  during  the  heat  of  the  contest, 
he  spoke  none  himself,  but  with  steady,  sweet-tempered 
dignity  kept  his  hold  both  on  their  respect  and  their  love. 
And  after  the  cloud  had  passed  they  felt  a  little  ashamed, 
— not  of  their  opinions,  but  of  the  way  in  which  they  had 
expressed  them. 

The  next  of  the  "Patriotic  Addresses"  is  a  discourse 
on  "National  Unity,"  preached  in  Plymouth  Church,  Nov. 
18,  1869  (Thanksgiving  Day).  It  is  a  large  view  of  the 
possibilities  of  feuds  and  disintegration  in  our  vast  coun- 
try; discussing  the  disturbing  influences, — immigration, 
religious  sectarianism,  long  continued  physical  prosperity, 
and  clashing  of  commercial  interests  between  various  sec- 
tions (especially  Eastern  and  Western),  and  also  the  hope- 
ful elements, — intelligence  (and  its  spread  by  religious 
discussion,  books,  and  newspapers),  the  common-schools 
(and  the  need  of  keeping  them  free,  and  especially  the 
growing  necessity  of  making  them  unsectarian),  and  a  sin- 
gle political  agency,  the  constitutional  Rights  of  the  States 
(to  secure  wise  local  administration  and  maintain  the 
dignity  and  power  of  National  Sovereignty).  It  is  a  noble 
and  most  suggestive  discourse,  and  in  its  discussion  of  un- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  117 

sectarian  common-schools,  and  of  the  rights  of  the  States, 
shows  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  Constitution  Snd  of 
the  true  principles  of  our  Federal  government  as  inter- 
preted since  then  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  1868  General  Grant  had  been  elected  President,  enter- 
ing upon  his  office  in  March,  1869,  and  in  1873  upon  his 
second  term.  In  both  the  political  campaigns  of  Grant's 
election,  Mr.  Beecher  took  hearty  interest  and  with  helpful 
effect.  The  nullification  of  the  colored  vote  at  the  South 
resulted  in  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
proposed  by  Congress  in  1869  and  adopted  by  the  States 
in  March,  1870,  providing  that  the  right  of  suffrage  should 
not  be  withheld  from  any  citizen  of  the  United  States 
"on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude." Political  affairs  at  the  South  continued  unsettled, 
but  gradually  quieted  down  as  the  whites  regained  ascen- 
dency. They  seem  to  have  passionately  shut  their  eyes  to 
all  consideration  of  growth  in  industrial  or  commercial 
advancement,  and  to  have  retarded  their  own  interests  for 
ten  or  fifteen  years  to  accomplish  that  one  point.  It  is  in- 
comprehensible to  us  of  the  North;  yet  so  it  stands. 

Meanwhile  new  dangers  were  threatening  the  country. 
The  colossal  development  of  moneyed  interests  during  and 
since  the  war  had  bred  an  intense  spirit  not  only  of  enter- 
prise but  of  speculation  throughout  the  North.  Railroad 
building  and  all  forms  of  manufacturing  and  of  com- 
merce were  feverishly  active.  "  Money  "  was  plentiful,  for 
paper-mills  and  the  Government  printing-presses  turned 
out  "greenbacks"  bearing  the  name  of  the  Dollar  but 
passing  for  very  much  less  than  the  golden  reality. 
Congress,  inflamed  with  the  craze  of  the  times,  was  in- 
clined to  perpetuate  this  baseless  monetary  system,  which 
had  brought  such  "prosperity;"  but  Grant  courageously 
vetoed  the  bill  and  gave  some  sensible  counsel.  In  1873 
the  bubble  burst,  in  an  awful  collapse  of  financial  institu- 
tions all  over  the  land;  and  the  lesson  was  a  severe  one. 
In  1875  Congress  patriotically  and  wisely  passed  the  Re- 
sumption Act,  to  take  effect  Jan.  1,  1879,  by  which  the 
Government  was  to  go  back  to  specie  payments.     The  day 


Il8  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

after  Grant  signed  the  bill  the  premium  on  gold  began  to 
diminish  (/.  e.,  greenbacks  began  to  appreciate)  and,  with 
wise  management  by  the  United  States  Treasury,  on  the 
appointed  day  the  premium  had  disappeared  and  the  Gov- 
ernment's promises  to  pay  were  worth  their  face.  This  was 
not  accomplished  without  agitation,  discussion,  wild  theo- 
ries, passionate  debate,  and  organized  political  resistance: 
and  through  it  all  Mr.  Beecher  gave  his  constant  influence 
by  pen  and  tongue  in  favor  of  sound  currency,  and  sober 
restraint  of  the  extravagances,  public  and  private,  engen- 
dered by  the  era  of  speculation. 

On  Thanksgiving  Day,  Nov.  30,  1S76,  he  made  a  "Cen- 
tennial Review"  of  the  nation's  life  (page  772),  with  a 
philosophic  consideration  of  the  effects  of  the  two  great 
wars  of  our  history — the  Revolution  and  the  Civil  War, 
and  especially  the  latter,  on  different  portions  of  the  coun- 
try; and  he  says: — 

"  Instead  of  applying  a  rigorous  ideal  moral  standard  in  form- 
ing a  judgment,  let  us  ask  what  was  to  have  been  expected  of  our 
people  judged  by  the  tendency  of  ordinary  human  nature  in  such 
conditions  as  existed  at  the  end  of  this  war.  We  shall  then  be 
able  to  judge  whether  this  should  be  a  fast  day  or  a  day  of 
thanksgiving." 

He  says  some  pretty  severe  things  about  both  North 
and  South,  but  his  general  conclusions  are  most  hopeful. 
The  special  topic  was  the  duty  of  good  citizens  in  the  midst 
of  the  exciting  contested  Presidential-election  dispute  be- 
tween the  supporters  of  Hayes  and  of  Tilden,  the  election 
having  been  held  some  weeks  previously,  and  the  cries  of 
conflict  over  the  result  being  then  loud  and  furious.  The 
Republicans  charged  the  Democrats  with  frauds  at  the 
Southern  polls,  and  the  Democrats  charged  the  Republi- 
cans with  fraud  in  the  Southern  counting  of  votes:  both 
claimed  the  election. 

Mr.  Beecher  firmly  declared  his  belief  in  the  Republican 
theory  of  this  contest,  but  his  counsel  was  for  peaceful 
submission  of  the  matter  to  the  legal  authorities  and  an 
Americanlike  acceptance  of  the  decision,  whatever  it 
might  be. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  119 

His  historical  illustrations  and  precedents  were  exceed- 
ingly interesting,  his  patriotic  confidence  in  American 
institutions  was  reassuring,  and  the  lofty  plane  of  political 
morality  to  which  he  raised  the  whole  distressing  and 
alarming  contest  was  inspiring  to  the  thousands  who  heard 
him  and  the  tens  of  thousands  who  read  his  words.  It  was 
a  valuable  lesson  in  the  principles  of  civil  liberty. 

Among  the  interests  that  had  leaped  to  enormous  pros- 
perity and  consequent  power  during  the  recent  years  was 
that  of  silver  mining.  To  such  an  extent  had  the  output  of 
that  metal  increased  that  it  began  to  own  States  and  legis- 
latures, and  to  send  its  representatives  and  senators  to  Con- 
gress. It  was,  properly,  looked  upon  as  an  interest  of  great 
value  to  the  land,  but  like  every  other  one  that  by  monop- 
oly gathered  strength  it  swelled  with  selfishness  and  conceit. 
Silver  was  the  great  American  product,  and  the  rest  of  the 
land  and  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  must  bow  down  before 
it.  The  insanity  of  attempting  to  satisfy  the  European 
capitalists,  who  had  lent  us  gold  on  our  bonds  and  enabled 
us  to  put  through  the  war,  by  repaying  them  in  our  depre- 
ciated "greenbacks"  had  passed;  and  indeed,  as  the  bonds 
were  to  be  paid  in  "coin,"  could  not  have  been  seriously 
proposed  to  the  world.  But  is  not  silver-money  "coin"? 
And  is  it  not  peculiarly  our  American  coin  ?  So  the  bloated 
bondholders  should  be  paid  in  silver,  although  the  silver 
dollar  could  not  be  exchanged  for  the  gold  dollar,  even  in 
our  own  land. 

At  the  crisis  when  this  specious  dishonesty  was  advocated 
throughout  the  country,  started  by  selfish  monopolists 
but  taken  up  by  feather-brained  theorists  and  managing 
politicians,  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  voice  again  rang  out 
in  warning.  His  sermon  on  "  Past  Perils  and  the  Peril  of 
To-day"  (November  29,  1877)  will  be  found  at  page  789, 
fitly  exposing  the  dangers  of  this  "  suppressed  repudia- 
tion." 

In  1878  occurred  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  the  ninth 
annual  reunion  of  the  "  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac," an  association  of  officers  banded  together  to  keep 
green  the  memory  of  "  the  brave  days  of  old,"  of  gallant 


120  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

comrades  gone,  of  friendships  fused  in  the  heat  of  war  and 
still  sound  and  vibrant  with  the  true,  ring;  an  organization 
that  has  never  demeaned  itself  by  descending  from  the 
plane  of  patriotism  to  that  of  "practical  politics."  Mr. 
Beecher  was  invited  to  address  the  Reunion,  and  his  speech 
will  be  found  at  page  809.  The  value  of  the  services  of  the 
army  in  the  trying  times  of  Rebellion  gave  him  a  natural 
point  for  passing  to  a  consideration  of  the  worth  of  mili- 
tary training,  and  the  maintenance  of  military  organizations 
and  a  regular  army  among  a  free  people;  and  especially  in 
this  country,  where  the  liberty  of  discussion  is  at  times  likely 
to  degenerate  into  the  violence  of  riotous  reformers  and  dis- 
turbances of  the  social  order.  He  spoke  of  the  sources  of 
danger  in  our  rapidly  increasing  population,  resources,  and 
political  power,  the  development  of  machinery,  the  growth 
of  the  means  of  transportation,  the  combinations  of  capital 
and  enormous  concentrations  of  individual  and  corporate 
wealth,  the  relations  of  money  to  politics  and  legislation, 
the  beginnings  of  the  socialistic  movements  among  the 
working  classes  coincident  with  the  extraordinary  increase 
of  power  among  the  classes  who  employ  them.  These  and 
other  elements  of  the  immediate  future  or,  as  he  expressed 
it, "  the  next  score  of  years,"  served  as  his  themes  of  dis- 
course. 

Ten  years  have  passed  since  he  uttered  the  words,  and 
the  reader  will  find  in  them  a  prophetic  portrait  of  our 
American  social,  financial,  and  political  condition,  as  ac- 
curate as  if  made  to-day.  As  General  Hooker  said,  when 
he  was  called  on  for  a  speech,  following  it: — 

"  That  address  was  good  enough  to  last  a  long  time.  Study  its 
lessons,  and  digest  them.  I  doubt  if  more  home  truths  can  be 
found  in  any  discourse  of  the  same  length  since  the  records  of 
this  country  began." 

The  next  and  last  phase  of  Mr.  Beecher's  political  activ- 
ity that  demands  our  attention  is  the  presidential  cam- 
paign of  1884.  That  episode  is  too  near,  and  its  disputed 
points  are  still  too  much  questioned,  for  any  one  to  hope 
to  make  an  impartial  account  of  it  which  shall  commend 
itself  to  partisan  readers  of  either  side  as  fair  and  candid. 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  121 

Yet  it  must  be  attempted,  in  justice  to  the  general  theme; 
for,  whether  Mr.  Beecher  was  wise  or  unwise  in  the  part 
he  took  is  aside  from  our  proposition, — namely,  that  his 
career  from  beginning  to  end  was  guided  by  unselfish  principle, 
and  was  consistently  that  of  a  lover  of  God  and  of  man. 

Since  the  Reconstruction  wrangle  of  1865-6,  eighteen 
years  had  passed — more  than  half  the  life  of  a  generation. 
The  administrations  of  Johnson,  Grant  (twice),  Hayes, 
Garfield,  and  Arthur  had  successively  entered  into  history. 
The  Southern  States  were  all  represented  in  the  National 
Congress,  and,  since  the  years  of  Ku-Klux  and  Bulldozer, 
had  gone  also  those  of  the  "tissue-ballot  "  and  the  skillful 
"count"  which  quietly  but  no  less  effectually  maintained 
a  nullification  of  the  Reconstruction  governments  that  had 
given  the  blacks  the  political  control.  The  sight  of  their 
harmless  voting  had  become  little  By  little  a  familiar  one, 
and  no  longer  aroused  the  old-time  horror  and  detestation; 
but,  inevitably,  intelligence  ruled  ignorance,  and  their  votes 
gave  them  but  little  power.  Yet  it  was  a  wholesome  thing 
to  have  the  rising  generation  at  the  South  accustomed  to 
the  idea  and  the  fact;  it  was  preparing  for  the  further 
changes  that  were  to  come.  The  whites  were  growing  out 
of  their  unreasoning  passion;  the  blacks  were  slowly  train- 
ing for  real  citizenship.  Their  existence  as  men,  and  as 
free  industrial  and  political  factors,  was  little  by  little  rec- 
ognized and  acted  upon. 

The  philanthropic  efforts  of  Northern  givers  and  teach- 
ers were  gradually  regarded  with  less  suspicion  at  the 
South,  and  the  negroes  began  to  be  taught  and  to  learn. 
The  necessity  for  their  labor  on  Southern  lands  grew  not 
less  but  greater;  and  by  degrees  they  were  taking  their 
places  as  fellow-laborers  alongside  of  the  whites — who  had 
been  forced  to  learn  the  bitter  lesson,  "  he  that  will  not 
work  neither  shall  he  eat."  The  leaven  of  industry  was 
permeating  the  entire  mass  of  social  order  at  the  South. 
A  new  generation  was  coming  up,  who  had  been  reared 
not  in  luxury  but  in  labor.  Brains  among  the  blacks  were 
beginning  to  assert  their  power,  and  not  only  could  there 
be  seen  white  men  and  negroes  working  side  by  side   in 


122  HENRY  WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

the  fields  or  at  bricklaying  and  carpentering  and  other 
trades,  but  colored  bosses  had  charge  of  white  or  mixed 
groups  of  laborers,  and  colored  contractors  were  making 
money  and  acquiring  property.  Common -school  educa- 
tion was  making  headway  for  both  races;  and  even  such 
exceptional  establishments  as  General  Armstrong's  Hamp- 
ton Institute,  devoted  to  the  training  of  negroes  and  In- 
dians, more  and  more  won  and  received  the  kindly  appre- 
ciation of  the  Southern  people.  In  a  word:  the  imposed 
political  order  having  been  successfully  overthrown  by  the 
whites,  roused  to  fury  by  the  insult  to  their  fetich  of  white 
supremacy,  and  their  land  "redeemed,"  they  had  subsided 
into  the  condition  of  ordinary  human  beings,  and  the  play 
of  normal  elements  and  interests  began  to  have  its  just 
effect.  As  the  land  grew  quiet  its  splendid  natural  re- 
sources attracted  enterprise  and  capital.  Manufactures 
began  to  appear  and  grow;  crops  were  more  varied  and 
valuable;  the  South  began  to  take  on  new  and  hopeful 
conditions. 

Through  all  these  years,  however,  politically,  the  whites 
had  been  almost  solidly  "  Democratic,"  simply  because 
the  negroes  and  those  who  represented  Reconstruction- 
ism  were  solidly  "Republican."  All  other  issues  were 
"pooled"  in  that  one.  Of  course  it  was  not  a  healthful 
political  condition,  either  for  the  Southern  communities  or 
for  the  nation  at  large;  since,  whatever  other  questions  of 
public  policy  were  before  the  people — as  to  tariff,  cur- 
rency, bond-paying,  taxation,  foreign  relations,  or  what 
not — all,  even  when  mentioned  in  the  party  platforms, 
were  nevertheless  relegated  to  comparative  obscurity. 
The  main  question  at  the  South  was  how  to  defeat  the 
Republican  party,  that  had  turned  their  communities  bot- 
tom side  up;  and,  at  the  North,  how  to  maintain  in  power 
the  Republican  party,  that  had  saved  the  Union,  protected 
the  Negro,  and  successfully  reconstructed  the  Southern 
States.  It  was  a  double  case  of  fetich.  Each  section 
honestly  believed  that  the  rule  of  the  party  it  opposed 
meant  the  country's  ruin. 

It  was  the  less  reasonable,   on  both  sides,  because  the 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  123 

Republican  party  of  the  Civil  War  had  been  largely  com- 
posed of  the  loyal  men  from  all  shades  and  names  of 
political  partisanship — not  only  Whigs,  but  also  "  Union- 
ists "  and  "Americans,"  "Abolitionists"  and  "Free-Soil- 
ers,"  "Douglas  Democrats"  and  "Democrats"  out-and- 
out.  After  the  war,  multitudes  of  these  men  gradually 
dropped  out  of  the  lines  of  the  Republican  organization,  as 
the  issues  that  had  united  them  were  passed  and  settled, 
and  divers  side-bodies  of  partisanship  took  on  various 
names  as  different  topics — reconstruction,  greenbackism, 
silver,  tariff,  with  the  administration  of  President  Hayes  a 
revival  of  the  recurrent  temperance  reform,  etc. — came  one 
by  one  into  view.  The  two  main  camps,  however,  remained 
"Republican"  and  "Democratic."  The  Republican  leaders 
had  been  largely  men  of  sound  principles  in  financial  morals 
and  philanthropic  statesmanship,  and  this  fact  had  justly 
maintained  their  army  of  voters  in  a  practical  major- 
it}'.  Nevertheless,  on  other  issues,  the  unanimity  of  the 
North  was  dividing;  the  successful  party  had  necessarily 
attracted  multitudes  of  shifty  politicians  "  for  revenue 
only;"  and  the  opposition  was  increasing  by  defections  of 
opinion. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  changed  industrial  and  educa- 
tional condition  of  the  South  ;  and  in  several  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  addresses,  already  mentioned,  will  be  found  to 
have  been  foreshadowed  some  new  perils  that  lay  before  the 
North  and  the  country  at  large.  These  perhaps  may  all 
be  grouped  under  the  general  head  of  "the  love  of  money," 
which  in  its  daily  seen  effects  certainly  justifies  the  wisdom 
of  the  inspired  writer  who  said  that  it  was  "a  root  of  all 
evil." 

The  enormous  prosperity  of  the  North  under  the  un- 
natural stimulus  of  the  war-fever  did  undoubtedly  breed 
a  "  haste  to  be  rich  "  that  was  visible  in  every  one  of  the 
evils  that  had  to  be  struggled  against — the  craze  of  paper 
money,  the  demand  for  repudiation,  the  debased  silver 
currency,  the  oppressive  inequities  of  the  war-tariff  main- 
tained through  decades  of  peace,  the  swollen  purse-power 
of  corporations,   the  bribery  and  corruption  of  elections 


124  HENRY   WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

and  legislatures  and  departmental  administration.  On 
every  side  was  to  be  seen  the  immorality  growing  out  of 
this  change  in  the  money-getting  power  of  the  times. 

Meantime,  the  great  ship  of  state  was  forging  ahead  and 
coming  into  these  new  waters,  vexed  by  strange  winds  and 
moved  by  currents  unnoticed  until  they  had  grown  potent 
to  swerve  the  nation's  course. 

One  of  the  lines  of  political  thought  in  which  Mr. 
Beecher  took  a  marked  interest,  although  it  is  not  repre- 
sented in  this  volume  by  any  single  address,  was  the  ulti- 
mate ideal  of  the  free  exchange  of  natural  and  artificial 
products  among  nations;  so  that  each  one,  although 
limited  in  certain  directions  of  nature  or  of  art,  might  be 
able,  by  trading  for  what  it  could  produce,  to  get  the  bene- 
fit of  the  fertile  soils  and  brains  and  well-trained  hands  of 
all  the  others.  And,  like  many  thinking  men  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  he  looked  regretfully  upon  the  fact  that 
the  abnormal  taxes  imposed  upon  imports  during  the  war, 
for  the  expressed  purpose  of  raising  unusual  revenues, 
were  maintained,  at  first  with  apology,  but  growingly  with 
bold  justification  and  finally  even  with  claim  of  merit,  by 
the  Republican  leaders,  as  giving  "protection  to  American 
labor"  because  taxing  the  entrance  of  foreign  products, 
and  thus  tending  to  keep  them  out. 

But,  aside  from  the  general  question  of  this  excessive 
and  oppressive  tax,  although  connected  with  it,  many  of 
the  Republicans  sympathized  in  dreading  a  new  trouble 
that  had  within  a  few  years  advanced  with  giant  strides. 
They  feared  the  demoralizing  effect  of  the  surplus  revenue 
of  $100,000,000  which  every  year  piled  up  in  the  United 
States  Treasury — a  premium  on  fraudulent  and  extrava- 
gant attempts  to  get  it  "distributed  to  the  people  again." 
For,  "the  people"  did  not  mean  those  who  had  unnec- 
essarily paid  the  tax,  but  the  shrewd  or  favored  ones 
who  could  invent  ways  of  spending  it,  and  furnish  "  chan- 
nels" which  should  retain  much  while  distributing  the  rest. 

Star-route  mail  contracts,  fraudulent  pension  claims  by 
the  thousands,  payment  of  unearned  railroad  -  building 
mileage -allowances,    Indian    supply    contracts  —  big   and 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  125 

little,  the  leeches  were  attracted  from  every  side  to  fatten 
on  the  Treasury  surplus. 

The  party  in  power  was  not  altogether  chargeable  with 
this:  it  was  inevitable  that  a  so  long-continued  control  of 
vast  revenues  should  breed  demoralization  and  corrup- 
tion in  any  party;  both  because  the  corrupt  would  seek 
it  for  their  own  ends,  and  because  human  nature  is  tempt- 
able.  Men  in  power  want  to  stay  there;  and  they  use  the 
means  at  hand.  It  was  only  by  a  strenuous  effort  of  re- 
form within  the  Republican  party  that  this  money-getting 
peril  could  be  purged  out  of  it.  That  was  the  danger  to 
be  fought. 

But  there  was  another.  The  utilization  of  official  station 
and  influence  for  private  purposes,  instead  of  solely  for 
public  ends,  had  become  a  crying  evil.  The  spoils-theory 
of  office,  which  regards  the  places  of  public  servants  as 
the  property  of  the  party  in  power;  which  makes  it  the 
chief  business  of  the  higher  officials  to  spend  time  and  in- 
fluence in  providing  places  for  their  partisans;  which  re- 
gards not  fitness  for  the  duties  but  efficiency  in  partisan 
politics  as  the  qualification  for  public  office,  was  prevalent. 
The  salaries  of  officials  thus  favored  by  party  leaders  were 
taxed  to  furnish  means  for  continuing  those  leaders  in 
power;  favoritism  was  seen  to  be  advancing  not  only  in 
executive  but  even  in  legislative  cliques,  making  public 
laws  for  private  profit  in  the  sacred  name  of  party,  and  by 
natural  degradation  stepping  down  even  from  that  low 
plane  to  the  still  lower  one  of  using  the  influence  of  offi- 
cial station  for  the  personal  pecuniary  gain  of  the  officers 
themselves.  Thus  the  spoils-theory  of  office  was  inextrica- 
bly entangled,  indeed,  systematically  reticulated,  with  the 
money-getting  spirit  of  the  time. 

These  evils  were  broadly  recognized  in  both  parties  by 
thinking  men  and  moral  teachers,  but  the  chief  illustrations 
in  the  Federal  service  were  necessarily  furnished  by  the 
party  in  power  at  Washington.  Demoralization  was  not 
seen  at  Washington  alone,  it  was  wide-spread.  As  Mr. 
Beecher  said  in  one  of  his  sermons:  "If  you  send  a  rogue 
to  Albany  to  represent  you,  he  does  represent  you."    It  was 


1-6  HENRY  WARD  BEECH ER. 

not  confined  to  politics  alone;  embezzlements,  defalcations, 
breaches  of  trust,  showed  an  infection  throughout  the  bus- 
iness world.  Yet  Federal  politics  offered  the  opportunity 
of  dealing  with  the  trouble  in  an  organized  form.  The 
question  arose:  How  can  the  wrong  tendency  be  righted  ? 
The  "ins"  naturally  said,  "It  is  a  mere  matter  of  position; 
if  the  'outs'  ever  get  in  they  will  do  the  same."  And  thus 
there  arose  within  the  Republican  party  a  strong  movement 
to  commit  the  party,  by  its  declaration  of  principles  and  by' 
the  presidential  candidate  it  should  offer  as  its  representa- 
tive, to  a  marked  divergence  from  the  recognized  extremes 
towards  which  the  current  of  the  times,  running  in  well- 
worn  and  insensibly  deepening  channels,  had  borne  the 
responsible  government.  A  reform  of  the  tariff  inequali- 
ties and  infelicities,  a  reform  of  the  theory  and  practice  of 
the  appointment  to  positions  in  the  civil  service:  these 
were  the  two  points  that  many  Republicans  hoped  to  see 
gained  in  the  public  commitments  of  the  party.  And  they 
had  the  more  hope,  because  in  response  to  the  demand  of 
public  opinion  something  had  been  begun.  A  committee, 
appointed  by  a  Republican  Congress,  had  publicly  examined 
the  tariff  by  the  aid  of  expert  witnesses  from  all  parts  of 
the  country,  and  had  recommended  a  considerable  reduc- 
tion of  the  import  taxes.  True,  the  Congress  did  not  find 
it  practicable  to  unite  all  interests  sufficiently  to  effect  the 
committee's  recommendation,  but  the  public  demand  had 
been  recognized  and  the  reform  might  be  brought  about. 
The  civil  service  movement  was  in  like  hopeful  but  doubt- 
ful condition.  The  reform  had  been  so  urgently  demanded 
by  public  opinion  that  laws  had  been  passed  to  compass 
that  end;  but  practically  the  spirit  of  the  law  was  not  in 
favor  among  the  influential  leaders  of  the  party  in  power; 
and  the  "outs"  of  course,  as  always,  had  the  "ins"  as  their 
ever-present  text  of  moral  discourse. 

The  Republican  Convention  of  June,  1884,  made  fair 
enough  promises  on  the  critical  points  of  public  policy. 
The  main  thing,  then,  was  the  probability  of  reform  as 
embodied  in  the  Presidential  candidate.  Mr.  James  G. 
Blaine,  the  candidate  named  by  the  Convention,  was  not 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  127 

accepted  by  those  members  of  the  party  who  had  been 
publicly  identified  with  the  movements  for  reform  as  sat- 
isfactory to  their  convictions  of  what  the  party  and  the 
country  needed. 

The  Democratic  party  held  its  convention  about  a  month 
later,  in  July;  and  while  its  platform,  like  the  other,  con- 
sisted largely  in  denunciations  of  the  opposing  party,  its 
declarations  on  the  subject  of  tariff  reform  and  the  civil 
service,  honest  mone)r,  restrictions  of  the  power  of  corpo- 
rations, etc.,  were  much  the  same  as  those  of  the  Repub- 
licans. Both  parties  in  their  declarations  recognized  the 
popular  cry  for  reform,  but  both  kept  a  wary  eye  on  the 
influence  of  vested  interests. 

So  that  the  question  in  this  case  as  in  the  other  became 
a  personal  one: — Who  and  what  will  be  their  candidate? 
The  man  they  nominated,  Grover  Cleveland,  a  reputable 
lawyer  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  had  won  his  way  by  a  pecul- 
iarly honest  and  honorable  and  single-hearted  devotion  to 
his  public  duties,  from  the  shrievalty  of  his  county  to  the 
position  of  mayor  of  the  city  of  Buffalo;  and  from  that  to 
the  station  of  governor  of  the  great  State  of  New  York. 
He  was  known  as  "the  reform  Governor;"  as  such  he  had 
been  elected,  and  as  such  he  had  admirably  filled  the  place. 
His  creed  and  practice  seemed  to  be  summed  up  in  his 
own  felicitous  phrase:  "Public  office  is  a  public  trust." 

Mr.  Cleveland  was  accepted  by  his  own  party  (although 
the  worst  elements  of  it,  typified  by  Tammany  Hall  of 
New  York,  urgently  opposed  his  nomination,  and,  as  many 
believe,  worked  against  his  election);  and  his  record  made 
him  acceptable  to  the  Independent  Republicans,  who,  not 
seeing  present  encouragement  for  reform  within  their 
party,  stepped  outside  of  it  as  their  best  hope.  They 
believed  that  even  a  temporary  loss  of  power  would  be 
better  for  the  Republican  party  than  the  feared  continu- 
ance in  the  discredited  methods. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  one  of  these.  He  was  now  an  old  man 
— seventy-one  years  of  age;  but  his  eye  was  undimmed 
(it  is  a  curious  fact  that  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  never 
needed  the  aid  of  glasses,  for  private  or  public  reading)  and 


128  HENRY   WARD   B  EEC  HER. 

his  natural  force  of  eloquence,  though  ripened,  mellowed, 
softened,  was  not  abated.  He  went  into  the  campaign, 
not  in  his  old-time  tremendous  fashion,  for  the  issues  were 
not  those  of  human  slavery  and  the  rights  of  man  ;  but  at 
the  same  time  he  took  his  position  unmistakably,  and 
with  power. 

The  party  fetich,  however,  was  the  most  potent  influ- 
ence evoked  by  the  Republicans.  The  campaign  was  one 
of  unparalleled  personal  bitterness  and  cruel  vilification, 
which  need  not  be  recalled.  This,  with  the  childish  dread 
of  many,  that,  if  the  Republican  party  was  thrown  out  of 
power,  the  country  would  fly  to  dismemberment,  its  indus- 
tries be  sapped,  its  trade  ruined,  its  commerce  wrecked  ; 
and  that  if  the  Democratic  party  should  come  in,  the 
negroes  would  all  be  remanded  to  slavery,  the  rebel  debt 
paid,  the  pensions  to  Union  soldiers  disallowed,  free  trade 
immediately  inaugurated,  and  all  the  forces  of  the  infernal 
regions  incontinently  set  loose,  did  much  to  check  the 
reform-within-the-party  feeling  that  had  resulted  in  the 
Independent  Republican  schism. 

Plymouth  Church  had  never  been  trained  by  Mr. 
Beecher  to  accept  him  as  pope.  He  had  ruled  there  by 
the  law  of  love;  the  authority  conferred  by  his  position  he 
never  exercised,  but  his  influence  was  very  powerful;  his 
opinions  were  often  combated  by  his  parishioners,  and  he 
encouraged  them  to  speak  their  minds.  This  had  been  one 
secret  of  the  solidarity  of  that  great  membership  of  two 
thousand,  in  matters  concerning  him  and  his  wishes.  It 
was  essentially  a  Congregational — that  is,  a  democratic — 
community.  On  the  question  of  breaking  off,  even  tem- 
porarily and  for  any  reason,  from  the  Republican  party,  a 
large  number  of  the  members  rebelled  against  Mr.  Beecher's 
position,  and  when  he  took  active  part  in  the  campaign 
were  vehemently  excited,  opposing  him  not  only  in  private 
but  in  public,  and  some  even,  as  in  1866,  with  bitterness. 

Yet  he,  firm  in  the  consciousness  of  right  motives, 
stood  strong  in  the  conviction  of  his  opinions.  Knowing 
well  that  this  great  land  was  never  made  and  would  never 
be  unmade  by  any  political  party;  seeing  the  issues  of  the 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  129 

day  practically  narrowed  to  that  of  a  choice  between  two 
men — one  of  whom  he  believed  to  be  the  likelier  to  influ- 
ence a  carrying  out  of  the  promises  made  by  both  parties; 
feeling  that  it  would  be  more  wholesome  for  the  country 
at  large,  and  even  for  the  Republican  party  itself,  to  have  a 
shifting  of  powers  and  responsibilities — a  "change  for  the 
sake  of  change;"  and,  with  it  all,  urgently  desirous  to  see 
a  closing  of  the  old  war-sores,  and  a  chance  for  the  recon- 
structed South  to  share  freely  in  administering  the  govern- 
ment of  a  common  country,  and  the  introduction  of  new 
issues  which  should  split  up  the  voters  of  the  South  on 
some  other  lines  than  the  old  and  irritating  ones  of 
"Rebels"  and  "Republicans," — he  stood  sturdily  where  he 
had  placed  himself.  He  made  a  few  speeches,  basing  his 
arguments  chiefly  on  the  tendencies  of  the  times  and  the 
comparative  relations  of  the  personal  qualities  of  the  can- 
didates to  those  tendencies;  and  his  influence  was  very 
great,  especially  among  the  young  men  of  his  own  city 
and  the  business  men  of  the  great  metropolis,  who  had  for 
so  many  years  seen  him  on  the  noble  and  manly  side  of 
every  great  controversy  of  the  past.  When  it  was  all 
over,  and  the  Republican  party  had  lost  the  election,  one 
of  the  nlost  brilliant  and  effective  Republican  workers  in 
Plymouth  Church  said:  "  It  cut  me  to  the  soul  that  he 
was  so  wrong;  but  when  it  comes  to  denying  his  influ- 
ence, that  is  simply  absurd.  We  never  worked  so  hard  in 
our  lives  as  we  did  to  counteract  him  in  this  thing;  but 
the  effect  of  his  personality  and  his  power  was  evident  on 
every  side." 

In  November,  1884,  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  two  weeks 
after  the  elections  were  closed,  he  preached  in  Plymouth 
Church  a  discourse  entitled  "  Retrospect  and  Prospect  " 
(page  825),  taking,  as  was  his  custom  for  that  national 
festival,  the  land  we  live  in,  as  his  theme. 

The  general  discourse  is  a  review  of  the  growth  of  the 
land  in  the  blessings  of  liberty;  the  war  and  its  conse- 
quences are  briefly  touched  upon,  and  then  he  generously 
commends  the  wisdom  shown  by  the  political  leaders  when 
the  war  was  past  and  on  the  people  was  rolled  the  difficult 


130  HENRY   WARD   B  EEC  HER. 

duty  of  reconstructing,  without  experiment  or  precedent, 
the  shattered  fragments  of  the  sixteen  Southern  States. 
The  commendation  is  "generous,"  because  it  recognizes 
the  value  of  a  course  which  at  the  time  he  opposed  in 
certain  of  its  notable  features.  Among  other  things  he 
says: — 

"The  work  was  inherently  difficult;  and  I  think  that  while 
those  to  whose  hands  it  was  committed  were  not  free  from  mis- 
takes, yet  they  have  builded  well ;  and  their  names  are  part  and 
parcel  of  American  history.  .  .  .  There  were  great  difficul- 
ties;  human  nature  would  not  be  what  human  nature  is  if  there 
had  not  been.  There  were  many  imprudent  things  done,  North 
and  South.  Nevertheless,  we  have  waited  patiently  and  coura- 
geously until  time  should  help;  for  time  is  God's  minister  of 
mercy.     .     .     . 

"  Then  we  have  had  patience  given  us,  too,  to  redeem,  on 
our  side,  the  swollen  values  of  the  distempering  war.  We  have 
had  grace  and  conscience  given  us  to  redeem  our  finances  and 
to  bring  back  honestly  within  their  bounds  the  issues  of  cur- 
rency, and  have  settled  business  on  normal  and  solid  founda- 
tions.    .     .     . 

"  But  one  thing  more  was  needed,  and  that  was  to  chase  the 
scowl  from  the  Southern  brow  ;  to  revive  the  old  friendship;  to 
clasp  hands  again  in  a  vow  of  loving  and  patriotic  zeal.  It  was 
given  to  us  last,  because  it  is  the  greatest  of  God's  gifts.     .     .     . 

"  From  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  I  believe  in  the  honor  and 
integrity  of  thoughtful  Southern  men  ;  and  when  I  get  from  them 
such  letters  as  I  do,  and  hear  from  their  lips  such  declarations  as 
I  hear,  that  they  feel  at  last  that  they  are  in  and  of  the  Union,  as 
much  as  we,  and  point  to  the  flag,  declaring,  with  tears,  'That  is 
now  my  flag,'  I  believe  it ;  I  should  be  faithless  to  God  and  to 
providence  if  I  did  not. 

"  Not  the  least  joyful  element  in  this  reconciliation  is  the 
assured  safety  and  benefit  which  will  accrue  to  the  colored  race. 
That  has  come  to  pass  which  was  their  only  safety.  Just  as 
soon  as  the  Southern  statesmen  accept  the  perfect  restoration  of 
themselves  to  the  great  body  politic,  and  find  that  there  is  no 
division  as  between  Northern  men  and  Southern  men  in  any  of 
the  honors  of  government ;  just  as  soon  as  they  are  in,  and  a 
part  of  every  administration,  as,  thank  God,  they  will  be  ;  just  so 
soon  of  necessity  that  will  take  place  which  is  the  salvation  of 
the  colored  race.     As  long  as  they  were  a  fringe  upon  a  Northern 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  131 

party,  the  South  was  condensed  and  solidified  against  it.  As 
soon  as  they  are  divided  at  home  between  the  administrational 
party  and  the  opposition  party,  they  will  be  guarded  and  taken 
care  of.  ...  I  regard  this  now,  with  schools  and  academies 
and  various  seminaries  spread  among  them,  as  the  final  step  of 
emancipation. 

"  It  is  in  these  views,  which  have  not  been  accepted  with  sym- 
pathy by  some  of  the  dearest  friends  I  have,  that  I  have  acted 
[in  the  recent  campaign];  and  in  the  calmest  retrospect  I  now  re- 
joice that  I  was  able  to  act  so. 

"  The  greatest  mistake  of  my  life  has  happened  twice,  as  I  have 
been  informed.  I  propose  this  morning  now  to  read  a  portion 
of  the  letters  that  were  the  first  "greatest  mistake  of  my  life." 
That  was  immediately  after  the  war,  in  the  autumn  of  1866. 

"  I  read  it  now  that  you  may  see  how  straight  a  line  has  run, 
from  the  very  days  of  the  war  down  to  this  hour,  in  my  thought, 
philosophy,  and  action." 

Mr.  Beecher  then  read  portions  of  his  two  Cleveland 
letters  of  1866,  on  the  Reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States 
(page  736),  showing  his  view  that,  not  by  imposition  from 
without  but  only  by  the  natural  development  of  mutual 
and  common  interests  between  the  two  races — "the  long 
result  of  time" — could  white  and  black  be  brought  to  live 
and  work  harmoniously  together.  And  he  concluded 
thus: — 

"  My  dear  friends,  if  I  had  written  that  for  to-day  I  could  not 
have  written  it  better,  and  I  do  not  think  it  needs  to  be  written 
any  better.  .  .  .  And  I  have  read  these  letters,  in  parts,  so 
far  as  bears  more  immediately  on  questions  of  to-day,  that  you 
may  know  that  God  gave  me  the  light  to  do  one  of  the  best 
things  I  ever  did  when  I  wrote  that  letter  ;  and  that  he  gave  me 
the  grace  to  stand  on  it,  without  turning  back  for  one  single  mo- 
ment ;  and  that  he  has  given  me  grace  to  lay  my  path,  by  sight, 
along  those  two  letters — hindsight  and  foresight — from  that  day 
down  to  this ;  and  that  he  has  given  me  grace  to  withstand  the 
impleading^  of  those  that  I  love  dearly,  not  only  of  my  immedi- 
ate household,  but  of  my  blood  and  kindred  ;  of  those  that  are  in 
the  church,  that  are  to  me  as  my  own  life,  and  those  that  are  of 
the  political  party  with  which  I  have  labored  thus  far. 

"  Still  seeing  that  luminous  light,  as  God  reveals  it  to  me,  I 
have  walked  in  it  and  toward  it ;  and  abide  in  that  same  direction 
to-day;  and,  God  helping  me,  so  will  I  live  to  the  end." 


132  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

Mr.  Beecher's  wisdom,  in  all  the  eventful  passages  of 
his  life,  will  probably  always  find  men  of  his  own  genera- 
tion to  question  it;  because  they  thought,  and  doubtless  still 
think,  differently.  But  the  clear-eyed  honesty  of  his  con- 
victions; the  utter  lack  of  self-consideration  or  ambition, 
or  any  unworthy  motive;  the  broad  consistency  and  gen- 
eral sagacity  of  his  views,  based  on  the  laws  of  God  as 
wrought  out  in  human  nature — whether  displayed  in  per- 
sonal or  social  or  political  developments;  and  his  single- 
ness of  mind  and  devotion  to  his  principles, — cannot  be 
candidly  denied  or  doubted.  Those  qualities  were  the 
source  of  his  long-continued  and  extraordinary  influence 
in  the  political  life  of  his  time.  And  there  are  multitudes 
who  can  now  look  back  and  see  how  history  has  justified 
him  in  withstanding  the  current  political  passions  of  his 
day — as  to  slavery,  compromise,  disunion,  peace  and  war, 
the  mutual  relations  of  blacks  and  whites  at  the  South, 
repudiation  and  national  credit,  sound  and  debased  cur- 
rency, the  peaceful  settlement  of  contested  elections,  and 
numberless  other  matters,  wherein  his  counsel  had  always 
been  freely  given.  He  thought  about  everything  in  the 
light  of  God's  truth  and  man's  benefit,  and  withheld  noth- 
ing of  his  thought,  but  courageously  spoke  it  out  and 
stood  to  it. 

How  far  he  was  right  and  how  far  wrong  in  his  hopes 
and  aims  of  1884,  to  see  the  present  perils  of  the  land 
guarded  against  by  a  change,  even  if  temporary,  of  the 
party  in  power  and  under  responsibility,  only  the  future 
can  tell.  We  who  are  yet  in  the  turmoil  of  the  contest  are 
too  near  to  judge.  He  did  live  to  see  the  substantial 
assurance  of  every  other  great  principle  that  he  had  worked 
for;  but  the  latest  issue  arose  too  near  the  end  of  his  life. 
Yet  experience  had  taught  him  patience;  and  patience, 
hope;  and,  although  he  died  without  the  sight,  his  faith 
was  strong  in  the  self-cleansing  and  recuperative  power  of 
the  American  people,  and  in  God's  guiding  hand.  The 
contest  over  "Prohibition"  is  already  dividing  the  colored 
vote  in  the  far  South  between  the  two  parties.  As  their 
manufacturing  interests  grow,  the  opposing  cries  of  "Pro- 


POLITICAL   CAREER.  133 

tection"  and  "Revenue  Tariff"  will  bring  in  another  split- 
ting wedge.  And  thus,  in  spite  of  remnants  of  barbarism 
like  the  "Glenn  bill"  of  Georgia,  making  it  a  crime  to  edu- 
cate white  and  negro  children  together,  and  other  evidences 
of  the  stubborn  race-prejudice  (which  shows  at  the  North 
as  really  as  at  the  South),  the  great  revolution  is  on  the 
march,  and  will  not  go  backward.  His  faith  in  that  regard 
will  be  justified  and  his  large  wisdom  will  be  recognized. 

The  final  address  given  in  this  volume  is  Mr.  Beecher's 
"Eulogy  of  Grant"  (page  840),  which  was  delivered  in 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  October  22,  18S5,  about  two 
months  after  the  death  of  that  great  man.  It  is  dignified, 
strong,  impressive,  containing  noble  tributes  to  the  hero 
and  eloquently  enforced  lessons  from  the  history  in  which 
he  bore  so  large  a  part. 

In  one  of  his  addresses  is  a  paragraph  concerning  Grant, 
which  may  well  be  placed  here  at  the  close  of  this  imper- 
fect review  of  Mr.  Beecher's  political  career,  a  fit  summary 
of  his  own  future  memory  on  earth: — 

"As  I  recede,  along  the  adjoining  fields  of  Jersey,  from  the 
great  city,  I  speedily  lose  sight  of  the  masts,  of  the  warehouses, 
and  of  the  spires  themselves;  and  yet,  when  I  have  gone  so  far 
that  the  last  glimmer  of  these  things  is  lost,  the  towers  of  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge  stand  full  and  high  in  the  air,  conspicuous.  As 
time  goes  on  we  shall  forget  that  which  called  down  such  a  storm 
of  fury  upon  his  name;  and  when  all  incidental  and  collateral 
things  have  gone  below  the  horizon,  his  name  and  just  fame  will 
stand  towering  high  in  the  air,  unobscured  and  imperishable ! " 


134  HENRY   WARD  BE  EC  HER. 


VI. 

STRENGTH   AND   WEAKNESS. 

One  of  the  aptest  things  said  about  Mr.  Beecher  since 
his  death  occurs  in  an  article  published  in  the  Christian 
Union,  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Raymond,  who  had  known  him  inti- 
mately for  many  years.  Writing  of  his  peculiar  sincerity 
of  character,  Dr.  Raymond  says: — 

"  Certainly,  I  never  met  another  man  who  was  so  entirely  the 
same  in  public  and  in  private.  .  .  .  It  is  often  said,  by  those 
who  fancy  themselves  critics,  that  he  was  a  great  actor.  In  the 
most  important  sense  this  is  not  only  not  true,  it  is  the  exact  op- 
posite of  truth.  He  could  not  dissemble.  He  could  not  give 
force  of  expression  to  a  feeling  which  was  not  with  equal  force 
dominant  for  the  time  within  him." 

This  trait  is  the  complement  of  the  one  noted  in  our 
first  chapter  (page  n)  as  the  chief  element  of  the  man's 
life — his  sensitiveness  to  truth.  To  prevaricate,  to  give  a 
shifty,  double-sensed  answer,  was  something  that  in  forty 
years  of  acquaintance  and  twenty  of  close  personal,  lit- 
erary, and  business  association  with  him,  as  his  publisher, 
I  never  knew  him  to  do:  nor  do  I  believe  it  was  possible 
for  him.*  He  could  be  silent;  no  man  more  utterly  so. 
And  at  times,  when  pursued  by  questions  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  answer,  he  would  pass  into  silence,  not  only,  but 
an  impassibility  of  countenance  that  gave  no  more  sign 
of  understanding  or  of  response  than  the  face  of  the 
Sphinx.  When  he  spoke  at  all,  in  public  or  in  private,  he 
spoke  the  truth,  as  it  was  given  to  him  to  see  the  truth. 

*  In  this  chapter  it  will  occasionally  be  simpler  and  more  fitting  for  the 
writer  to  speak  in  his  own  person,  as  the  material  is,  to  some  extent,  in  the 
nature  of  personal  testimony. 


££^-/€e-w 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS.  135 

This  was  so  characteristic  that  it  could  be  seen  through- 
out his  life — in  every  element  and  phase.  It  is  the  ex- 
planation of  many  puzzling  things.  When  Bismarck 
first  appeared  in  European  diplomacy,  he  baffled  all  the 
trained  diplomats  of  the  day  by  the  simple  device  of 
speaking  the  truth,  for  they,  never  supposing  that  any 
man  in  power  would  plainly  disclose  his  real  intentions, 
calculated  on  the  opposite,  or  on  some  variation,  and 
deceived  themselves.  It  is  in  much  the  same  way  that 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  —  not  from  shrewd  forecast,  but  by 
natural  impulse  and  determinate  principle  a  truth-lover 
and  truth-speaker — has  been  an  enigma  to  many,  who,  see- 
ing a  man  pre-eminent  in  so  many  other  directions,  have 
judged  his  truthfulness,  at  times,  not  by  his  own  sincere 
utterances,  but  by  their  observations  of  average  humanity. 

And  yet  no  one  of  them  will  say  that  he  was  otherwise 
on  the  level  of  ordinary  men.  They  will  recognize  his 
greatness  of  intellect,  of  imagination,  of  heart,  of  physical 
power,  and  of  that  indefinable  but  very  positive  gift  which 
they  call  eloquence,  and  which  is  a  resultant  of  all  the 
other  gifts;  yet  so  weak  is  their  faith  that  they  cannot 
conceive  of  a  man  having  all  this  and  the  crowning  graces 
of  moral  and  spiritual  steadfastness  besides.  What,  how- 
ever, was  the  realm  in  which  he  lived  and  moved,  and  to 
which  he  devoted  all  his  strength  ?  What  was  the  one 
thing  that  underlay  his  every  utterance  ?  It  was  the  eleva- 
tion of  human  life  above  the  physical  and  temporal,  to  the  higher 
plane  of  the  moral  and  spiritual ;  and  the  testimony  of  many 
who  knew  his  daily  "walk  and  conversation,"  in  matters 
both  small  and  great,  is  that  he  was  to  a  rare  degree 
one  who  practiced  what  he  preached.  Except  in  certain 
noted  matters  wherein  his  own  interests  were  deeply  in- 
volved, his  sincerity  was  never  doubted;  yet  just  there  is 
where  he  should  receive  the  benefit  of  "good  character." 
For  when  to  the  aim  of  fifty  years  of  effort,  open  and 
known  to  all  men,  is  added  the  central,  unmistakable  char- 
acteristic of  truthfulness,  it  stands  to  reason  that  the  words 
of  such  a  man  are  to  be  received  as  realities. 

In  fact,  his  words  were  realities,  to  him,  in  a  sense  far 


136  HENRY   HARD  BEECHER. 

more  actual  than  most  men  can  comprehend.  So  instan- 
taneous and  forcible  were  his  processes  of  thought,  so 
thorough  were  his  convictions,  so  vivid  were  the  concep- 
tions of  his  mind  and  the  analogies  and  similes  with  which 
his  imagination  flashed  them  upon  the  perception  of  his 
hearers,  that  they  took  place  in  him  as  experiences,  rather 
than  as  the  mere  results  of  intellection.  When  he  was  pre- 
paring for  a  public  occasion  he  avoided  any  clear  formula- 
tion of  his  material  until  the  time  was  almost  at  hand,  be- 
cause it  was  so  difficult  for  him  to  follow  a  second  time 
over  a  line  of  thought  once  taken.  If  I  may  repeat  a  por- 
tion of  what  I  contributed  to  a  chapter  of  Reminiscences 
in  Abbott  and  Halliday's  "  Life  "  of  him,  a  remark  he  made 
just  previous  to  beginning  his  third  series  of  "  Yale  Lect- 
ures on  Preaching  "  will  be  apt,  here.  The  series  was  to 
be  on  "  Methods  of  Using  Christian  Doctrines,"  and  the 
day  before  he  was  to  go  to  New  Haven  I  asked  him:  "  Do 
you  know  pretty  nearly  the  line  of  treatment  you  mean 
to  take  ?" — for  it  was  a  difficult  and  critical  task,  and  he 
dreaded  it. 

''Yes;  in  a  way,"  he  answered.  "I  know  what  I  am 
going  to  aim  at,  but  of  course  I  don't  get  down  to  any- 
thing specific.  I  brood  it,  and  ponder  it,  and  dream  over 
it,  and  pick  up  information  about  one  point  and  another, 
but  if  ever  I  think  I  see  the  plan  opening  up  to  me  I  don't 
dare  to  look  at  it  or  put  it  down  on  paper.  If  I  once 
write  a  thing  out,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  me  to  kindle 
up  to  it  again.  I  never  dare,  nowadays,  to  write  out  a  ser- 
mon during  the  week;  that  is  sure  to  kill  it.  I  have  to 
think  around  and  about  it,  get  it  generally  ready,  and  then 
fuse  it  when  the  time  comes." 

This  every  one  knew  who  was  familiar  with  the  diffi- 
culty he  always  had  in  correcting  for  the  press  what 
he  had  spoken,  when  it  had  been  reported  and  put  in  type; 
and  even  what  he  had  written.  The  matter  under  revis- 
ion was  no  longer  in  process  of  making,  to  be  perfected 
and  corrected,  but  was  a  thing  done,  and  had  become  an 
outside  fact,  simply  suggestive  of  new  ideas.  The  orig- 
inal production  ran  great  risk  of  being  overrun  with  new 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS.  137 

growth;  every  joint  pushed  forth  a  fresh  bud  of  vital  ex- 
pansion. Hence,  he  rarely  undertook  to  see  his  speeches 
or  lectures  or  sermons  after  their  delivery,  until  they  came 
to  him  printed  and  published. 

Nor  was  this  the  case  with  his  public  utterances  alone. 
The  thought  that  arose,  if  not  suppressed  altogether,  was 
apt  to  rind  instant  and  forceful  expression.  He  was  quite 
as  likely  to  burst  out  into  splendid  eloquence  amid  a  small 
group  of  chatting  friends,  or  even  to  a  single  listener,  as 
before  a  vast  audience, — not  Macaulay-like,  in  artificial 
fireworks,  but  with  the  spontaneity  and  friendly  glow  of  a 
great  mass  of  cannel  coal  at  the  home  fireside. 

He  was  moved  by  his  own  inner  forces.  One  would  as 
soon  suspect  the  Atlantic  of  holding  back  a  particularly 
grand  roll  of  surf  at  Long  Branch  until  people  should  come 
down  to  see  it,  as  to  imagine  Mr.  Beecher  "  keeping  "  a 
fine  thought  or  a  striking  figure  till  he  had  an  audience. 
It  was  not  that  he  despised  careful  preparation  for  public 
speech,  since  his  whole  life  was  a  constant  gathering, — a 
patient,  painstaking,  studious  reading  of  books,  and  of 
men,  individually  and  socially;  a  storing  of  his  mind  with 
multitudinous  information  and  the  results  of  other  men's 
thought  and  discovery.  But  all  this  entered  into  his  own 
mind  and  became  an  indivisible  part  of  himself;  and 
when,  in  talk  or  in  conversation  or  in  public  speech,  an 
idea  came  up  for  expression,  it  laid  hold  of  him  with 
power,  as  a  real  thing;  and  it  was  this,  together  with  his 
natural  gifts  and  cultivated  modes  of  utterance,  that  made 
such  strong  impression  on  others. 

It  is  important  to  have  this  fact,  of  the  native  and  habit- 
ual outspeaking  sincerity  of  the  man,  thoroughly  stated; 
for  on  it  stands  his  life.  And  by  way  of  emphasizing  what 
I  have  called  the  "reality"  of  his  thoughts,  to  himself,  it  will 
perhaps  be  worth  while  to  claim  and  restate  here  another 
personal  reminiscence,  which  I  have  several  times  seen  in 
print,  although  I  never  put  it  there. 

It  was  at  the  close  of  one  of  his  patriotic  Thanksgiving 
Day  sermons  that,  after  raising  his  hearers  with  him  to  a 
noble  elevation  of  thought  and  sentiment,  he  closed  with 


138  HENRY   WARD  B  EEC  HER. 

an  apostrophe  to  Liberty,  whose  radiant  face  and  form  he 
described  in  dazzling  eloquence.  A  day  or  two  later  I 
chanced  to  be  where  he  was,  in  a  family  circle,  and  as  he 
was  weary  he  had  thrown  himself  down  on  the  sofa.  We 
were  speaking  of  a  report  of  the  sermon  in  one  of  the 
papers:  "But,"  said  he,  "how  stupid  of  the  reporter  to 
make  that  a  diamond-iTW^v/  scepter  !  It  was  a  diamond 
scepter — one  flashing  crystal." 

"  Now,  Mr.  Beecher,  that's  not  likely.  Whoever  knew  of 
such  a  thing?  Besides,  the  phonographer  probably  wrote 
just  what  he  heard,  and  it  is  my  recollection  that  you  said 
'  diamond-studded.'  " 

With  one  bound  he  was  on  his  feet.  "  I  don't  know 
what  I  said,  but  I  know  what  I  saw."  And  then  with  ear- 
nestness and  increasing  intensity  as  he  was  rekindled  by 
the  remembrance,  which  seemed  to  have  been  an  unusually 
vivid  one,  he  went  on  and  told  how  it  came  about,  what 
had  been  the  foregoing  thought,  and  how,  suddenly,  the 
vision  shone  upon  him,  and  what  it  was.  From  that  time 
I  never  doubted  that  he  did  actually  see — that  his  imagina- 
tion did  really  "  body  forth  " — the  forms  of  things  unknown, 
and  of  known  things  not  present  to  the  bodily  eye. 

There  is  another  such  reminiscence, — not  so  poetical 
or  striking  as  to  the  vision,  but  perhaps  even  more  to  the 
point  under  discussion. 

In  another  of  his  sermons  on  Thanksgiving  Day  Mr. 
Beecher  was  describing  an  imaginary  interview  between  a 
ship-owner  of  kindly  Christian  feeling  and  an  old  sailor 
on  one  of  his  ships  in  port,  which  the  merchant  had 
gone  to  look  at.  He  indicated  the  superior's  frank  and 
friendly  way  of  speaking,  and  then  the  old  sailor  raised 
himself  slowly  up  from  his  work  to  reply.  Mr.  Beecher 
never  used  tobacco;  I  doubt  if  he  ever  tasted  it;  but, 
in  the  person  of  the  old  sailor,  he  rolled  his  tongue 
around  in  his  cheek,  put  up  his  hand,  and,  to  clear  his 
mouth  for  talking,  unmistakably  made  the  movement 
of  taking  out  of  it  a  large  cud,  and  went  on  with  his 
reply.  The  conversation  proceeded  for  perhaps  a  min- 
ute.    Mr.    Beecher's   right   hand  meanwhile  had   dropped 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS.  139 

to  his  side,  but  it  was  closed,  as  if  holding  something. 
When  finally  he  spoke  of  the  merchant  pleasantly  offering 
his  right  hand  to  say  good-by,  the  sailor  s  closed  right  hand 
furtively  threzv  away  something  behind  him,  was  wiped  off  on 
the  back  of  his  trousers,  and  then  held  out  to  receive  the  gen- 
tleman's farewell.  I  had  watched  the  hand,  believing  that 
the  orator  all  the  while  unconsciously  felt  the  "  moist  un- 
pleasant body  "  of  the  sailor's  cud,  and  was  proportion- 
ately amused  to  see  him  throw  it  away  and  wipe  his  hand 
sailor-fashion  before  taking  the  other's  proffered  palm.  The 
experience  was  a  reality  to  the  man  who  was  describing  it. 

When  I  afterwards  asked  Mr.  Beecher  about  it  he  was 
immensely  tickled  with  the  comicality  of  the  thing,  but  had 
no  recollection  of  the  minor  details  at  all.  What  he  was 
after  was  the  illustration  of  his  subject;  the  special  mode 
of  doing  it  was  something  he  gave  no  thought  to.  And, 
indeed,  the  action  was  so  quiet  and  unnoticeable  that  it 
could  not  have  been  an  intentional  part  of  the  picture,  and 
I  doubt  if  it  was  seen  by  the  audience  at  all. 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  this  is  not  moral  sincerity.  No; 
yet  it  shows  the  native  temper  and  habit  of  the  mind, 
which  has  much  to  do  with  moral  developments  of  every 
kind.  And  that  tendency,  to  speak  the  things  that  were 
himself,  may  be  found — nay,  it  is  one  of  the  most  obvious 
qualities  noticeable — in  all  his  multifarious  teachings.  Says 
Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes: — * 

"  The  way  a  man  handles  his  egoisms  is  a  test  of  his  mastery 
over  an  audience  or  a  class  of  readers.  What  we  want  to  know 
about  the  person  who  is  to  counsel  or  lead  us  is,  just  what  he  is, 
and  nobody  can  tell  us  so  well  as  he  himself.  .  .  .  Mr.  Beecher 
has  the  simple  frankness  of  a  man  who  feels  himself  to  be  per- 
fectly sound,  in  bodily,  mental,  and  moral  structure;  and  his 
self-revelation  is  a  thousand  times  nobler  than  the  assumed  im- 
personality which  is  a  common  trick  with  cunning  speakers  who 
never  forget  their  own  interests.  Thus  it  is  that  wherever  Mr. 
Beecher  goes,  everybody  feels,  after  he  has  addressed  them  once 
or  twice,  that  they  know  him  well,  almost  as  if  they  had  always 
known  him  ;  and  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  land  who  has  such  a 
multitude  who  look  upon  him  as  their  brother." 


*"The  Minister  Plenipotentiary,"  page  422, 


14°  HENRY   WARD   BEECH ER. 

In  the  "  Beecher-Memorial  "  volume,  compiled  and  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Edward  W.  Bok,  among  other  interesting 
contemporary  tributes  to  Mr.  Beecher's  qualities,  is  one 
from  Dr.  William  A.  Hammond.  Referring  to  Mr.  Beech- 
er's speech  at  the  dinner  given  to  Herbert  Spencer  when 
in  New  York,  he  says: — 

"I  shall  never  forget  the  effect  which  his  ringing  words  pro- 
duced upon  an  audience,  composed  as  it  was,  of  hard-headed  men 
who  were  not  accustomed  to  be  swayed  by  their  emotions.  They 
rose  to  their  feet,  waved  their  table-napkins,  and  shouted  them- 
selves hoarse,  not  because  they  all  approved  the  views  which  he 
then  revealed  to  them,  but  because  of  the  astounding  courage, 
the  wonderful  regard  for  the  truth  as  he  understood  it,  and  the 
almost  superhuman  honesty  by  which  he  must  have  been  act- 
uated." 

It  was  this  very  sincerity  of  self-revelation,  and  the 
further  fact  that  there  was  a  self  worthy  to  be  revealed, 
that  was  his  strength.  To  quote  Dr.  Storrs  again:  "His 
power  has  been  so  constant  and  so  vast  only  because  the 
sources  of  it  have  been  so  manifold  and  so  deep." 

This  same  outspeaking  fashion  of  his,  however,  was  also 
a  source  of  weakness,  in  that  it  sometimes  led  him  into 
headlong  leaps  of  feeling  and  overstrenuous  or  inaccurate 
statements.  In  his  address  to  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn 
Association  of  Ministers  and  Churches,  October  n,  1882, 
when  he  resigned  his  connection  with  that  body  in  order 
that  neither  the  Association  nor  any  of  its  members  should 
feel  oppressed  by  the  sense  of  any  responsibility  for  his 
religious  teachings,  he  said: — 

"  I  have  my  own  peculiar  temperament ;  I  have  my  own  method 
of  preaching:  and  my  method  and  temperament  necessitate 
errors.  I  am  not  worthy  to  be  related  in  the  hundred-thou- 
sandth degree  to  those  more  happy  men  who  never  make  a  mis- 
take in  the  pulpit.  I  make  a  great  many.  I  am  impetuous.  I 
am  intense  at  times  on  subjects  that  deeply  move  me.  I  feel  as 
though  all  the  ocean  were  not  strong  enough  to  be  the  power 
behind  my  words,  nor  all  the  thunders  in  the  heavens  ;  and  it  is 
of  necessity  that  such  a  nature  should  at  times  give  such  intensity 
to  parts  of  doctrine  as  to  exaggerate  them  when  you  come  to 
bring  them  into  connection  with  a  more  rounded  and  balanced 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS.  141 

view.  I  know  it.  I  know  it  as  well  as  you  do.  I  would  not  do 
this  if  I  could  help  it ;  but  there  are  times  when  it  is  not  I  that  is 
talking ;  when  I  am  caught  up  and  carried  away  so  that  I  know 
not  whether  I  am  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body;  when  I  think 
things  in  the  pulpit  that  I  could  never  think  in  the  study,  and 
when  I  have  feelings  that  are  so  far  different  from  any  that  be- 
long to  the  lower  or  normal  condition  that  I  can  neither  regulate 
them  nor  understand  them.  I  see  things,  and  I  hear  sounds,  and 
seem,  if  not  in  the  seventh  heaven,  yet  in  a  condition  that  leads 
me  to  apprehend  what  Paul  said, — that  he  heard  things  which  it 
was  not  possible  for  a  man  to  utter. 

"  I  am  acting  under  such  a  temperament  as  that.  I  have  got  to 
use  it,  or  not  preach  at  all.  I  know  very  well  I  do  not  give  crys- 
talline nor  thoroughly  guarded  views.  There  is  often  an  error  on 
this  side  and  on  that ;  but  I  cannot  stop  to  correct  them.  .  .  . 
The  average  and  general  influence  of  a  man's  teaching  will  be 
more  mighty  than  any  single  misconception,  or  misapprehension 
through  misconception. 

The  Association  would  seem  to  have  agreed  with  that 
final  assertion,  for  after  the  long  and  full  statement  of  his 
beliefs  and  teachings,  which  he  proceeded  to  make,  they 
passed  without  a  dissenting  voice  a  resolution,  recognizing 
his  magnanimity  in  wishing  to  relieve  his  fellows  in  the 
Association  of  even  apparent  responsibility,  but  declaring 
that  his  exposition  of  doctrinal  views  "indicates  the  pro- 
priety of  his  continued  membership  in  this  or  any  other 
Congregational  Association,"  requesting  him  to  withdraw 
his  resignation,  and  finally  saying: — 

"  We  desire  to  place  on  record,  as  the  result  of  a  long  and 
intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Beecher,  a  familiar  observation  of 
the  results  of  his  life,  as  well  as  his  preaching  and  pastoral  work, 
that  we  cherish  for  him  an  ever-growing  personal  attachment  as 
a  brother  beloved  and  a  deepening  sense  of  his  worth  as  a  Chris- 
tian minister." 

Our  point  here,  however,  is  that  whether  in  public 
or  in  private,  whether  in  quiet  moods,  or  under  the  stimu- 
lus of  a  keen  interest,  or  on  the  sweep  and  swing  of  a 
mighty  wave  of  feeling,  he  was  always  natural,  always 
himself,  always  giving  forth  his  own  interior  condition, 
honestly  and  frankly;  and  those  who  knew  him  longest 
came  by  experience  to  know  the  truthfulness  of  his  words. 


H2  HENRY   WARD   BEECH ER. 

This  is  especially  noticeable  in  his  letters,  whether  to 
friends,  acquaintances,  or  strangers.  With  a  strong  sense 
upon  him  of  an  unwillingness  to  read  manuscript  and  an 
impatience  of  pen-work,  he  was  nevertheless  a  voluminous 
correspondent,  and  wrote  innumerable  letters,  notes,  scraps 
of  memoranda,  questions,  answers,  instructions, — every 
conceivable  size  and  style  of  epistolary  communication  to 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  A  collection  of  his  letters 
would  be  a  mountain  of  ore-veins,  with  many  a  bonanza- 
chimney  of  pure  precious  mstal;  sense  and  trifling  non- 
sense, fun  and  broad-based  wisdom,  affectionate  and  poetic 
sentiment,  tender  sympathy  in  trouble,  the  noblest  spirit- 
uality— the  man  himself.  Mr.  Joseph  Howard,  Jr.,  in  his 
graphic  and  characteristic  "  Life  "  of  Mr.  Beecher,  says: — 

"Years  hence,  when  the  ultimate  biographer  and  collector  shall 
have  received  from  all  sources,  at  home  and  abroad,  the  multitu- 
dinous trifles  which  go  to  make  the  comprehensive  whole,  far 
from  the  least  of  these  illustrations  of  the  greatness  and  goodness, 
the  weakness  and  the  uniqueness  of  Mr.  Beecher's  character  will 
be  found  in  letters,  sent  here  and  there,  dashed  off  with  the 
rapidity  of  friendly  utterance,  or  penned  with  care  and  thought 
as  to  their  effect.  .  .  .  Elsewhere  in  this  volume  will  be  found 
letters  written  during  a  period  of  forty  years  to  his  most  intimate 
friends.  .  .  .  They  are  packed  with  sentiment.  They  give 
evidence  of  his  extraordinary  and  peculiar  vocabulary,  and  are 
brightly  garlanded  with  choice  illustrations  drawn  from  the 
heavens,  from  the  earth,  from  the  verdure-clad  fields,  from  the 
golden  granaries  of  the  West,  from  the  heart  of  society,  from  the 
progress  of  art  and  science,  from  everything  which  human  nature 
teaches,  showing  that  it  was  his  constant  habit  so  to  think  and 
so  to  write.  .  .  .  His  letters  are  no  more  like  those  written 
by  ordinary  men  than  he  was  like  ordinary  men." 

The  circle  that  furnished  the  letters  to  which  Mr.  How- 
ard alludes  could  doubtless  furnish  many  more,  and  so 
could  every  group  of  heart-friends  that  in  his  long  and 
loving  life  Mr.  Beecher  drew  to  himself;  so,  too,  could 
lawyers,  statesmen,  politicians,  business  associates,  ecclesi- 
astical friends  (and  opponents),  editors,  young  men  that 
he  helped,  strangers  who  addressed  him, — there  was  no 
limit  to  the  varieties  of  humanity  to  whom   he   wrote,  for 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS.  143 

one  reason  and  another.  And  the  "  infinite  riches"  of  his 
nature  could  be  gathered  from  these  writings  quite  as 
effectively,  if  not  as  completely,  as  from  his  public  minis- 
trations. They  are  all  characteristically  frank;  and  while 
naturally  his  exuberant  sentiment  and  affection  found  most 
outplay  towards  his  nearest  friends,  many  a  distant  corre- 
spondent has  been  surprised  and  delighted  to  get  so  much 
more  of  the  man  himself  in  a  felicitous  mood  than  had 
been  hoped,  when  addressing  him. 

In  tracing  the  trait  of  sincerity  in  Mr.  Beecher's  charac- 
ter, there  is  one  point  more  that  requires  mention:  his 
trustfulness  in  friendship.  In  his  "  Eulogy  of  Grant,"  the 
orator  says: — 

"  Such  was  his  loyalty  to  friendship  that  it  must  be  set  down 
as  a  fault — a  fault  rarely  found  among  public  men." 

This  remark  may  be  applied  to  Mr.  Beecher  himself, — 
except  that  the  evils  flowing  from  his  loyal  belief  in  friends 
never  led  him  into  errors  of  principle  whereby  the  interests 
of  the  public  suffered.  He  himself  took  the  chief  injury. 
It  is  true,  there  were  occasions  when  his  confidence  in  the 
disinterestedness  and  judgment  of  some  friends  resulted 
in  unjust  conclusions  bearing  upon  others;  but  they  were 
candid  mistakes,  amid  complicated  currents,  at  times  when 
he  felt  the  need  of  experienced  and  unbiased  counsel  and 
believed  that  he  had  found  it.  When  an  idea  took  posses- 
sion of  him  he  held  it  tenaciously,  and  in  the  face  of  oppo- 
sition would  sometimes  forward  it  with  tremendous  force 
(under  pressure  of  that  human  faculty  which  he  himself 
has  happily  described  somewhere  as  a  "conceited  con- 
science"). Yet  he  was  not  a  stubborn  man;  and  when 
fairly  convinced  of  error  he  was  no  laggard  in  acknowl- 
edging it.  A  patent  fact  in  his  career  was  that  in  the 
realm  of  personal  friendship  his  powerful  affection  for 
others — and  especially  for  any  whom  he  could  help — drew 
him  into  confidence  in  the  sincere  love  for  him  of  those 
whom  he  loved.  The  honest  strength  of  his  own  feeling 
sometimes  blurred  his  sight,  when  the  feelings  of  others 
towards  him  were  to  be  discriminated.  It  sprang  from 
his  own  open  and  sincere   nature.     The  special  instances 


144  HENRY   WARD  BEECH ER. 

of  this  trait  which  plunged  him  into  the  deep  and  awful 
trouble  of  his  life  need  no  specification  here.  They  are 
but  too  well  known. 

It  presents  an  anomaly;  yet  the  fact  stands:  Mr. 
Beecher's  knowledge  and  intuitions  of  human  nature  as 
shown  in  his  published  works  would  seem  to  be  almost  un- 
rivaled, since  the  day  of  the  master-dramatist  who  stands 
above  comparison;  while  yet  his  judgment  in  the  cases  of 
actual  persons  was  at  times  egregiously  wrong. 

His  remarkable  knowledge  of  man's  nature  was  based  on 
incessant  observation  and  study  of  men's  actions  and  mo- 
tives, the  results  of  which  were  shot  through  with  the  light 
of  his  marvelous  imagination  and  warmed  into  life  by  his 
human  sympathy,  enabling  him  to  vitally  realize  what  must 
be  the  consciousness  of  others — to  think  their  thoughts, 
and  feel  their  sensations,  and  be  moved  by  their  emotions. 
But  there  was  a  force  in  him  greater  than  knowledge, 
loftier  than  imagination,  more  potent  than  generic  human 
sympathy:  it  was  the  constant  outreaching  of  an  affec- 
tionate heart  for  personal  friendship.  Freely  he  received, 
throughout  his  life;  for  who  could  resist  or  ignore  the 
friendliness  of  so  rich,  so  noble  a  nature  ?  And,  as  he  re- 
ceived, so  and  much  more  freely  did  he  give,  bounteously, 
unreservedly.  Nothing  pleased  him  so  much  as  the  power 
to  please  or  serve  a  friend, — unless  it  was  a  chance  to  do  a 
good  turn  for  an  enemy. 

Yet  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  gave  his  friendship 
without  just  cause.  Among  the  thousands  who  felt  his  per- 
sonal influence  and  who  bore  to  him  an  enduring  personal 
affection,  the  members  of  Plymouth  Church  showed  that 
their  friendship  was  of  the  lasting  kind,  while  of  those  who 
at  one  time  and  another  became  intimate  with  him,  the 
element  of  constancy  was  lacking  in  but  a  pitiful  few. 
The  roll  would  be  seen  to  contain  many  noble  and  honored 
names,  with  others  quite  as  worthy  if  less  known.  He  was 
attracted  by  beautiful  and  generous  qualities,  and  instinct- 
ively repelled  by  low  and  mean  ones.  Of  the  two  false 
friends  who  raised  the  cloud  of  suspicion  that  cast  so  black 
a  shadow  on  his  life,  one  had  been  a  youth  of  noble  promise 


STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS.  145 

who  had  grown  to  maturity  under  his  fostering  kindness 
and  loving  care,  and  who  in  early  manhood  showed  many 
winning  and  admirable  qualities;  while  the  other,  frank  and 
attractive  in  demeanor,  intelligent  and  interesting  in  con- 
versation, came  to  him  in  an  hour  of  desperation,  professing 
indeed  to  be  moved  by  loyalty  to  his  opponent,  but  winning 
his  confidence  by  free  protestations  of  belief  in  him,  and 
offers  to  undertake  the  generous  office  of  "mutual  friend." 
Complaint  has  been  made  concerning  Mr.  Beecher,  that 
he  had  the  "royal  trait"  of  accepting  not  only  homage  but 
service  and  sacrifice,  as  no  more  than  his  due,  and  that  he 
was  negligent  of  homely  obligations.  This  is  true;  but  it 
is  only  half  the  truth.  A  man  of  many  and  important 
functions,  he  was  under  large  responsibilities,  which  needed 
both  service  and  sacrifice  from  many  helpers.  In  the  great 
Congregational  Council  of  February,  1876, — the  largest  in 
the  history  of  the  denomination, — which  assembled  to  con- 
sider (and  resulted  in  practically  sustaining)  the  propriety 
of  the  rules  and  practice  of  the  disciplinary  polity  of  Plym- 
outh Church,  the  fact  was  brought  out  that  the  member- 
ship of  that  church  was  something  over  two  thousand 
five  hundred;  and  that  when  the  whole  church  work  was 
considered,  its  parish  of  families,  its  own  immense  Sunday- 
school,  its  Bethel  and  Mayflower  Mission  schools,  etc.,  it 
was  seen  to  be  the  center  of  from  12,000  to  15,000  persons, 
looking  to  it  for  instruction,  for  consolation,  for  moral  di- 
rection. That  would  be  enough  for  almost  any  man  to 
carry  on  his  soul.  Yet  Mr.  Beecher's  duties,  as  a  sort  of 
central  heart  to  supply  and  circulate  spiritual  life-blood, 
were  not  limited  by  these  thousands,  although  their  needs 
were  the  nearest  and  the  most  conscious.  There  were 
demands  upon  him  from  every  side — his  neighborhood, 
his  city,  his  friends,  various  literary  and  business  enter- 
prises, political  questions  and  questioners,  public  lect- 
ures in  all  parts  of  the  land,  and  other  things  that  will 
suggest  themselves  to  those  who  knew  his  life;  not  to 
mention  the  army  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  afflicted,  the 
unfortunate,  the  importunate,  the  inconsiderate,  the  asi- 
nine, with  all  of  whom  and  of  which  his  patience  was  tire- 


146  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

less  and  his  activity  endless,  for  good.  True,  as  he  once 
said  to  a  hostile  audience  delaying  him  in  his  speech,  "We 
have  all  the  time  there  is;"  but  even  that  did  not  suffice 
for  the  calls  upon  him;  he  had  to  work  largely  through 
others.  And  as  all  who  worked  with  him  and  under  him 
felt  his  inspiration,  they  gladly  gave  him  service  and  sac- 
rifice; and  he,  unconsciously,  but  most  naturally  and  cor- 
rectly, identifying  himself  with  his  work,  did  doubtless 
accept  this  as  no  more  than  his  due. 

There  were  times  when  this  went  too  far;  when — espe- 
cially under  the  influence  of  others  who,  more  facile  than 
he  in  the  special  matters  under  consideration,  changed  the 
relative  focus  of  things  in  his  sight — he  failed  to  appre- 
ciate the  position  and  just  rights  of  some  of  these  co- 
laborers  with  him.  Yet  as  one  who  knew  much  of  his  way 
for  many  years,  I  wish  to  record  my  belief — arrived  at  not 
by  impulse  or  through  mere  personal  affection — that  he 
was  never  consciously  unjust,  but  that  on  the  contrary  he 
would  far  rather  suffer  than  inflict  injury.  During  twenty 
years  of  intimate  work  with  him,  while  there  were  often 
passages  of  perplexity  and  even  severe  trials  of  the  rela- 
tions between  us,  I  never  received  from  him  one  impatient 
or  unkind  word.  And  not  only  so,  but  I  think  it  safe  to 
say  that  during  all  those  years  I  never  heard  from  him  an 
irritable  or  harsh  expression  about  other  people  (except  in 
that  playful  extravagance  which  robbed  it  of  its  sting), 
even  concerning  those  who  were  most  unfaithful  and  ven- 
omous toward  him. 

He  was  not  perfect;  and  he  would  have  been  the  first  to 
laugh  at  such  a  claim  for  him.  His  intentness  on  one 
thing  would  often  cause  him  to  forget  another  thing  which 
people  were  justly  expecting;  he  was  unmethodical,  and 
hard  to  work  with  because  he  could  not  be  counted  upon 
as  a  sure  element  at  the  time  needed;  his  modes  of  work 
increasingly  depended  upon  his  moods  of  spirit  and  of 
body;  he  moved  over  so  large  a  field  and  was  a  part  of  so 
many  groups  and  interests  and  movements  that  some  of 
them  at  times  suffered  sorely:  yet,  he  did  his  best.  Per- 
haps he  undertook  too  much. 


STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS.  147 

His  weak  point  was  always  his  sympathetic  nature  as 
regarded  persons.  His  courage  never  failed,  except  when 
it  was  necessary  to  do  something  that  would  displease  or 
grieve  or  afflict  a  friend;  and  then  he  was  cowardly — there 
is  no  other  word  for  it.  Sometimes  in  church  affairs,  some- 
times in  business  matters,  a  certain  line  of  action  would 
be  decided  on  in  consultation  which  would  displace  or 
disappoint  some  one  for  whom  he  had  a  strong  af- 
fection, even  perhaps  on  whom  he  had  especially  leaned; 
and  if  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  convey  the  decis- 
ion to  the  knowledge  of  the  party  interested,  he  would 
postpone  it,  avoid  it  from  day  to  day — until  at  length 
the  crisis  was  at  hand,  and  he  either  left  the  circumstance 
to  make  itself  known,  or  took  refuge  from  the  personal 
complication  in  a  stern  setting  forth  of  the  necessities 
that  had  compelled  the  decision.  That  this  was  a  kind  of 
moral  cowardice,  no  candid  friend  of  his  can  deny.  In 
several  instances  it  resulted  in  the  keenest  distress  and  in- 
dignation on  the  part  of  the  friend  whom  he  could  not 
bear  to  wound,  but  who  was,  even  thereby,  the  more 
sorely  bruised. 

It  wTas  somewhat  the  same  in  cases  of  bereavement, 
although  less  so  because  he  was  not  in  any'way  responsi- 
ble for  the  personal  suffering.  He  would  shrink  like  a 
girl  from  announcing  to  a  friend  the  death  of  a  dear  one; 
yet,  even  in  the  most  painful  circumstances,  when  the  duty 
was  brought  before  him  of  comforting  the  afflicted  at  the 
time  of  burial,  he  quietly  and  strongly  grasped  the  situa- 
tion, and  the  power  of  his  uplifting  spirit  was  wonderful. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  the  very  publicity  of  such  occasions 
divested  them  somewhat  of  the  personal  -element,  and 
brought  them  upon  that  ideal  or  generic  plane  of  human 
nature,  which  was  so  familiar  to  his  ken,  and  his  subtle 
sympathy  with  which,  on  the  other  hand,  made  individ- 
uals so  responsive  to  his  touch. 

There  certainly  seems  to  have  been  some  such  un- 
derlying cause  for  the  coupling  of  his  almost  unfailing 
knowledge,  wisdom,  and  courage,  when  things  were  to 
be  considered  on  the  broad  ground  of  general  principles, 


1 4s  HENRY  WARD   BEECHER. 

with  his  occasional  lack  of  poise  and  correct  character- 
reading  where  individual  friends  were  concerned.  The 
latter,  however,  although  a  marked  defect,  was  at  worst  a 
weakness,  not  a  vice.  It  arose  from  his  excess  of  what  in 
due  proportion  is  a  very  noble  quality — that  of  personal 
sympathy;  a  quality  which  gave  tone  and  color  to  his 
entire  life,  which  led  him  into  nearly  all  his  troubles,  but 
which  on  the  other  hand  was  the  element  of  that  outspeak- 
ing self  which,  as  Dr.  Holmes  says,  drew  such  multitudes 
to  "  look  upon  him  as  their  brother."  To  him  as  a  man 
may  be  applied  his  own  description  of  his  preaching:  "  Not 
crystalline  [symmetrical]  nor  thoroughly  guarded;  "  with 
"often  an  error  on  this  side  and  on  that;"  but  his  "aver- 
age and  general  influence  will  be  more  mighty  than  any 
single  misconception," — and  that  certainly  was  upon  a 
high  plane  of  being,  and  in  the  direction  of  the  purest 
and  noblest  aspirations. 

These  characteristics  of  Mr.  Beecher  have  been  here 
brought  together  in  order  to  be  utilized  with  some  other 
facts,  which  have  never  to  my  knowledge  been  so  grouped 
before,  in  considering  briefly  the  one  great  trouble  of  his 
life,  which  for  some  years  markedly  diminished  his  general 
public  influence,  although  the  richness  and  power  of  his 
spiritual  ministrations  in  his  church  were  during  that 
period  as  markedly  increased. 

It  was  one  of  the  difficulties  inseparable  from  his  person 
and  place  that  whatever  related  to  him  had  to  go  into  the 
newspapers.  He  experienced  the  extreme  of  good  and  the 
uttermost  of  evil  that  newspaper  discussion  can  effect. 
The  slime  of  whispered  scandal  that  his  especial  enemies 
trailed  about  for  some  years  reached  the  editors  of  all  the 
chief  journals,  but  they  had  the  manliness  to  let  it  alone. 
The  ecclesiastical  discussions  which  arose  when  Tilton,  and 
afterward  Mrs.  Moulton,  were  "  dropped  from  the  roll  "  of 
Plymouth  Church,  were  fruitful  occasions  of  partisanship 
and  prejudgment;  and  when  Tilton  published  his  final  ac- 
cusations (swollen,  by  repetitions  and  accretions,  from 
impropriety  to  hideous  crime)  the  positions  of  the  parties 
involved  made  newspaper  discussion  inevitable.     The  men 


STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS.  149 

of  Mr.  Beecher's  own  profession,  moved  variously  by 
friendship  and  loyal  trust  in  a  man  of  hitherto  spotless 
life  and  reputation,  and  on  the  other  hand  by  "  envy, 
hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness  "  in  theologic  dif- 
ferences and  personal  jealousies,  took  sides,  and  made 
another  unusual  element;  while  politics,  religion,  and 
every  other  line  along  which  he  had  made  himself  felt, 
furnished  friends  or  foes  according  to  individual  expe- 
riences of  his  help  or  his  hindrance  in  their  former 
doings.  In  short,  the  simple  question  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  personal  innocence  or  guilt  of  what  was  charged 
against  him  had  no  fair  field  for  settlement. 

His  church — a  body  of  men  and  women  who  certainly 
had  the  keenest  interest  possible  in  knowing  the  true 
character  of  the  man  under  whose  influence  they  and  their 
children  were  living,  and  containing  a  multitude  who  had 
never  hesitated  to  oppose  him  and,  if  they  could,  to  vote  him 
down  in  church  affairs  when  they  did  not  agree  with  him — 
investigated  the  matter  through  a  committee  of  men  hon- 
ored and  trusted  by  the  whole  membership,  and  cleared  him. 

When  at  last  the  matter  was  brought  into  a  court  of 
justice  by  a  suit  against  him  for  $100,000  "damages,"  it 
received  as  full  and  exhaustive  an  exposition  as  ten  law- 
yers, and  a  judge  who  gave  them  free  range  to  collect  and 
bring  in  all  possible  testimony,  could  accomplish  in  a  six 
months'  trial.  The  result  was  a  disagreement  of  the  jury, 
three  members  of  which  voted  finally  against  Mr.  Beecher, 
and  nine  (comprising  all  who  were  men  of  Christian  belief) 
for  him.  Without  discussing  the  surmised  or  asserted  rea- 
sons for  this  disagreement,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  the  ver- 
dict of  the  majority,  agreeing  as  it  did  with  the  opinion  of 
those  who  best  knew  the  man,  was  subsequently  confirmed 
by  experts  in  evidence  whose  opinions  are  now  accessible. 

The  oldest  and  probably  the  most  influential  clergyman 
among  the  Congregationalists  of  Great  Britain  is  Rev. 
Henry  Allon,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  Union  Chapel,  Islington, 
London,  and  for  many  years  editor  of  the  British  Quarterly 
Review.  His  church  and  congregation  are  very  large, 
comprising  more  persons  of  eminent  intelligence,  position, 


150  HENRY    WARD   BEECHER. 

wealth,  and  effectiveness  in  the  community  than  any  other 
of  the  denomination,  while  their  works  of  Christian  charity 
and  systematic  help  among  the  poor  of  London  offer  proof 
of  their  Christian  orthodoxy.  Dr.  Allon  is  not  an  emotion- 
al man,  like  his  friend  and  Mr.  Beecher's  friend,  Dr.  Joseph 
Parker,  the  great  preacher  of  the  City  Temple;  he  is  rather 
of  the  more  exact,  intellectual  type,  a  man  of  scholarly  cult- 
ure, a  preacher  and  writer  of  polished  vigor,  of  a  forcible 
yet  chastened  eloquence.  For  years  before  they  had  met, 
Dr.  Allon  had  been  a  reader  and  admirer  of  Mr.  Beecher's 
sermons  (which,  by  the  way,  have  been  published  in  The 
Christian  World  of  London,  one  every  week,  since  January, 
1861,  without  a  single  omission,  to  the  present  time,  and 
still  continue).  In  1863  the  men  met,  and  from  that  time  a 
firm  friendship  had  bound  them.  When  in  1869  the  first 
volume  of  the  "  Plymouth  Pulpit "  sermons  was  issued  in 
book-form,  Dr.  Allon  spoke  of  them  as  follows: — 

"These  corrected  sermons  of  perhaps  the  greatest  of  living 
preachers  —  a  man  whose  heart  is  as  warm  and  catholic  as  his 
abilities  are  great  —  combine  fidelity  and  scriptural  truth,  great 
power,  glorious  imagination,  fervid  rhetoric,  and  vigorous  reason- 
ing, with  intense  human  sympathy  and  robust  common-sense." 

When  this  trouble  arose  Dr.  Allon  was,  naturally,  in- 
tensely moved;  and,  while  believing  loyally  in  the  character 
of  his  accused  friend,  was  like  many  others  puzzled  by  the 
days  of  silence  and  by  the  complications  of  the  whole  affair. 

When  finally  the  civil  trial  came  on,  Dr.  Allon  called  to 
him  several  of  his  most  trusted  parishioners,  some  of  them 
eminent  in  the  profession  of  the  law,  and  agreed  with  them 
that  he  and  they  should,  each  by  himself,  read  scrupu- 
lously every  part  of  the  case  as  it  proceeded — speeches, 
testimony,  documents,  suTnmings  up,  charges,  all — and  get 
as  accurate  a  knowledge  of  the  whole  as  professional 
weighers  of  evidence  could  who  did  not  see  and  hear  the 
witnesses.  When  it  was  concluded,  and  the  muddled  jury 
rendered  no  verdict,  this  "struck  jury"  of  experts  came 
together  and,  without  discussion,  gave  their  individual 
ballots;  the  result  being  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that 
there  was  no  evidence  to  sustain  the  charge  of  the  plaintiff. 


STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS.  151 

But  again:  the  editor  of  the  Law  Journal  (Albany,  N.Y.) 
is  Mr.  John  D.  Parsons.  In  an  article  on  Mr.  Beecher's 
death  in  the  issue  of  March  19,  1887,  after  referring  to  Mr. 
Beecher's  "  excessive  impulsiveness  and  guilelessness," 
which  he  regarded  as  "  the  secret  of  the  great  scandal," 
he  says: — 

"  We  recorded  our  convictions  about  this  unhappy  affair  at  the 
time,  and  should  not  now  refer  to  it  except  to  repeat  the  opinion 
of  the  leading  counsel  for  the  plaintiff  [Tilton],  the  late  William 
A.  Beach.  Mr.  Beach  was  predisposed  to  believe  Beecher  guilty, 
but  after  the  trial  he  declared  in  our  hearing  that  he  believed  him 
innocent,  and  that  his  appearance  and  utterance  when  he  asserted 
his  innocence  on  the  witness-stand  were  the  most  sublime  and 
overpowering  exhibition  of  the  majesty  of  human  nature  that  he 
ever  beheld.  He  could  not  understand  how  any  one  could  resist 
that  solemn  avowal.  '  I  felt,  and  feel  now,'  said  he,  '  that  we  were 
a  pack  of  hounds  trying  in  vain  to  drag  down  a  noble  lion.'  " 

In  the  issue  of  April  30th,  referring  to  some  question  that 
had  been  raised  as  to  the  correctness  of  his  memory  of  Mr. 
Beach's  remarkable  statement,  Mr.  Parsons  says: — 

"  The  remarks  which  we  quoted  were  addressed  by  Mr.  Beach 
to  the  Hon.  Martin  I.  Townsend  and  ourselves,  and  we  see  in  an 
; interview'  with  Mr.  Townsend,  published  in  a  Troy  newspaper, 
that  he  confirms  our  recollection  of  Mr.  Beach's  assertion  that  he 
believed  Mr.  Beecher  innocent.  Mr.  Beach  said  other  things 
which  rendered  it  impossible  that  we  should  be  mistaken  as  to 
his  opinion.  Mr.  Beach,  Mr.  Townsend,  and  ourselves  were  old 
acquaintances,  fellow-townsmen,  near  neighbors,  and  practiced  at 
the  Troy  bar  together  for  many  years.  .  .  .  We  do  not  see 
that  Mr.  Beach's  '  integrity  '  is  in  the  least  involved.  He  simply 
went  on  after  Mr.  Beecher's  testimony,  and  made  the  best  he 
could  of  a  poor  case,  and  even  his  greatest  admirers  admitted  that 
his  argument  was  weak,  half-hearted,  and  unequal  to  his  reputa- 
tion." 

And  later  in  the  same  issue  he  adds: — 

"  Since  writing  the  above  we  have  seen  the  Troy  Times  of 
April  25th,  which,  in  speaking  of  our  report  of  Mr.  Beach's  opin- 
ion, says  :  '  It  finds  confirmation-and  support  from  acquaintances 
of  the  late  Mr.  Beach  in  this  locality.  A  resident  of  Lansing- 
burgh  says:  "  Mr.  Beach  had  old  friends  and  companions  here. 
He  declared  to  them  his  belief  in  the  innocence  of  Beecher.     He 


152  HENRY    WARD   BE  EC  HER. 

said  to  one  of  them  :  '  I  had  not  been  four  days  in  the  trial  before 
I  was  confident  that  he  was  innocent.'  And  he  adhered  years 
after  the  trial  to  the  opinion.  It  seems  that  it  is  worth  while  to 
record  the  fact  that  Beach  said  so,  freely  and  positively,  as  I  am 
told  by  one  of  the  men  to-day." '  A  correspondent  also  writes 
from  Lansingburgh  to  the  Times  in  the  same  issue:  '  It  is  a  fact 
that  Mr.  Beach,  in  the  frankness  of  his  intimacy  with  gentlemen 
in  this  village,  stated  that  he  formed,  and  then,  when  he  spoke, 
long  after  the  trial,  held  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Beecher  was  an  in- 
nocent man,  and  that  the  trial  of  Tilton  v.  Beecher  established  that 
conviction  in  his  mind.'  " 

A  verdict  in  favor  of  the  defendant,  from  the  leading 
counsel  of  the  plaintiff,  contrary  to  his  original  belief 
when  he  entered  the  case,  and  established  by  the  trial  it- 
self, ought  to  be  enough  to  satisfy  any  really  reasonable 
mind. 

If  more  were  needed,  it  might  be  found  in  the  subse- 
quent friendliness  of  most  of  the  others  of  the  plaintiff's 
counsel  shown  for  the  defendant  in  after  years;  and  espe- 
cially by  the  fact  that  Chief  Justice  Neilson,  who  presided 
at  the  trial  and  had  formerly  not  known  Mr.  Beecher,  was 
ever  after  his  fast  friend.  And  when,  in  the  Brooklyn 
Academy  of  Music  (in  1883,  eight  years  after  the  trial),, 
the  fellow-citizens  of  the  venerable  clergyman  assembled 
to  celebrate  his  seventieth  birthday  with  testimonials  of 
respect  and  affection  such  as  no  other  man  has  ever  re- 
ceived from  them,  Justice  Neilson  presided  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  meeting. 

It  is  true  that  many  hold  themselves  in  doubt  concern- 
ing this  sad  yet  triumphant  passage  in  Mr.  Beecher's  life, 
although  they  have  never  done  what  all  the  above-men- 
tioned experts  did,  and  conscientiously  made  themselves 
masters  of  all  the  facts  and  testimony  bearing  upon  it. 
They  content  themselves  by  saying,  "  Upon  that  question 
the  tribunal  of  history  may  render  a  clearer  judgment  than 
this  generation  has  reached."  Happy  those — and  in  this 
case  the  multitude  is  increasing — who  do  not  need  a  forty 
years'  pilgrimage  through  the  wilderness  of  collateral 
prejudice  to  find  the  straight  and  simple  path  out  of  this 
mystery! 


STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS.  153 

The  characteristics  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  which  form 
the  theme  of  this  chapter  are  an  inseparable  part  of  his 
political  career,  as  that  was  a  natural  outgrowth  and  es- 
sential portion  of  his  whole  life.  The  very  elements  that 
gave  his  intellectual  qualities  such  a  unique  power  in 
the  church  and  the  world — his  love  of  truth,  his  sincerity, 
his  frank  self-revelation,  his  sympathy,  his  remarkable 
emotive  force — were  what  led  him  into  the  shadow  of  his 
great  trouble,  but,  inspired  by  his  singular  realization  of 
the  indwelling  of  the  spirit  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  they 
also  led  him  through  the  darkness  into  the  light  beyond. 
No  one  can  comprehend  the  fact  that  he  was  sustained  un- 
der that  crushing  weight  for  years,  and  steadily,  cheer- 
fully, and  with  power  continued  his  work,  showing  more 
of  the  wealth  of  his  great  nature  than  ever  before,  who 
does  not  accept  the  idea  that  he  was  a  pure-souled,  Chris- 
tian man,  who  loved  his  kind  and  absolutely  trusted 
the  God  he  professed  to  serve.  No  other  theory  will 
account  for  it.  His  sermons  from  1873  to  i§76  are  the 
richest  and  strongest  that  he  ever  preached.  It  was  in 
1872-3-4,  in  the  most  trying  time  of  the  trouble,  that  he 
was  invited  to  give  three  courses  of  "Lectures  on  Preach- 
ing "  at  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale  College,  in  the 
"  Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship "  founded  by  his  friend 
Henry  W.  Sage;  and  those  three  series  of  lectures,  on  the 
"  Personal  Elements,"  "  Social  and  Religious  Machinery," 
and  "Christian  Doctrines,"  stand  as  perhaps  the  most 
valuable  of  all  his  contributions  to  the  education  and  in- 
spiration of  his  time. 

His  general  popularity  at  that  period  of  course  suffered 
a  severe  reversion.  His  books,  his  paper,  his  public  lectures, 
were  not  wanted,  and  business  troubles  were  added  to  his 
burden — a  burden  the  heavier  for  him,  that  others  had  to 
suffer  in  consequence.  There  was  but  little  wanting  to  his 
pain;  yet  the  love  of  loyal  friends  and  his  unfaltering  trust 
in  a  Father  God  were  enough  to  keep  his  mind  serene  and 
his  spirit  sweet  and  steadfast  in  kindness. 

In  1876  he  began  public  lecturing  again.  Major  J.  B. 
Pond,  who  was  his  companion  on  all  his  lecturing  tours 


154  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

from   that   time,   says   in   the   preface   to   "  A   Summer   in 
England  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher": — 

"  Excepting  only  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  there  was  not  a 
State  or  Territory  in  the  Union  in  which  we  had  not  traveled  to- 
gether. In  sunshine  and  in  storm  ;  by  night,  by  day,  by  every 
conceivable  mode  of  travel ;  on  steamboats  and  rowboats ;  by 
stage,  and  on  the  backs  of  mules,  I  had  journeyed  at  his  side.  I 
was  near  him  in  the  days  of  1876-8,  the  time  of  his  deepest  sor- 
row, when  he  was  reviled  and  spit  upon ;  I  saw  the  majestic 
courage  with  which  he  passed  through  gaping  crowds  at  railroad 
stations,  and  at  the  entrances  of  hotels  and  public  halls, — a  cour- 
age which  I  had  not  conceived  mere  humanity  could  possess.  .  .  . 

"  Especially  during  those  three  darkest  years  was  he  the  sub- 
ject of  my  sad  admiration.  Often  have  I  seen  him  on  our  enter- 
ing a  strange  town  hooted  at  by  the  swarming  crowd,  and  greeted 
with  indecent  salutations.  On  such  occasions  he  would  pass  on, 
seemingly  unmoved,  to  his  hotel,  and  remain  there  until  the  hour 
for  his  public  appearance  ;  then,  confronted  by  great  throngs,  he 
would  lift  up  his  voice,  always  for  humanity  and  godliness.  .  . 
.  .  .  .  And  when  he  had  spoken,  the  assemblages  would 
linger  to  draw  near  to  and  greet  the  man  whom  they  had  so 
lately  despised.  How  changed  I  have  often  seen  the  public  atti- 
tude toward  him  when  he  left  a  town  into  which  he  had  come 
but  the  day  before  !     .     .     . 

"  I  thank  God  that  it  was  my  privilege  to  attend  his  fortunes 
to  the  end,  and  to  see  and  hear  on  both  sides  of  the  continent, 
and  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  demonstrations  of  love  and  con- 
fidence that  came  at  length  in  so  unsullied  and  vast  a  stream, 
from  the  church,  his  friends,  his  country,  and  his  race,  toward 
him  who  had  brought  so  many  thousands  of  them  so  much 
nearer  than  they  had  been  to  the  common  Master  of  us  all." 

Several  of  the  discourses  in  this  volume,  of  1876,  1877, 
and  1878,  show  how  he  again  laid  hold  on  public  questions; 
and  as  the  years  went  by  his  great  power  was  gradually 
re-confirmed, —  those  who  oftenest  saw  and  heard  him 
being  his  staunchest  supporters. 

And  thus,  little  by  little,  slowly  but  steadily,  his  sun 
rose  once  more,  through  the  clouds  and  mists,  until  it 
rode  high  in  the  heavens,  shining  with  a  full  and  noble 
effulgence. 


CONCLUSION.  155 


VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  so  large  a  personality,  so 
multifarious  a  nature,  that  hundreds  of  writers  have  not 
only  since  his  death  but  also  during  his  life  attempted  to 
depict  him,  without  accomplishing  more  than  showing, 
each  one,  the  phase  that  he  himself  had  been  able  to  appre- 
ciate. The  pictures  are  mostly  truthful,  but  all  are  partial. 
Fortunately,  the  theme  of  these  chapters  is  not  the  man 
but  only  a  single  line  of  his  activity,  and  we  are  dispensed 
from  even  the  attempt  to  present  a  complete  view. 

It  is  true,  in  trying  to  find  some  of  the  more  potent  fac- 
tors in  his  political  life  and  influence,  we  have  been  obliged 
to  consider  his  principal  native  qualities  and  the  condi- 
tions of  their  growth  and  cultivation;  because  his  political 
activity  was  not  an  artificial  addition  to  his  regular  labors, 
but  a  spontaneous  outgrowth  of  himself,  and  an  integral 
part  of  his  life-work.  It  illustrates  the  man.  When  one 
comprehends  his  acts  and  motives  there,  it  is  easier  to  see 
the  unity  and  beauty  of  his  entire  life.  His  enthusiastic  and 
unwavering  love  for  God  and  for  man  gave  him  an  access 
to  spiritual  forces  and  to  an  answering  sympathy  from 
men's  hearts,  that  kept  his  power  upon  them  vital  to  the 
last.  His  keen  perception  and  industry  and  assimilative 
capacity  provided  an  endless  store  of  knowledge;  and 
when,  drawing  from  this  "  things  new  and  old,"  he  rea- 
soned with  men,  and  illumined  good  sense  with  the  bright- 
ness of  wit,  with  poetic  attractiveness,  and  with  the  enno- 
bling beauty  of  the  moral  and  the  spiritual,  his  hearers 
had  confidence  in  his  wisdom. 


156  HENRY   WARD  BE  EC  HER. 

This  was  to  be  seen  wherever  he  appeared,  and  espe- 
cially among  men  of  his  own  profession,  who,  however 
much  they  may  have  assumed  him  to  be  deficient  in 
their  peculiar  modes  of  reasoning,  never  failed  to  look  up 
to  him  for  inspiration  or  be  glad  to  get  his  help  when  his 
powerful  personality  was  present.  A  distinguished  au- 
thority has  spoken  of  seeing  him  "  in  councils  and  deliber- 
ative assemblies  where,  when  the  business  became  intricate 
and  entangled,  and  things  were  greatly  mixed,  there  came 
in  his  clear,  incisive  sagacity,  his  persuasive  eloquence, 
and  his  resolute  will,  and  pulled  things  straight  with  mar- 
velous suddenness." 

His  inborn  honesty  and  candor  were  evident  in  his  im- 
pulsive habit.  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.  D.,  in  an  article  in 
his  paper,  the  CJiristian  Union,  makes  a  statement  the  truth 
and  aptitude  of  which  are  so  striking  that  I  wish  to  cite  it, 
and  bear  personal  witness  to  its  correctness.  It  refers  to 
the  goodness  as  one  source  of  the  greatness  of  Mr. 
Beecher: — 

"  He  was  a  great  preacher  because  he  was  a  great  and  good 
man.  He  was  pure  as  a  pure  woman  ;  simple  as  a  little  child  ; 
frank  to  a  fault.  His  most  intimate  friends  never  heard  from  his 
lips  a  suggestion  of  a  salacious  jest ;  I  never  knew  the  man  bold 
enough  to  venture  on  one  in  his  presence.  He  was  incapable  of 
deceit  or  artifice.  He  could  conceal,  when  concealment  was  nec- 
essary, only  by  maintaining  an  absolutely  impenetrable  reserve. 
The  charges  of  duplicity  and  falsehood  which  a  foul  conspiracy 
brought  against  him  some  years  ago,  were  to  all  who  knew  him 
as  intellectually  absurd  as  they  were  morally  monstrous." 

This  native  and  habitual  sincerity,  and  his  sturdy  inde- 
pendence of  opinion,  strengthening  him  to  stand  always 
foremost  among  the  battlers  of  right  against  wrong — even 
when  his  personal  affiliations  and  sympathies  acted  to 
deter  him  from  differences  with  those  whom  he  loved — 
gained  and  kept  for  him  the  respect  of  mankind.  His  very 
opponents — unless  small-souled  enough  to  be  utterly 
blinded  by  passion,  either  of  personal  or  partisan  preju- 
dice— conceded  to  him  a  remarkable  honesty  in  opinion 
and  in  action.     And  in  those  characteristics — faith,  knowl- 


CONCLUSION.  157 

edge,  sagacity,  sincerity,  and  independence — lay  the  rea- 
sons for  his  influence  upon  the  political  life  of  this  nation, 
an  influence  unparalleled  and  unequaled  by  that  of  any 
other  unofficial  American  citizen  in  the  history  of  the  land. 
When  the  length  of  his  career  is  considered,  and  the 
breadth  of  it — whether  as  to  the  number  of  individuals 
affected  or  the  variety  of  interests  involved — his  life  will 
be  seen  to  have  been  an  inseparable  and  mighty  element 
in  that  of  the  nation. 

Dr.  W.  S.  Searle,  for  many  years  Mr.  Beecher's  physician, 
writes  in  an  article  in  the  North  American  Review:  "  His- 
tory records  no  man  who  outranked  his  fellows  in  more 
directions,  and  to  a  greater  extent,  and  who  fell  below  the 
average  in  fewer  elements  and  developments  of  mind  and 
soul."  That  is  certainly  a  truthful,  unexaggerated  state- 
ment, put  in  a  form  not  easy  to  deny.  And  while  it  finds 
illustration  in  every  portion  of  Mr.  Beecher's  life,  it  stands 
especially  substantiated  in  his  political  career.  His  public 
life,  represented  only  by  a  few  salient  points  in  these 
thirty-two  "  Patriotic  Addresses,"  covered  actively  a  full 
half-century.  What  other  name  stands  for  so  prolonged, 
so  full,  so  steady  a  power;  for  so  few  mistakes  and  so 
many  notable  successes;  for  such  unvaried  pressure  on  the 
side  of  moral  right,  of  spiritual  elevation,  of  a  loyal  trust 
in  God  and  a  generous  trust  of  man  ? 

His  influence  on  the  religious  life  of  his  generation  was 
of  course  greater  than  his  political  power,  because  it  was  to 
the  former  especially  that  he  devoted  himself,  even  while  la- 
boring in  politics,  reform,  or  the  lighter  realm  of  literary  en- 
tertainment. This  can  be  here  only  alluded  to.  In  1869  a 
newspaper  noticing  an  early  volume  of  li  Plymouth  Pulpit" 
asserted  that  his  influence  on  religious  thought  was  greater 
than  that  of  all  the  theological  seminaries  put  together. 
This  friendly  exaggeration,  however,  contained  a  truth; 
his  teachings  permeated  the  atmosphere  and  were  felt 
wherever  young  men,  earnest  to  think  and  to  learn,  were 
studying  religious  problems.  Mr.  George  S.  Merriam,  in 
the  Christian  Union,  in  an  article  of  Beecher  reminis- 
cences  of    the  time    when    Mr.   Merriam  was   Mr.  Beech- 


158  HENRY   WARD  BEECHER. 

er's  managing  editor  of  that  paper,  apropos  of  an  allusion 
to  Plato,  says:  "While  not  naming  him,  of  course,  with 
Plato  for  originality,  he  was  essentially  of  Plato's  type  in 
his  interpretation  of  the  universe  by  a  lofty  impassioned 
idealism;  and  the  serene  light  of  the  Athenian  sage  kindled 
in  the  Christian  preacher  into  a  warmer  and  tenderer 
glow."  This,  however,  is  complemented  by  another  trait 
no  less  influential,  which  perhaps  is  best  set  forth  in  a  pas- 
sage from  one  of  Mr.  Beecher's  own  sermons,  entitled 
"  Fact  and  Fancy:  " — 

"  It  has  been  said  that  everybody  is  either  a  Platonist  or  an 
Aristotelian — Plato  standing  for  ideal  philosophy  and  Aristotle 
for  the  real  and  practical.  Everybody  tends,  it  is  said,  to  follow 
one  or  the  other.  No ;  the  perfect  man  unites  them  both,  and  is 
at  once  Aristotelian  and  Platonist.  His  feet  standing  on  solid 
fact,  his  head  goes  philosophizing,  and  his  heart  keeps  the  balance 
between  them." 

Dr.  Abbott,  again,  noting  the  departure  of  the  present 
time  towards  a  less  formal  and  a  more  practical  and  eth- 
ical religion  than  formerly,  says  that  "in  this  great  move- 
ment Mr.  Beecher  has  been  the  leader.  His  relation  to  it 
is  acknowledged  of  all  men."  "  He  has  rendered  his 
generation  many  and  great  services — moral,  political,  so- 
cial, theological;  but  his  greatest  service  is  in  this,  that 
he  has  taught  the  Puritan  Church  that  God  is  love." 

His  sermons  and  lecture-room  talks  have  been  for  more 
than  twenty-five  years  published  and  widely  read  in  En- 
gland, and  many  a  man  high  in  ecclesiastical  honors  there, 
as  well  as  numberless  students  and  young  clergymen  who 
loved  and  followed  his  teachings,  have  expressed  their 
gratitude  to  him  for  the  light  he  has  shed  on  their  path. 
Dr.  Howson,  the  Dean  of  Chester,  and  joint  author  with 
Conybeare  of  the  scholarly  and  famous  "  Life  of  St.  Paul," 
came  to  Plymouth  Church  to  see  the  man  and  hear  the 
voice  whose  printed  words  had  been  so  much  to  him.  He 
went  home  with  Mr.  Beecher,  and  they  had  a  delightful 
time  together;  and  on  his  return  to  England  he  sent  one 
of  his  own  books  in  return  for  one  Mr.  Beecher  had  given 
him,  inscribed,   "  For  gold  I  give  thee  brass." 


CONCLUSION.  159 

Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  the  eloquent  London  preacher,  his 
unswerving  friend  for  twenty-three  years,  writes: — 

"  As  a  preacher  I  believe  the  whole  pulpit  of  the  world  would 
give  him  the  palm.  When  Charles  Kingsley  heard  him  he  sat  and 
wept  like  a  child  through  the  whole  discourse,  and  when  it  was 
concluded  he  said  :  '  Mr.  Beecher  has  said  the  very  things  I  have 
been  trying  to  say  ever  since  I  entered  the  Christian  pulpit.' 
The  Dean  of  Canterbury  said  to  Mr.  Beecher  himself:  'There  is 
one  thing,  Mr.  Beecher,  for  which  we  must  all  thank  you,  and 
that  is  for  what  you  have  taught  us  respecting  the  Fatherhood  of 
God.'  When  he  went  [in  1886]  through  England  and  Scotland  he 
was  hailed  on  every  side  by  ministers  who  bore  the  most  grateful 
testimony  to  the  happy  influence  which  his  ministry  had  exer- 
cised upon  their  spiritual  life." 

And  this  kind  of  evidence  could  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely. If  he  was  through  all  those  long  years  thus  influ- 
encing the  teachers  of  religion,  and  opening  to  their  souls 
an  entrance  into  the  "  lofty  and  impassioned  idealism  "  in 
which  his  own  spirit  so  largely  dwelt,  how  incalculable 
his  influence  upon  the  millions  who  hear  and  read  the 
teachings  of  these  thousands  of  instructors  !  Truly  he 
was  a  mighty  man;  and  the  marvel  is  that  his  might  was 
so  unselfishly  exercised  for  the  right. 

In  his  last  notable  contribution  to  religious  teaching — 
his  sermons  on  "  Evolution  and  Religion  " — he  simply  gave 
deliberate  utterance  to  a  line  of  thought  which  he  had  been 
following,  at  first  vaguely,  afterwards  with  more  clearness 
and  certainty,  for  many  years.     In  his  preface  he  says: — 

"  The  universal  physical  fact  of  evolution,  which  a  widely  ac- 
cepted philosophy  of  our  day  postulates  as  a  theory  of  the  Divine 
method  of  creation,  is  one  which  so  naturally  and  simply  fits 
many  a  puzzling  lock,  that  it  is  gratefully  seized  by  many  who 
seem  to  themselves  to  have  been  shut  out  from  hope  and  from 
the  truth. 

"  For  myself,  while  finding  no  need  of  changing  my  idea  of  the 
Divine  personality  because  of  new  light  upon  His  mode  of  work- 
ing, I  have  hailed  the  Evolutionary  philosophy  with  joy.  .  .  . 
And  that  it  will  furnish  —  nay,  is  already  bringing — to  the  aid  of 
religious  truth  as  set  forth  in  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ 
a  new  and  powerful  aid,  fully  in  line  with  other  marked  develop- 
ments of  God's  providence  in  this  His  world,  I  fervently  believe." 


160  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

In  a  private  letter  (1885)  he  writes:  "  It  is  the  fruit  of 
my  life's  thinking,  and  has  come  not  from  books  but  from 
the  life  of  my  own  soul."  It  was  a  vital  and  helpful  belief 
to  him;  and,  whatever  may  be  its  fate  as  a  basis  of  men's 
religious  conceptions,  he  used  it  with  power  to  help  and 
vitalize  the  dying  faith  of  many  a  man  who  received  it  with 
gratitude,  and  made  it  possible  for  many  a  preacher  and 
teacher  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times  in  scientific  thought 
— not  as  a  hindrance,  but  as  a  new  inspiration,  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  God's  revelation  in  his  word  and  in  his 
works. 

Of  the  addresses  in  this  volume  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  they  constitute  a  glowing  picture  of  the  times  that 
gave  them  birth.  Their  statements,  often  violently  disputed 
when  first  set  forth,  have  hardened  into  accepted  truth;  and 
their  matter  and  style — for  terseness,  clearness  of  reason- 
ing, aptitude  of  illustration,  keenness  of  wit,  power  of  ap- 
peal, and  all  the  elements  of  effective  eloquence — will 
stand  among  the  most  enduring  monuments  of  the  orator's 
genius. 

In  many  a  passage  his  words  now  stand  as  prophecy  ful- 
filled. 

Lincoln,  Grant,  and  Beecher  are  generally  acknowledged 
to  have  been  the  three  greatest  men  developed  by  the  co- 
lossal contests  of  their  era.  Yet  it  is  worthy  of  note,  that 
both  the  civil  hero  and  the  military  hero  of  the  War  owed 
their  high  eminence  largely  to  the  vast  power  of  a  Nation, 
entrusted  to  their  able  hands  in  official  responsibility, 
while  the  power  exerted  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  sim- 
ply that  of  his  own  individuality.  His  great  church,  his 
extensive  effect  upon  the  religious  thought  and  teaching  of 
his  time,  his  wide  journalistic  influence,  his  popularity  as 
a  lecturer,  his  general  acceptability  as  the  man  to  voice  the 
public  feeling  on  all  sorts  of  occasions,  his  political  influ- 
ence at  home,  his  triumphant  changing  of  the  course  of  a 
stubborn  nation  abroad,  his  eminence  in  so  many  spheres 
of  activity  during  so  long  a  life, — these  all  grew  out  of  the 
magnificent  forces  of  the  man  himself. 


CONCLUSION.  161 

And  the  man  himself,  therefore,  is  what  the  present 
volume,  in  spite  of  its  limited  scope,  will  help  to  show. 
Descriptions  and  biographies  of  him  are  but  partial 
side  -  lights.  Real  knowledge  of  him  can  be  had  only 
from  his  own  utterances,  where  the  living  flame  of  his 
genius  burns  imperishably.  He  held  no  office;  he  bore 
no  professional  label ;  he  wore  no  sectarian  badge  or 
party  collar;  he  was  neither  President,  nor  General,  nor 
Doctor  of  Divinity;  but  above  all  rank,  beyond  all  title, 
stands  and  will  stand,  the  unadorned,  yet  unforgotten 
name  of  Henry  Ward   Beecher. 


These  preliminary  pages  are  concluded,  with  a  clear 
sense  of  their  imperfections,  but  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  aid  the  reader  of  the  following  "  Addresses "  to 
appreciate  the  noble  consistency  of  the  life  whose  power 
men  hold  in  wonder  and  admiration. 

John  R.  Howard. 


PATRIOTIC   ADDRESSES 


BY 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 


FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY 


cz 


— ? 


SHALL    WE    COMPROMISE? 


Mr.  Clay's  Compromise  has  been  violently  resisted  by 
the  South,  and  but  coldly  looked  upon  in  the  North. 

It  is  not  that  both  sides  are  infatuated  and  refuse  a  rea- 
sonable settlement.  But  the  skill  of  Mr.  Clay  has  evidently 
not  touched  the  seat  of  disease.  He  either  has  not  per- 
ceived, or  has  not  thought  it  expedient  to  meet  the  real 
issue  now  before  the  people  of  the  United  States.  The 
struggle  going  on  is  a  struggle  whose  depths  lie  in  the 
organization  of  society,  in  the  North  and  South  respect- 
ively; whose  causes  were  planted  in  the  Constitution. 
There  are  two  incompatible  and  mutually  destructive  prin- 
ciples wrought  together  in  the  government  of  this  land. 
Hitherto,  like  Esau  and  Jacob,  they  have  striven  together 
in  the  womb.  Now  they  are  born,  and  that  feud  has  begun 
which  shall  drive  the  one  or  the  other  to  the  wilderness. 
To  attempt  to  settle  a  radical  opposition  of  polity,  by 
easing  off  the  rub  here  and  there,  leaving  the  great  princi- 
ples in  full  vigor,  is  as  if  one  should  hang  fenders  and  sand- 
bags along  the  side  of  hostile  ships  that  come  crushing 
together,  instead  of  putting  the  helm  about  and  going 
another  tack.  "  Slavery  is  right,"  and  "  Slavery  is  wrong  "  ; 
"  Slavery  shall  live,"  "Slavery  shall  die"  ;  "Slavery  shall 
extend,"  "  Slavery  shall  not  extend"  ; — are  these  conflicts 
to  be  settled  by  any  mode  of  parceling  out  certain  terri- 
tories ?  Now  the  battle  rages  at  one  point.  By  and  by  it 
will  rage  at  another.  These  oppugnant  elements,  Slavery 
and  Liberty,  inherent  in  our  political  system,  animating  our 
Constitution,   checkering  our  public   policy,    breeding  in 

*From  The  Independent,  Feb.  21,  T850.  This  article  was  read  to  John  C. 
Calhoun,  then  on  his  death-bed.  "  Who  writes  that  ? "  he  asked.  The  name 
was  given  him.  "  That  man  understands  the  thing.  He  has  gone  to  the 
bottom  of  it.     He  will  be  heard  from  again." 


1 68  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

statesmen  opposite  principles  of  government,  and  making 
our  whole  wisdom  of  public  legislation  on  many  of  the  great- 
.      est  questions  cross-eyed  and  contradictory,  these  elements 
are  seeking  each  other's  life.     One  or  the  other  must  die. 

We  give  Mr.  Clay  sincere  praise  for  desiring  peace.  We 
think  it  worthy  of  his  reputation,  to  have  declared  that  he 
would  never  vote  for  the  extension  of  Slavery.  If  his 
compromise  had  taken  that  determination  as  its  starting 
point,  he  would  then  have  come  nearer  to  our  ideas  of  the 
leader  which  our  times  and  our  difficulties  demand.  It  is 
no  sportive  joust  upon  which  our  nation  is  gazing.  The 
shield  of  the  challenger  hangs  out  for  no  blunted  lance. 
Like  Ivanhoe,  we  should  have  been  glad  had  Mr.  Clay 
struck  the  shield  of  Du  Bois  Gilbert  with  the  sharp  lance- 
head,  importing  earnest  battle.  One  straightforward  speech 
against  the  extension  of  Slavery,  based,  not  upon  political 
reasons,  but  on  the  great  principles  of  humanity  and 
justice;  one  glowing  appeal  to  the  whole  nation  to  take  the 
stand,  which  he  has  personally  taken,  never  to  vote  for  the 
extension  of  Slavery  on  either  side  of  any  line;  this  would  have 
been  a  noble  statesmanship,  and  crowned  the  last  years  of  the 
revered  sage  of  Ashland  with  the  brightest  glory  of  his  life  ! 
Let  no  man  suppose  that  the  contentions  which  now 
agitate  the  land  have  sprung  from  the  rash  procedure  of  a 
few   men — the   hot-heads    either  of   the  North   or   of  the 

r  South.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  collision  not  of  men,  but 
of  principles  and  political  institutions.  The  inevitable 
course  of  affairs  has  been  developing  the  results  for  which 
provision  was  made,  first  in  the  organization  of  society, 
and  then  in  the  structure  of  the  Constitution.  No  harvest 
ever  answered  more  closely  to  the  husbandman's  seed,  than 
do  our  difficulties  to  the  original  sowing. 

The  North,  adopting  the  theory  of  democracy,  organized 
all  her  civil  and  industrial  institutions  upon  that  basis. 
Every  man,  the  lowest,  the  least,  the  highest  and  best,  had 
one  common  platform  of  rights.  The  South,  adopting  the 
theory  of  aristocracy,  made  two  platforms — the  one  for  the 
governed,  the  other  for  the  governors.  The  one  and  the 
other  began  at  once  to  exhibit  their  results.     In  the  North, 


SHALL   WE   COMPROMISE?  169 

labor  was  voluntary,  honorable,  and  universal;  in  the 
South  it  was  compulsory,  and  made  disreputable  by  being 
fastened  upon  an  abject  class.  Of  course  the  laborer  had 
different  values.  In  the  North,  he  was  a  citizen,  capable  of 
any  honor,  framing  his  own  laws,  making  his  own  rulers, 
and  so  an  integral  element  of  the  State.  In  the  South,  he 
neither  voted  nor  determined;  he  had  no  rights;  he  was 
a  slave.  Labor  and  Laborers  are  the  foundations  of  a 
community.  The  strength,  the  virtue,  the  civilization  of 
a  community  must  be  measured  by  the  condition  of  its 
laborers,  and  not  by  the  polish  on  its  surface. 

The  whole  structure  of  society  conformed  to  these  re- 
spective foundations. 

The  North  put  honor  upon  its  laborers;  they  were 
trained  in  common  schools;  they  became  reading  and  re- 
flecting men;  shrewdness,  penetration,  forecast,  personal 
independence,  fertile  resource,  marked  the  industrial  classes. 
Grow  as  rapidly  as  the  educated  and  the  wealthy  might, 
the  distance  between  them  and  the  laborer  constantly 
diminished.  There  never  was  a  time  when  the  bottom  of 
society  was  so  near  the  top  as  now. 

The  South,  making  labor  a  disgraceful  necessity,  deny- 
ing it  education,  compelling  it  not  by  those  motives  which 
are  ordained  healthfully  to  develop  the  man,  but  by  the 
overseer's  eye  and  lash,  and  educating  only  her  wealthy 
sons,  has  steadily  widened  the  distance  between  the  top 
and  bottom  of  society.  Nothing  can  be  more  dissimilar 
than  the  tone  and  sentiment  of  societies  so  diversely 
formed.  Liberty  is  a  universal  right — it  belongs  to  men, 
on  the  one  side;  it  is  a  privilege,  and  belongs  to  a  class,  on 
the  other  side.  The  North  binds  society  together,  identi- 
fies its  interests,  equalizes  and  kneads  it,  causing  it  to  grow 
alike  throughout,  and  makes  it  strong  by  the  strength  of 
its  individuals,  and  gives  to  individuals  the  advantage  of 
commonweal.  There  cannot  be  a  commonwealth  of  Slavery. 
It  is  class-weal  and  class-wealth.  The  South  hopelessly 
divides  society;  puts  her  honors  on  one  side  of  the  cleft, 
her  menial  offices  on  the  other.  The  North  compacts  and 
the  South  stratifies.     To  educate   the  laborer  is  to  do  the 


ijo  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

whole  State  a  benefit,  in  the  North;  to  educate  the  laborer 
is  to  strike  at  the  foundations  of  society  in  the  South.  We 
send  educators  to  the  Governor's  chair  and  to  Congress. 
They  of  the  South  send  them  to  the  penitentiary  and  the 
gibbet. 

Now,  does  any  man  doubt  that  here  are  the  real,  vital, 
distinguishing  elements  of  two  radically  different  govern- 
ments— an  Aristocracy  and  a  Democracy  ?  Does  any  one 
believe  it  possible  that  these  respective  tendencies  should 
be  confined,  in  the  respective  fields,  to  civil  affairs?  Will 
they  not  determine  the  family  institution,  the  usages  of  so- 
ciety, public  opinion,  yea,  the  whole  and  very  nature  of 
communities  ?  Can  the  agriculture  of  slaves  and  slavery 
and  the  agriculture  of  freemen  be  the  same  ?  Can  the 
commercial  interests  be  the  same?  the  political  economy 
and  the  politics  ?  Can  statesmen  bred  in  such  schools  have 
common  sympathies  ?  That  the  North  and  South  have 
many  wants  and  many  sympathies  in  common,  is  as  true  as 
that  all  men,  the  most  opposite,  oppressor  and  oppressed, 
deceiver  and  dupe,  have  great  wants  in  common.  But  in 
their  foundation-ideas,  their  political  doctrines,  their  State 
policies,  their  conceptions  of  public  measures,  they  are  not 
only  different,  but,  for  the  most  part,  opposite  and  oppug- 
nant.  States  so  essentially  different  would  find  harmony 
rather  in  separate  existence  than  in  federation.  Yet  our 
Union  is  composed  of  these  oppositions. 

When  the  Constitution  was  in  birth,  these  things  were 
in  the  seed.  Yet,  even  then,  the  repellencies  were  such 
that  a  common  Constitution  was  adopted  only  by  com- 
promise. Now  if  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  in 
the  matter  of  Slavery  were  adopted  in  the  expectation  that 
slavery  would  soon  be  eradicated  by  the  superior  vitality 
of  Liberty,  we  can  understand  the  wisdom  of  the  inten- 
tion at  least.  But  if  it  was  designed  that  one  instrument 
should  inclose  the  spirit  of  two  theories  of  government  so 
totally  adverse,  it  was  the  most  extraordinary  blindness, 
the  most  anomalous  folly  which  honest  men  were  ever 
smitten  with.  We  should  as  soon  look  for  an  agreement 
by  which   Christ  and   Belial   should   jointly  undertake  to 


SHALL   WE   COMPROMISE?  171 

govern  this  world  !  Was  it  thought  possible  to  serve  both 
Liberty  and  Slavery — God  and  Mammon  ?  Could  the 
same  mouth  breathe  justice  and  injustice?  Could  a  Con- 
stitution having  any  definite  nature  have  two  hearts,  one 
beating  for  liberty  with  vitalized  blood,  and  the  other 
beating  for  slavery  with  black  blood  ?  Could  it  organize 
courts  empowered  to  establish  justice  and  systematic  op- 
pression?— courts,  with  one  hand  to  lift  up  the  wronged 
by  speedy  redress,  and  to  beat  down  the  wronged  with  the 
other  by  triple  blows  ?  We  believe  that  the  compromises 
of  the  Constitution  looked  to  the  destruction  of  Slavery 
and  not  to  its  establishment. 

The  event  justified  the  judgment.  Although  incidental 
causes  conspired  to  give  slavery  a  new  growth,  while  our 
country  was  swelling  and  coming  into  manhood,  yet  it 
soon  became  apparent  that  both  systems  could  not  long 
coexist. 

There  are  good  and  easy  souls,  not  perturbed  by  over 
deep  meditations,  who  think  that  men  make  all  this  na- 
tional uproar.  They  are  guiltless  of  supposing  that  our 
institutions  are  the  agitators,  that  our  civil  polity  is  the 
fanatic  whose  firebrands  inflame  the  Union.  This  move- 
ment of  the  spirit  of  the  age  has  made  the  men,  not  the 
men  it.  We  are  its  children.  While  the  North  and  the 
South  inveigh  against  each  other,  and  fanatics  are  loud- 
mouthed against  fanatics,  calmer  and  deeper  men  see  that 
both  North  and  South  are  drifting,  and  fighting  as  they 
drift,  in  a  current  whose  secret  springs  lie  deeper  than 
men's  volitions;  whose  force  God  hath  ordained  and  will 
augment,  until  old  things  are  passed  away,  and  He  whose 
right  it  is  shall  reign.  Why  then  should  we  try  to  stop 
the  contest?  It  must  come  to  an  issue,  which  spirit  shall 
animate  our  Constitution.  The  spirit  of  Bondage  and  the 
spirit  of  Liberty,  when  both  are  living  spirits,  cannot  dwell 
together.  Moses'  rod  must  swallow  the  enchanter's,  or 
the  magician's  rod  must  swallow  the  prophet's.  The 
South  have  found  out  that  Slavery  cannot  live  and  stand 
still.  Liberty  grows  the  fastest;  has  the  best  roots;  eats 
out    the    other:    and    if   slavery    is   stationary    it   will    be 


172  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

speedily  overrun  and  smothered  by  the  rampant  vine  of 
freedom.  It  must  thrust  out  its  roots;  it  must  borrow 
vigor  from  fresh  soil.  Southern  men  are  perfectly  consist- 
ent in  rejecting  a  compromise  which  only  confirms  old 
rights,  but  positively  grants  no  extension. 

The  South  now  demands  room  and  right  for  extension. 
She  asks  the  North  to  be  a  partner.  For  every  Free  State 
she  demands  one  State  for  Slavery.  One  dark  orb  must 
be  swung  into  its  orbit  to  groan  and  travail  in  pain,  for 
every  new  orb  of  liberty  over  which  the  morning  stars 
shall  sing  for  joy. 

On  that  question  we  hold  there  can  be  no  Compromise. 
The  Constitution  has  come  to  a  period  of  final  construc- 
tion. Every  j^ear's  delay  will  aggravate  the  difficulties;  an 
earlier  day  had  been  better  than  this;  but  this  is  better 
than  any  future  day.  It  is  time  for  good  men  and  true  to 
gird  up  their  loins  and  stand  forth  for  God  and  for  Hu- 
manity. No  Compromises  can  help  us  which  dodge  the 
question;  certainly  none  which  settle  it  for  Slavery.  We 
are  told  that  the  question  is  momentous  and  beset  with  the 
most  serious  difficulties.  Neither  in  the  affairs  of  individuals 
nor  of  nations  is  there  any  difficulty  when  men  are  willing 
to  do  right.  It  is  when  Right  is  spun  to  so  fine  a  thread 
that  it  floats  like  a  gossamer,  changing  to  every  breath, 
that  we  lose  sight  of  it  or  find  it  entangled  in  our  hands. 
There  never  was  a  plainer  question  for  the  North.  It  is 
her  duty  openly,  firmly,  and  forever  to  refuse  to  Slavery 
another  inch  of  territory,  and  to  see  that  it  never  gets  any 
by  fraud.  It  is  her  duty  to  refuse  her  hand  or  countenance 
to  Slavery  where  it  now  exists.  It  is  her  duty  to  declare 
that  she  will  under  no  considerations  be  a  party  to  any 
further  inhumanity  and  injustice.  Then  the  path  will  be 
plain  and  straight.  The  path  of  Duty,  though  a  steep 
one,  and  often  toilsome,  is  always  straight  and  plain. 
Those  are  the  labyrinthine  roads,  which,  winding  through 
sloughs  and  thickets  or  imbosked  and  dark,  seek  to  find  a 
way  around  the  rocks  and  steeps,  and  to  come  to  the  gate 
of  Success  without  climbing  the  hill  of  Difficulty. 

Mr.  Clay's  compromise  resolutions  demand   better  pro- 


SHALL   WE   COMPROMISE!  173 

vision  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves;  and  a  bill  is  now 
pending  in  the  United  States  Senate  for  this  purpose.  We 
cannot  strongly  enough  express  our  profound  regret  at  the 
remarks  which  Mr.  Clay  felt  it  his  duty  to  make  on  this 
subject.  On  this  matter,  our  feelings  are  so  strong  that 
we  confess  a  liability  to  intemperance  of  expression. 

If  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  include  requisi- 
tions which  violate  Humanity,  I  will  not  be  bound  by 
them.  Not  even  the  Constitution  shall  make  me  unjust. 
If  my  patriotic  sires  confederated  in  my  behalf  that  I 
should  maintain  that  instrument,  so  I  will,  to  the  utmost 
bounds  of  Right.  But  who,  with  power  which  even  God 
denies  to  himself,  shall  by  compact  foreordain  me  to  the 
commission  of  inhumanity  and  injustice  ?  I  disown  the  act. 
I  repudiate  the  obligation.  Never  while  I  have  breath 
will  I  help  any  official  miscreant  in  his  base  errand  of  re- 
capturing a  fellow  man  for  bondage.  And  may  my  foot 
palsy,  and  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning,  if  I  ever  be- 
come so  untrue  to  mercy  and  to  religion  as  not,  by  all  the 
means  in  my  power,  to  give  aid  and  succor  to  every  man 
whose  courageous  flight  tells  me  that  he  is  worthy  of  lib- 
erty. If  asked,  what  then  becomes  of  the  Constitution,  I 
reply  by  asking  what  becomes  of  God's  Constitution  of 
Humanity,  if  you  give  back  a  slave  to  the  remorseless  maw 
of  servitude  ?  I  put  Constitution  against  Constitution — 
God's  against  man's.  Where  they  agree  they  are  doubly 
sacred.  Where  they  differ  my  reply  to  all  questioners, 
but  especially  to  all  timid  Christian  scruples,  is  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Peter:  "  Whether  it  be  right,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
to  hearken  unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye." 

Ought  not  Christians,  by  all  the  means  in  their  power, 
to  preserve  the  Union  ?  Yes,  by  all  means  that  are  right. 
But,  dear  as  the  Union  is,  and  ought  to  be,  whenever  it 
comes  between  a  Christian  people  and  their  Christian  integ- 
rity it  becomes  a  snare.  The  very  value  of  our  Union  is  to 
be  found  in  those  principles  of  justice,  liberty,  and  human- 
ity which  inspire  it.  But  if  by  any  infernal  juggle  these 
principles  must  be  yielded  up  to  preserve  the  Union,  then 
a  corpse  only  will  be  left  in  our  arms,  deflowered,  lifeless, 


174  PA  TRIO  TIC  A  DDRESSES. 

worthless.  A  Union  perpetuated  by  giving  way  to  in- 
justice— a  Union  maintained  by  obedience  to  the  desires  of 
slavery — is  but  a  compact  of  violence.  We  emphasize  these 
things  because  the  long  continued  cries  of  politicians  have 
produced  among  sober  Christian  men  an  unquestioned 
and  undisturbed  conviction  that  no  evil  can  be  so 
great  as  the  dissolution  of  our  Union.  There  are  many 
evils  infinitely  greater.  The  loss  of  a  national  conscience 
is  greater.  The  loss  of  public  humanity  is  greater.  An 
indifference  to  the  condition  of  millions  of  miserable  creat- 
ures, whose  degradation,  vices,  ignorance,  and  animalism 
plead  with  our  conscience  in  their  behalf;  this  would  be  an 
unspeakably  greater  evil.  So  long  as  we  can  maintain 
the  Union  on  terms  which  allow  us  to  act  with  a  free  con- 
science, with  humanity  unviolated,  we  shall  count  no  sac- 
rifice dear  to  maintain  it.  But  religion  and  humanity  are 
a  price  too  dear  to  pay  even  for  the  Union  ! 

Our  Southern  brethren  often  complain  that  we  don't 
understand  their  condition  or  sympathize  with  their  real 
difficulties.  Even  so,  too,  we  complain  that  they  do  not 
understand  our  situation  and  sympathize  with  our  difficul- 
ties. There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  to  whom 
conscience  is  a  law — a  law  notwithstanding  the  sneers  of 
those  who  flout  at  the  idea  of  a  conscience  party.  But 
there  is  a  conscience  party  !  There  is  a  stern  and  growing 
feeling  in  the  Free  States,  not  yet  expressed  by  any  dis- 
tinctive organization,  that  the  time  has  come  for  a  stand 
against  any  future  national  inhumanity.  We  can  bear 
much,  but  we  cannot  and  will  not  bear  the  guilt  of  Slavery. 
We  regard  it  as  epitomizing  every  offense  which  man  can 
commit  against  man.  It  takes  liberty  from  those  to  whom 
God  gave  it  as  the  right  of  all  rights.  It  forbids  all  food 
either  for  the  understanding  or  the  heart.  It  takes  all 
honesty  from  the  conscience.  Its  takes  its  defense  from 
virtue,  and  gives  all  authority  into  the  hands  of  lustful  or 
\-  pecuniary  cupidity.  It  scorns  the  family,  and  invades  it 
whenever  desire  or  the  want  of  money  prevail,  with  the 
same  coolness  with  which  a  drover  singles  out  a  heifer,  or 
a  butcher  strikes  down  a  bullock.     These  are  not  the  acci- 


I 


SHALL   WE    COMPROMISE?  175 

dents  of  slavery.  They  are  its  legitimate  fruits.  They 
are  its  vitality.  If  you  stop  these  evils  you  will  destroy 
the  system.  Let  the  slave  be  taught;  let  him  have,  not  a 
filtered  and  adulterated  Gospel,  but  that  Gospel  which  an- 
gels heralded,  strangely  filling  the  air  with  the  cry,  "  Peace 
on  earth  and  good  will  toward  men  " — and  it  will  make 
the  slaves  what  it  made  the  barbarous  Briton  and  the  rude 
Saxon — freemen  and  refined  Christians.  Take  from  Slav- 
ery its  right  to  merchandise,  forbid  the  disruption  of 
families,  the  sale  of  slaves  from  the  homestead  where  they 
were  born,  and  the  system  will  stink  in  the  nostrils  of 
Southern  planters  as  it  now  does  in  our  own. 

Now  we  declare  that  into  a  fellowship  with  these  mon- 
strous evils,  whose  perpetration  around  our  whole  Southern 
coast  is  enough  to  preoccupy  the  heavenly  tribunal  of 
mercy,  and  to  exhaust  its  patience  on  only  this  form  of  all 
the  world-wide  human  suffering,  we  have  been  drawn  un- 
wittingly. We  did  not  know,  or  did  not  think,  that  to 
swear  fealty  to  the  Constitution  was  to  swear  preservation 
to  Slavery.  We  had  always  understood  that  the  compro- 
mises of  the  Constitution  were  agreed  upon  in  the  North, 
only  that  time  might  be  given  for  Slavery  to  die  out.  But 
if  another  construction  be  made,  and  becomes  the  settled 
reading  of  that  instrument;  if  the  North  is  to  have  the 
the  guilt  and  the  South  the  profits  of  Slavery;  if  we  are 
henceforth  to  understand  that  Slavery  is  federal  and  na- 
tional, recognized  in  the  all-embracing  Constitution,  then 
but  one  course  is  left  us.  No  earthly  consideration  shall 
make  us  partners  in  this  monstrosity.  We  most  solemnly 
declare,  by  our  belief  in  Humanity,  by  our  hopes  in  religion, 
by  our  faith  in  Christ,  that  we  will  cut  every  cord  of  op- 
pression whose  force  is  derived  from  us.  And  if  in  so  doing 
men  choose  to  interpose  the  Constitution,  upon  their  heads 
be  the  blame.  Palsied  be  that  hand  and  blasted  those  lips 
which  shall  make  our  Constitution,  ordained  for  freedom, 
the  instrument  of  bondage  and  cruelty! 

We  shall  study  to  circumscribe  Slavery  where  it  now  ex- 
ists. We  shall  oppose  every  party  that  secretly  or  openly 
connives  at  it.     We  shall  be  hostile  to  every  measure  which 


I76  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

consults  its  interests.  We  shall  not  cease  to  stand  upon 
the  brink  of  this  dismal  abyss,  and  over  against  its  smoke 
and  wails  to  pray  with  agonizing  earnestness,  "  How  long, 
O  Lord,  how  long!  "  A  day  will  come — in  God's  counsels 
it  is  already  seen  advancing — when  men  will  look  back 
upon  this  system  as  we  now  look  at  the  dungeons  and  tri- 
bunals of  the  Inquisition.  In  that  day,  many  a  man  will 
deny  his  parentage  and  forswear  the  ancestors,  who  either 
forged  fetters  for  the  slave,  or  more  meanly  blew  the  bel- 
lows for  those  who  wrought  at  the  anvil  of  oppression. 
May  my  children  to  the  latest  generation,  in  looking  back 
to  my  example,  take  courage,  and  strike  home  for  Liberty 
and  Humanity  ! 

With  these  views,  no  soothsayer  is  needed  to  interpret 
,  our  views  of  the  extension  of  Slavery.     It  is  not  enough 
\      that  we  do  not  will  it.     Every  man  consents  to  it  who  does 
\_  not  exhaust  his  strength  in  endeavoring  to  prevent  it. 

Nor  do  we  misunderstand  the  cunning  cry  of  those  who 
ask  us  to  leave  the  issues  of  this  question  in  new  ter- 
ritories to  chance.  Nowadays  chance  has  too  many  wires 
and  wire-workers  to  suit  our  ideas  of  luck.  Chance  is  the 
merest  gambler.  The  dice  are  loaded.  The  cards  are 
marked.  Only  the  victim  dreams  that  there  is  fair  play. 
The  South  is  to  deal,  the  North  is  to  take  what  cards  are 
flirted  to  its  hands.  Who  doubts  the  issue  ?  How  many 
more  games  than  those  already  played  are  needed  before 
the  dupe  shall  suspect  foul  play?  No:  by  as  much  as  Lib- 
erty is  dearer  to  us  than  Slavery,  by  so  much  should  we  be 
more  active  in  its  behalf  than  its  adversaries  are  in  behalf 
of  Slavery.  If  they  can  toil  night  and  day,  dig  deep 
trenches,  bear  burdens  cheerfully  to  sink  the  rocky  foun- 
dations for  the  towers  of  oppression,  shall  we  have  no 
bulwarks  and  no  towers  for  Liberty  ?  Whenever  and 
wherever  a  blow  is  struck  for  Slavery,  then  and  there  must 
be  a  double  stroke  for  Liberty  ! 

CWe  will  compromise  any  measures  tending  to  prevent  the 
extension  of  Slavery.  We  will  compromise  as  to  the  par- 
ticulars of  its  death,  laying  out,  and  burial.  But  every 
compromise  must  include  the  advantage  of  Liberty  and  the 


SHALL   WE   COMPROMISE?  177 

disadvantage  of  Slavery.  Compromises  dictated  by  wily  pol- 
iticians, made  to  serve  a  pinch  in  party  tactics;  compromises 
issuing  from  men  whose  ideas  of  patriotism  are  summed 
up  in  giving  their  adversaries  a  grip  and  downfall,  to  whom 
spoils  are  virtues  and  offices  religion;  or  those  better-in- 
tended compromises,  like  Mr.  Clay's,  which  seek  for  peace, 
rather  than  for  humanity;  from  such  compromises,  guile- 
less though  they  seem,  and  gilded  till  they  shine  like 
Heaven,  evermore  may  we  be  delivered  ! 

We  shall  abide  by  the  Union.     No  vandal  outrage  shall 
our  hands  commit.     We  shall  honor  it  by   obedient   lives, 
consecrate  it  by  our  prayers,  purify  it  from  the  dross  of  in- 
justice, and  give  to  it  such  foundations  of  Right  as  shall 
hold  it  steadfast  amid  all  the  revolutionary  concussions  of 
our  day.     If  there  be  those  who  cannot  abide  the   Union     f 
because  it  is  pure  and  religious,  just  and  humane,  let  them    / 
beware  of  that  tumultuous  scene  into  which  they  purpose  / 
to  leap. 

But  we  do  not  believe  that  such  an  issue  awaits  us.  The 
pliancy  of  miserable  scramblers  for  political  preferment 
has  caused  these  violent  gusts.  Thus,  hitherto,  have  vic- 
tories been  gained  for  Slavery.  Thus  they  are  sought 
again.  Firmness  is  the  remedy  for  threats.  If  good  men, 
having  good  representatives,  are  but  firm,  the  storm  will 
beat  the  stout  oak,  and  rage  like  a  demon  through  its 
twisted  branches,  but  pass  on  and  spend  itself  in  the 
wilderness;  meanwhile  the  returning  sun  shall  find  the 
noble  tree  unwrecked  and  fast-rooted. 

But  if  our  Charter  Oak  is  to  be  dismembered,  God  be 
thanked  that  its  roots  were  planted  in  the  soil  of  freedom  ! 
There  they  were  spread;  its  trunk  and  its  mightiest 
branches  will  abide.  The  sun  and  the  soil  that  nourished 
its  infancy  yet  remain  to  repair  what  time  and  storms  may 
mutilate.  Beneath  its  shadow  the  poor  and  oppressed  shall 
find  shelter. 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.* 


I  do  not  forget,  on  appearing  before  you,  my  friends, 
the  profession  to  which  I  belong.  I  bear  in  mind  that  I 
am  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  if  I  do  not  misapprehend  the 
complexion  of  this  audience,  the  far  greater  number  of 
them  are  religious  persons;  most  of  you  are  either  Chris- 
tians, or  at  any  rate  educated  in  Christianity,  and  hence  I 
judge  that  the  moral  aspect  of  the  Slavery  Question  will 
be  the  most  interesting  to  you.  I  shall  not  consider  the 
subject  from  the  commercial  standpoint,  neither  shall  I 
take  the  political  standpoint,  nor  the  philanthropic,  sim- 
ply as  the  philanthropic,  but  as  a  Christian,  in  its  relations 
to  Christianity  shall  I  regard  it — as  a  man  who  believes 
in  God,  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  in  the  rational 
and  accountable  nature  of  every  human  being  that  lives; 
as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  preaching  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh,  do  I  feel  deeply  interested  in  this  massive,  this 
gigantic  evil. 

And  it  is  interesting  to  know  how  and  in  what  way  it 
has  lived  and  thrived,  how  it  has  advanced  upon  us  like 
the  sea  breaking  down  dykes  and  sweeping  inward  on  the 
land.  In  every  man  there  is  an  essential  love  of  irrespon- 
sible power.  It  is  the  same  under  all  governments,  and  in 
every  age;  for  governments  and  institutions  do  not  make 
men  despotic.  All  men  love  irresponsible  power.  Every 
man  has  a  king's  heart  beating  under  his  ribs,  yes,  a  pope's 
heart  beating  under  his  ribs — I  have,  you  have.  The  feel- 
ing is,  /will  be  master  and  you  shall  be  servant;  and  when 
a  man  gets  hold  of  this  power  he  holds  on  to  it.  This  is 
the  way  monarchies  are  sustained,  and  despotisms.  The 
power  is  held,  and   strengthened,  and  accumulated  till  it 

*  Speech  before  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  New 
York,  May  6,  1851.     Reprinted  from  report  in  The  Independent. 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  I79 

becomes  irresistible.  So,  after  men  become  owners  of 
slaves  they  feel  like  holding  on  to  them — they  like  the 
power;  and  although  slavery  came  upon  us  in  our  colonial 
days  against  our  wishes,  yet,  once  tasted,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  power  became  sweet,  and  men  desired  to  retain 
it;  and  this  is  the  reason,  I  take  it,  that  American  slavery 
has  come  to  be  as  strong  as  it  is.  But  there  were  other 
causes  for  this.  There  was  a  time  at  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution  when  slavery  began  to  relax  its  hold,  and 
when  it  was  thought  that  like  the  late  snows  in  April  it 
would  soon  melt  away;  else  there  would  have  been  no  such 
compromises  in  the  Constitution  as  there  were.  But  then 
came  a  time  when  commercial  profits  became  connected 
with  slavery;  the  cultivation  of  rice,  and  cotton,  and  sugar 
became  profitable;  and  then  slavery  became  rejuvenated: 
and  although  Christianity  can  do  much  to  control  com- 
merce and  temper  commerce,  and  does  do  much,  yet 
where  the  gains  are  large,  there  is  no  power  which  can 
restrain  it  throughout  the  whole  community. 

It  was  Lord  Brougham,  I  think,  who  said  that  where  the 
slave  trade  was  so  profitable  as  to  pay  three  hundred  per 
cent.,  not  all  the  navies  of  the  globe  could  stop  it;  and 
when  slavery  began  to  pay  enormous  profits,  not  all  the 
power  of  Christianity  could  stop  it,  especially  when  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  were  found  to  step  in  and  baptize  it 
and  call  it  Christian.     [C/ieers.] 

Not  only  was  commerce  concerned  in  the  augmentation 
of  slavery,  but  to-day  commerce,  both  in  the  South  and  in 
the  North,  is  the  bulwark  of  slavery;  but  for  that  no  power 
on  earth  could  save  it;  but  the  love  of  money  blinds  the 
eyes  and  stops  the  ears,  and  hardens  the  heart  to  all  per- 
suasions of  truth  and  justice.  At  the  time  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  slavery  had  not  come  to  be  so 
profitable,  and  the  Christian  feeling,  North  and  South, 
made  headway  against  it. 

And  now  we  come  to  another  reason  of  the  continuance 
of  slavery,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  development  of  a 
political  element  of  power,  whose  seeds  were  sown  in  the 
Constitution  without  any  foresight  of  what  the  fruit  would 


jSo  patriotic  addresses. 

be.  For,  to  a  great  extent,  the  framing  of  laws  and  the 
making  of  Constitutions  is  experimental.  You  cannot  tell 
beforehand  how  a  law  will  work.  The  Constitution  was 
built  in  one  sense  as  men  build  a  steamship — they  build  it 
as  perfect  as  possible — after  the  best  model,  and  yet  they 
cannot  tell  certainly  when  it  is  on  the  stocks  how  it  will 
sail.  One  ship  from  which  the  best  was  expected  lags  be- 
hind, and  another  outstrips  all  .competitors.  And  so  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  could  not  tell  how  it  would 
work  till  it  was  tried- — they  built  it  after  the  best  model — 
but  some  provisions  have  turned  out  a  great  deal  better 
than  was  expected,  and  some  a  great  deal  worse  than  was 
expected,  it  is  to  be  hoped  !  But  this  one  thing  is  certain, 
that  the  Constitution  was  formed  as  a  bona  fide  instrument 
of  liberty.  Its  framers  never  thought  that  it  would  be 
twisted  into  an  instrument  to  build  up  slavery.  I  acquit 
every  delegate,  whether  he  came  from  the  North  or  the 
South,  of  any  such  designs.  Not  a  delegate  from  the 
South  had  the  first  purpose  of  establishing  slavery.  This 
just  compliment  I  would  pay  to  the  South,  and  I  shall 
have  other  compliments  to  pay  them  before  I  am  through. 

But  we  are  not  to  forget,  in  enumerating  the  unpropi- 
tious  causes  of  this  monstrous  evil,  that  Christianity  has 
never  yet  been  true  to  its  own  spirit.  There  is  a  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Bible,  and  a  Christianity  of  the  Church;  but 
the  latter  does  not  always  express  the  fullness  or  spirit  of 
the  former. 

Christianity  is  like  the  rising  of  the  sun — the  light  steals 
up  over  the  hills  and  touches  the  mountain  tops,  and  moves 
on,  parallel  by  parallel,  and  latitude  by  latitude,  till  it 
pours  over  the  round  globe.  Now  I  say,  Christianity 
never  came  up  so  high  as  to  deal  with  slavery  as  it  ought, 
and  as  I  hope  soon  it  will.  \Cheers.~\  What  attitude 
ought  Christianity  to  hold  towards  the  colored  population, 
and  this  includes  the  African  race  North  and  South?  In 
the  first  place,  Christianity  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 
Christ,  in  one  sense,  did  not  regard  either  Jew  or  Gentile, 
bond  or  free,  rich  or  poor.  But  in  another  sense  he  did. 
There  is  a  scale  in  society  extending  from   the   rich  and 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  181 

cultivated  down  to  the  poor  and  ignorant.  Christ  did  re- 
gard this  difference,  and  he  worked  at  the  bottom  first. 
What  is  the  spirit  of  Christianity  ?  Is  it  not  a  spirit  of  love 
and  mercy  to  the  sinful,  the  helpless  ?  Does  it  not  aim  to  do 
the  most  for  those  who  need  the  most  ?  Christ  regarded  the 
poor,  the  most  neglected,  and  despised,  and  as  they  really 
had  his  regard,  so  they  felt  a  reciprocal  sympathy  of  hope, 
and  flocked  about  him,  to  the  joy  of  his  heart  and  to  the 
unspeakable  disgust  of  the  religious  purists  of  their  day. 
When  the  messengers  of  John  came  to  him  to  inquire  if  He 
was  the  Messiah,  he  replied,  Tell  John  that  the  blind  see, 
the  lame  walk,  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead 
are  raised,  and  to  the  poor  the  gospel  is  preached.  This 
last — the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them,  was  the 
climax,  and  the  great  and  glorious  climax,  which  was 
proof  irresistible. 

Now,  have  we  treated  the  colored  population  as  the 
spirit  of  Christ  enjoins  ?  Let  us  first  ask  the  South.  We  see 
there  three  million  slaves.  Their  rights  as  men  are  taken 
away — their  manhood  is  taken  away.  This  idea  I  would 
have  you  feel.  I  would  burn  it  into  your  souls.  The  wrong 
of  slavery  is  not  in  muscles  and  bones — it  is  not  that  the 
slaves  are  poorly  fed,  or  well  fed,  but  it  is  that  they  are 
chattels.  The  radical  idea  of  slavery  is  that  the  slave,  who 
is  a  man,  is  not  a  man — that  he  is  property,  like  a  piece  of 
furniture,  or  a  brute. 

There  was  another  system  of  slavery  four  thousand  years 
ago,  called  Hebrew  slavery.  Now  I  will  give  a  challenge 
to  any  man  who  may  be  present  from  the  South,  be  he 
clergyman  or  layman — and  I  would  say  the  same  in 
Georgia  if  I  were  there,  and  I  believe  that  I  could  say  it 
there  with  less  interruption  than  I  can  here — or  rather  I 
will  make  a  fair  compromise,  as  it  is  the  day  of  compro- 
mises, though  they  are  not  all  fair.  I  will  yield  the  point  of 
Bible  slavery,  and  allow  that  there  is  a  slavery  presented 
in  the  Bible,  if  you  at  the  South  will  agree  to  put  Southern 
slavery  on  the  platform  of  Bible  slavery. 

There  were  three  forms  of  servitude  among  the  Hebrews. 

First,  There  was   a  servitude   into  which   the   Hebrews 


1 82  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

themselves  might  come — which  can  be  regarded  but  as  an 
apprenticeship.  It  was  limited  to  seven  years;  it  did  not 
take  away  any  political  right;  nor  did  it  forbid  the  slave 
the  ownership  of  property.  He  could  buy  himself  if  he 
chose;  or  his  friends  had  a  right,  at  any  time,  peremptorily 
to  release  him  by  purchase. 

Secondly,  There  was  the  public  slavery — that  of  the 
Gibeonites,  who  did  service  for  the  commonwealth,  very 
much  as  our  State  prison  convicts  do. 

Thirdly,  There  was  the  Hebrew  bond  service,  which  was 
slavery  proper.  But  Moses  did  not  enact  this  slavery;  he 
found  it,  and  he  regulated  it  and  limited  it.  All  the  laws 
concerning  slavery  were  for  its  amelioration. 

In  the  first  place,  these  bond-slaves  could  be  made  only 
among  the  heathen;  and  secondly,  no  one  could  be  made 
a  slave  from  among  them  until  he  had  been  circumcised — 
in  other  words,  until  he  had  been  introduced  into  the 
privileges  of  the  church;  and  thirdly,  the  master  was 
obliged  to  give  them  a  religious  education. 

Now  in  our  modern  system  of  education  there  is  first 
the  family,  and  then  the  school,  and  the  magazines,  and 
the  newspapers.  But  then  there  were  only  five  books, 
called  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  whole  system  of  education 
was  comprised  in  instruction  in  these  five  books;  and  in 
these  every  slave  must  be  educated.  If  the  same  regula- 
tion was  carried  out  now,  it  would  require  the  Southern 
slave-owner  to  send  his  slave  to  the  academy,  and  then  put 
him  through  some  Northern  college,  and  graduate  him,  be- 
fore he  tied  him  down  to  the  plow  or  hoe  of  the  plantation. 
[Enthusiastic  cheering.]  That  was  the  Hebrew  idea  of 
slavery.  Then,  again,  if  any  one  will  enter  into  a  calcula- 
tion, he  will  find  that  the  Hebrew  slave  had  about  one- 
half  of  his  time  to  himself.  Moreover,  the  Hebrew  slave 
had  every  motive  held  out  to  him  to  rise.  He  could,  un- 
der certain  circumstances,  hold  property — he  could  better 
his  condition,  advance,  establish  himself  independently. 
All  the  laws  of  Moses  were  in  favor  of  the  slave — for  his 
advantage,  his  benefit,  his  encouragement,  his  defense.  If 
a  slave  was  wronged  or  abused,  he  could  go  into  a  court 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  I  S3 

and  get  speedy  and  sure  redress;  and  if  he  was  maimed  he 
immediately  became  free,  the  injury  being  the  warrant  of 
his  liberty.  There  was,  moreover,  a  standing  canon,  that 
when  a  slave  ran  away  he  should  not  be  forcibly  returned. 
The  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  that  this  did  not  apply 
to  Hebrew  slaves,  but  only  to  those  who  fled  from  among 
the  heathen.  But  it  was  not  so — this  was  not  so.  Slavery- 
was  so  regulated,  in  fact,  that  it  was  expected  that  a  slave 
would  never  wish  to  run  away.  And  if  he  did  run  away, 
that  very  fact  was  regarded  as  evidence  that  he  ought  to 
have  run  away.  And  I  think  that  the  same  presumption 
should  be  held  now,  and  all  the  world  over.  [Cheers.] 
Such  was  the  system  of  slavery  four  thousand  years  ago, 
among  a  people  who  had  but  just  shook  off  the  dust  of 
Egyptian  bondage — just  dried  their  garments  from  the 
waters  of  the  Red  Sea — but  no  !  they  did  not  need  to  dry 
their  garments  —  I  remember  they  came  through  on  dry 
ground  \laughter\ — just  emerged  into  the  dim  twilight  of 
education,  blest  with  only  the  first  few  rays  of  revelation. 

Four  thousand  years  have  passed  since  that  day,  and 
during  this  time  the  canon  of  Scripture  has  been  com- 
pleted, and  the  full  blaze  of  Christianity  has  been  poured 
upon  the  world,  and  Christ  has  come,  and  there  have  been 
contentions,  and  revolutions,  and  martyrs  for  the  truth,  and 
education,  and  with  great  labor  the  bulwark  of  civil  lib- 
erty has  been  hewn  out  and  built  up,  and  schools  and 
churches  have  been  established,  and  of  those  four  thousand 
years,  two  thousand  have  been  under  the  dispensation  of 
the  blessed  Gospel,  and  now  we  have  tried  our  hand  at 
slavery.  Let  us  see  how  we  have  succeeded.  The  Hebrews 
legislated  for  their  slaves  as  men,  but  we  make  them  prop- 
erty— chattels.  They  are  not  men  but  brutes.  Four  thou- 
sand years  ago  the  slave  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  the 
church — the  Temple  worship;  now  we  give  him  no  re- 
ligion. Four  thousand  years  ago  the  slave  enjoyed  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  the  family  state;  now  the  chas- 
tity of  man  and  woman  is  no  more  regarded  than  that 
of  a  dog.  Four  thousand  years  ago  the  laws  were  made 
for  the  slave;  now  they  are  made  for  the  master.      Four 


1 84  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

thousand  years  ago  a  slave  could  seek  redress  in  court;  now 
there  is  not  a  court  from  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  through 
to  Texas  where  a  slave  can  open  his  mouth  as  a  witness  and 
be  believed.  Ah  !  if  you  will  only  bring  American  slavery 
on  the  platform  of  Hebrew  slavery — if  you  will  give  the 
slave  the  Bible,  and  send  him  to  the  school,  and  open  the 
doors  of  the  courts  to  him,  then  we  will  let  it  alone — it  will 
take  care  of  itself.  In  old  times  slaves  were  treated  as 
children  of  a  family — trained,  nurtured,  educated.  Let 
the  Southern  slaveholder  do  like  this.  Then  would  slavery 
soon  cease,  tor  the  care  and  expense  would  be  greater  than 
any  one  could  bear. 

I  have  to  work  hard  enough  to  provide  for  my  three 
children;  but  suppose  I  had  five  hundred  children!  what 
should  I  do  ?     [Laughter.] 

My  friends,  I  have  not  painted  up  slavery  in  strong  col- 
ors: I  have  only  given  you  the  outline — I  have  only  done 
as  the  painter  does  before  he  puts  in  the  colors — with  chalk 
marked  out  the  design.     [Cheers.] 

Has  Christianity  in  the  South  rebuked  this  system? 
Where  has  it  ?  What  pulpit  does  it  ?  Yes,  it  has  in  some 
places;  a  few  pulpits  have  spoken;  Christianity  has  in 
some  instances,  perhaps  in  many,  modified  and  lessened  the 
evils,  but  not  so  taking  the  South  comprehensively. 

[Mr.  Beecher  attempted  to  proceed,  but  being  interrupted  by 
hisses,  he  remarked  that  as  he  had  been  heard  uninterruptedly  for 
some  time  it  was  fair  that  the  other  side  should  have  a  chance. 
The  cheers  which  followed  effectually  drowned  the  hisses. J 

At  the  South  adultery  among  slaves  is  not  held  to  be  a 
reason  for  church  discipline.  [Hisses.]  I  am  glad  to  see 
some  sense  of  shame  for  this.  [Cheers.]  The  public  con- 
science is  being  aroused.  Do  you  know  that  at  the  South 
in  marrying  slaves  the  minister  leaves  out  the  words, 
"  What  God  has  joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder  ?  " 
It  must  be  left  out,  for  perhaps  in  a  few  weeks  the  husband 
will  be  separated  from  the  wife,  and  sent  to  another  plan- 
tation, and  then  if  he  chooses  he  can  take  another  wife,  and 
if  he  is  a  member  of  the  church  it  does  not  hurt  his  stand- 
ing;   and  then  another  and   another,  till   perhaps  he  may 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  1&5 

have  twenty  wives,  and  still  his  letter  of  recommendation 
from  one  church  to  another  is  as  good  as  ever.  [A  voice — 
There  are  men  in  New  York  who  have  twenty  wives .]  I  am 
sorry  for  them.  I  go  in  for  their  immediate  emancipation. 
[Great  cheering.] 

And  now,  I  do  not  ask  whether  Christian  pulpits  in  the 
South  have  not  preached  orthodox  theology — good  moral- 
ity, obedience  to  their  masters,  and  in  general,  kindness 
on  the  part  of  the  master  to  his  slaves.  All  this,  doubt- 
less. But  I  ask  has  Christianity  made  itself  felt,  has  it  taken 
the  authority  of  God,  and  the  full  power  of  Christ,  and 
risen  up  to  assert  for  the  slave  the  right  of  manhood,  and 
to  rebuke  that  legal  doctrine  of  unutterable  infamy,  that  a 
slave  is  a  chattel  ?  Has  it  asserted  for  the  slave  the  rights 
of  knowledge  ?  Has  it  demanded  and  provided  for  him  a 
simple  religious  instruction  ?  Above  all,  has  it  asserted  for 
the  slave  the  right  and  duty  of  personal  virtue,  and  re- 
deemed women  from  the  promiscuous  lust  of  their  mas- 
ters ?  Has  it  brought  all  the  thunders  of  God's  throne  to 
defend  the  sanctity  of  the  Family  State  ? 

Or  if  it  has  not,  O  what  a  wretched  Christianity  is  that 
which  permits,  or  slurs  over,  the  profoundest  ignorance, 
the  negation  of  manhood,  the  rupture  and  dispersion  of 
the  family;  the  violation  of  chastity  and  virtue?  What  is 
left  when  personal  liberty,  civil  rights,  the  privileges  of  the 
family  state,  and  personal  morals  are  all  swept  away  ?  The 
law  declares  a  slave  to  be  a  mere  chattel,  and  the  Christian- 
ity of  the  South  has  not  indignantly  redeemed  him  from 
this  blasphemous  abuse  ! 

Let  no  one  say  that  we  represent  the  abuse  of  the  sys- 
tem. The  system  cannot  be  abused.  Its  very  fundamental 
principle  includes  every  infamy  which  can  insult  manhood 
or  degrade  a  man  !  To  say  to  three  million  men,  made  by 
God,  Ye  are  not  men,  but,  like  oxen  and  horses,  like  dogs 
and  hogs,  ye  are  Things,  Property,  Chattels — why  to 
talk  of  the  abuse  of  a  system  which  has  this  for  its  ele- 
mentary principle,  is  as  wild  as  it  would  be  to  talk  of  the 
abuse  of  robbery,  the  abuse  of  murder,  the  abuse  of 
adultery  ! 


1 86  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

What  has  the  North  done  for  its  colored  population  ? 
Here  is  a  class  downcast  and  downtrodden,  among  us — the 
poor,  the  despised,  the  weak.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  church 
to  go  to  them,  and  help  them  and  recover  them,  and  lift 
them  up.  How  is  it?  The  doors  of  the  schools  and  col- 
leges are  shut  against  them,  and  the  doors  of  the  trades 
are  shut.  A  mechanic  thinks  it  a  disgrace  to  work  with  a 
slave.  The  odium  of  Southern  slavery  has  extended  over 
the  North.  Has  Christianity  come  in  to  aid  and  protect 
and  save  ?  No.  A  few  States  allow  colored  people  to 
vote,  but  in  most  the  color  of  the  skin  disfranchises  a 
man.  Has  the  church  said,  By  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
by  the  power  of  the  cross,  this  shall  not  be  so  !  No,  she 
has  said,  "  There's  the  ship,  and  there's  Africa.  You  had 
better  go  to  Africa — colonize  !  " 

These  remarks  are  not  aimed  at  the  Colonization  Society. 
I  am  for  colonization.  If  any  one  wishes  to  go  to  Africa 
I  would  give  him  the  means  of  going,  and  for  the  sake  of 
the  continent  of  Africa,  colonization  is  the  true  scheme; 
but  if  colonization  is  advocated  for  our  sake,  I  say,  Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan,  thou  savorest  not  of  the  things  that  be 
of  God  but  those  that  be  of  men.  Do  your  duty  first  to 
the  colored  people  here,  educate  them,  Christianize  them, 
and  t/icn  colonize  them.     \Cheers^\ 

I  have  given  you  the  dark  side  of  the  picture  thus  far, 
but  it  is  gradually  growing  lighter  and  lighter.  The  North 
is  becoming  thoroughly  aroused.  This  has  been  accom- 
plished in  a  tempestuous  way — in  an  injurious  way — I  wish 
that  it  could  have  been  done  in  a  different  and  a  better 
way — yet  I  forbear — I  will  not  speak  harshly  of  any  who 
have  labored  in  this  great  cause  of  human  liberty.  But 
the  North  are  looking  at  this  matter,  they  wish  to  know 
their  duty,  they  are  taking  the  Bible  in  their  hands,  and 
Northern  men  are  more  and  more  rapidly  coming  to  see 
what  their  duty  is.  This  is  evident  from  the  growing 
sensitiveness  of  the  South.  The  true  way  is  to  correct 
public  sentiment  at  the  North  first,  get  it  right  here,  purify 
and  sweeten  it  here  and  let  it  act  on  the  South.  Every 
curative  process  begins  from  without,  and  so  it  must  be  in 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  187 

this  case;  and  considering  the  danger  my  neck  would  be 
exposed  to  at  the  South,  I  would  prefer  on  the  whole  to 
work  at  the  North.     [Laughter. ~\ 

The  first  effect  of  this  at  the  South  was  the  fear  that  the 
system  would  perish,  and  hence  came,  first  the  effort  to 
extend  slave  territory,  and  then  political  agitation.  And 
out  of  this  grew  that  worst  of  all  unbaptized  monsters,  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Some  years  ago  there  was  a  progress 
at  the  South  towards  the  removal  of  slavery,  and  it  was 
checked  it  is  said  by  agitation.  Agitation  ?  what  have  we 
got  to  work  with  but  agitation  ?  Agitation  is  the  thing  in 
these  days  for  any  good;  not  agitation  by  bayonets,  but 
agitation  by  brains,  agitation  by  free  thoughts  and  words, 
agitation  of  hearts  and  consciences;  and  the  day  is  coming 
when  moral  truths  will  be  as  free  as  air,  breathed  in  and 
breathed  out  by  every  one. 

Our  first  business  is  then  to  limit  slavery  within  its 
present  bounds;  there  is  nothing  in  the  Constitution  against 
this  at  any  rate;  then,  secondly,  to  see  to  it  that  the  South 
has  not  factitious  help  from  us  in  the  support  of  slavery; 
and  thirdly,  not  to  interfere  directly  with  slavery  where  it 
is.  We  will  all  do  what  the  sun  does  when  it  comes  up 
over  the  eastern  hills;  it  looks  at  a  mountain  of  ice  and 
melts  it.  [Cheers.]  If  our  missionaries  want  to  convert 
the  Arabs,  they  cannot  preach  to  them  when  they  are  on 
horseback,  for  they  will  run  away;  they  must  make  the 
Arabs  sit  down  and  be  fixed  in  one  spot.  And  so  must,  we 
do  with  slavery;  we  must  hitch  her  and  anchor  her,  and 
then  begin  with  brotherly  affection  to  kill  her.  [Repeated 
cheers.]  And  then  with  our  hearts  warm  and  kind,  and 
with  no  hasty  or  hard  remarks,  we  must  preach  the  Bible 
to  them,  and  preach  till  we  make  slavery  a  burden  to  their 
consciences  and  a  burden  to  their  pockets,  as  it  is  now  a 
burden  on  God's  forbearance  !     [Cheers.] 

But  then  came  along  agitation,  it  is  said — O  !  agitation  ? 
Who  are  the  agitators  ?  Some  say  we  are,  and  some  say  they 
are.  Now  I  will  not  remain  quiet  under  this  charge  of  un- 
just and  improper  agitation.  They  are  the  agitators  who 
fortify  and  extend  an  evil  which  is  a  poison  to   liberty,  in- 


1 88  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

fidel  to  religion,  and  hateful  to  God  and  all  good  men. 
They  are  agitators  who  attempt  to  suppress  free  thought 
and  free  speech.  There  is  but  one  agitation  that  will  dis- 
solve the  Union — which  I  love  full  as  much  as  do  those 
dry-nurses  of  the  Union,  the  Union  Safety  Committee — 
and  that  is,  the  attempt  to  make  free  speech  penal,  to 
bridle  the  Pulpit,  muzzle  the  Press,  and  fetter  the  tongue  ! 
That  will  blow  the  Union  to  atoms.  I  would  have  such 
agitation  as  Dr.  Wayland  and  Dr.  Fuller  of  North  Carolina 
had,  the  agitation  of  free  discussion.  We  shall  say  what 
we  think  and  feel,  and  the  South  shall  say  what  they  think 
and  feel;  and  when  we  have  joined  with  them  in  this  way 
we  shall  have  the  hip  lock  and  throw  them.  [Repeated 
cheering .] 

It  seems  as  if  the  devil  could  not  stay  quietly  in  hell,  but 
must  do  as  he  always  has  done,  wander  up  and  down  through 
the  earth,  and  so  at  last  he  found  himself  at  Washington; 
but  there  he  came  out,  unfortunately  with  hoofs,  tail, 
horns,  and  all,  not  in  the  disguise  of  an  angel  of  light,  but 
in  the  form  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

There  is  nothing,  I  think,  that  has  come  so  near  to  mak- 
ing an  impassable  gulf  between  the  South  and  the  North 
as  this  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  I  am  opposed  to  this  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  in  the  first  place,  because  of  the  inhumanity  of 
what  it  compels  us  to  do.  If  a  convict,  whose  time  was 
nearly  out  at  the  State  Prison,  should  escape,  I  should  not 
feel  exactly  like  catching  him  and  sending  him  back,  yet 
still  I  might  do  it  and  not  feel  very  badly,  and  I  would  do 
it  if  I  was  called  upon  for  the  sake  of  the  Union  \laugh- 
ter\  for  I  love  the  Union,  and  I  do  not  yield  to  any  one  in 
my  love  for  the  Union,  not  even  to  the  members  of  the 
Union  Safety  Committee  !  But  this  law  demands — what? 
Not  merely  the  sending  back  of  a  fugitive  from  unrequited 
work — to  a  meager  fare — to  physical  discomfort.  Slavery 
is  a  state  of  mental  and  moral  bondage,  worse  than  any 
mere  bondage  of  muscle  possibly  can  be.  This  is  a  point  of 
conscience  with  me  as  a  Christian.  I  cannot,  I  will  not,  I 
would  myself  sooner  die  than  force,  or,  in  the  most  indirect 
manner,  countenance  the   rendition   of  a   man   back  to  a 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  1S9 

bondage  which  crushes  his  manhood,  robs  his  intellect, 
enfeebles  his  moral  nature,  and,  while  cheating  him  in  re- 
spect to  Time,  sends  him  blindfold  and  stumbling  head- 
long into  Eternity.  This  law  says  that  I  must  take  a 
woman,  who  has  just  escaped,  panting,  from  slavery,  who 
has  just  begun  to  breathe  the  air  of  freedom,  and  send  her 
back  to  the  shambles  of  lust,  where  men  may  look  at  their 
slaves  as  they  do  at  brutes,  where  there  is  no  religion  for 
the  slave,  no  sacred  marriage,  no  law,  no  schools,  no  honor, 
and  no  protection — back  to  the  heated  and  seething  waves 
of  damnation.  It  is  this  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  asks  us 
to  do,  and  we  have  ministers  of  the  gospel  who  preach  to 
us  that  this  is  Christianity  !  I  do  not  say  this  in  anger, 
God  forbid  !  but  in  shame.  God  judge  between  them  and 
the  oppressed  ! 

There  are  two  ways  of  sending  fugitives  back  into  slav- 
ery. Paul  gives  us  an  account  of  one  way — the  way  he 
sent  back  the  slave  Onesimus.  Now  if  people  will  adopt 
Paul's  way  I  would  not  object.  In  the  first  place,  he  in- 
structed him  in  Christianity,  and  led  him  to  become  a 
Christian.  Then  he  wrote  a  letter  and  sent  it  by  Onesi- 
mus. The  slave  was  not  sent  off  under  the  charge  of 
officers,  but  he  went  back  alone,  of  his  own  free  will,  with 
a  letter  and  recommendation  as  a  brother  beloved. 

There  are  venerable  clergymen,  old  and  wise  men  they 
are  called, — and  you  would  presume  from  what  they  say 
that  they  are  very  old,  and  I  do  not  know  as  they  will  think 
that,  young  as  I  am,  I  ought  to  say  what  I  have, — who  have 
had  a  good  deal  to  say  about  sending  back  this  slave 
Onesimus  as  an  example  for  us.  I  wish  it  could  be  made 
the  example.  I  would  like  to  see  it  followed.  I  would 
like  to  see  the  marshals  sitting  down  to  convert  some  fugi- 
tive slaves;  and  I  would  not  speak  disrespectfully  of  those 
clergymen,  for  I  have  respect  for  them — in  spots.  [Laughter.] 
And  I  wish  that  this  letter  of  Paul's  might  be  published  by 
the  American  Tract  Society,  and  sent  all  over  the  Union. 
[Cheers.] 

I  object  to  the  law  also  because  it  commands  me  to  do 
what  is  essentially  wrong.     If  it  is  right  to  send  back  Long 


190  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  Simms  it  is  right  to  send  back  Dr.  Pennington,  a 
minister  of  the  gospel,  who  has  received  a  doctorate  from 
a  German  university — not  that  the  doctorate  makes  him 
any  better  man,  for  a  doctorate  is  of  about  as  much  use  as 
a  butment  to  a  church — a  man  who  was  a  member  of  Dr. 
Cox's  church;  I  say,  if  it  is  right  to  send  Long  back,  it  is 
right  to  send  Dr.  Pennington  back.  What  would  Dr.  Cox 
say  to  this  ?  And  Dr.  Cox  ought  to  know  all  about  this 
great  subject,  for  he  has  been  on  all  sides  of  it !  I  do  not 
know  but  that  Dr.  Pennington  would  be  sent  back,  unre- 
deemed as  he  is;  and  he  is  obliged  now  to  stay  in  England, 
protected  by  monarchical  England  from  the  oppression  of 
democratic  America.  Say,  would  any  one  send  Dr.  Pen- 
nington back?  [A  voice,  "I  would;"  another,  "I too"  a?iother, 
"I  three."]  Would  any  man  in  his  senses  send  him  back  ? 
[Great  applause.] 

Thirdly,  I  am  amazed  at  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  be- 
cause it  is  so  utterly  unfit  for  the  object  for  which  it  was 
made.  The  old  law  did  not  send  back  the  slaves,  not  one 
per  cent,  of  all  that  escaped.  No  more  does  the  new  law. 
Perhaps  you  are  not  aware,  my  friends,  that  there  is  an 
underground  railroad  running  through  this  city.  I  am 
not  a  conductor  on  it  [cheers],  but  I  hear  of  it,  and  I 
understand  that  there  are  forty  slaves  who  go  up  on  it,  to 
one  who  goes  back.  But  the  fault  is  not  in  the  law.  The 
old  law  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  and  the  new  one 
proves  just  the  same.  [Cheers.]  This  case  is  something 
like  that  of  fishing.  Now  my  father  is  a  good  fisherman, 
a  very  expert  one,  while  I  know  nothing  about  it,  and  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  I  hold  an  old  stick  for  a  pole 
with  a  crooked  pin  for  a  hook,  or  an  elegant  brass-feruled 
extension  rod  with  a  fly  scientifically  fixed.  I  cannot  in 
either  case  catch  any  fish.  I  cannot  catch  any  with  the 
bent  pin,  and  it  would  do  no  good  to  give  me  the  fly.  So 
it  is  with  the  law.  The  South  could  not  catch  their  slaves 
with  the  old  law,  and  they  went  to  work  to  manufact- 
ure a  new  one,  complete  in  all  its  parts — a  perfect,  elegant, 
brass-feruled  law;  but  after  all  they  won't  do  any  better 
with  the  new  law.     The   trouble  is   not  in   the   law — that 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  191 

was  good  enough  before — they  have  a  bad  fishing  ground  ! 
[Cheers.]  If  a  man  was  sick  with  the  cholera,  and  should 
give  a  dose  of  medicine  to  his  horse,  that  would  not  do 
him  much  good.  So  in  this  case.  It  was  the  public  sen- 
timent that  was  sick,  and  they've  been  dosing  the  law. 
[Repeated  cheers.] 

My  next  objection  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is,  that  it 
stirs  up  ill  blood  where  we  cannot  afford  to  have  it  stirred 
up.  It  does  this'  by  its  wording.  It  seems  as  if  it  was 
worded  especially  to  insult  the  North.  A  man  once,  de- 
scribing a  minister  at  the  West,  said:  "He  preaches  as 
if  he  had  the  devil  in  him — why,  he  heaves  out  the  prom- 
ises of  God  with  a  pitchfork."  And  so  this  law  deals — 
and  the  pitchfork  it  uses  is  no  common  pitchfork,  but  one, 
it  would  seem,  imported  from  the  pit  below.     [C/ieers.~\ 

Fourthly,  This  law  takes  away  or  abridges  the  liberty 
of  freemen.  We  know  little  about  the  terror  that  it  has 
sent  among  the  free  colored  population  of  the  North — how 
it  has  scattered  them  like  partridges  in  the  mountains  be- 
fore the  shot  of  the  hunter.  Families  have  fled  from 
places  where  they  were  comfortably  and  respectably  es- 
tablished and  held  property.  The  free  colored  people 
have  felt  no  security  for  their  liberty.  They  have  feared 
that  they  would  be  sent  to  slavery  courts,  before  slavery 
judges,  with  slavery  witnesses,  to  be  tried  in  regard  to 
their  right  to  liberty.  But  no — I  will  not  sneer — I  take 
that  back;  for  it  seems  to  me  I  would  sooner  trust  a 
Southern  court  than  a  Northern  one.  I  think  that  in  the 
matter  of  slaves  the  Southern  courts  have  generally  been 
fairer  than  those  of  the  North. 

And  fifthly,  This  law  obliges  the  citizens  to  do  that 
which  they  cannot  conscientiously  do.  It  comes  to  me 
and  says,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  you  must  do  this;  if  I  call 
upon  you  you  must  assist  as  a  good  citizen  in  returning 
this  runaway.  And  because  last  night  I  received  into  my 
house  a  poor,  wandering,  famishing  woman,  and  gave  her 
meat  to  eat,  and  water  to  drink,  and  a  place  to  rest — be- 
cause I  befriended  and  protected  her — it  comes  and  lays 
its  strong  hand  on  me  for  doing  that  which   Christ  com- 


192  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

manded;  and  if  I  am  too  poor  to  pay  the  fine,  it  throws 
me  into  prison.  To  be  sure  no  such  cases  have  occurred, 
and  I  pray  God  they  may  not  occur,  but  they  can  occur; 
and  the  man  that  executes  the  law  in  this  point,  let  him 
beware  how  he  meets  his  victim  at  the  day  of  judgment ! 
The  law  is  bad  enough  in  obliging  the  officers  to  execute 
it,  but  when  it  comes  down  among  the  citizens,  when  it 
forbids  us  helping  a  man  to  liberty,  I  say,  God  do  so  to 
me,  and  more  also,  if  I  do  not  help  him  freedomward  ! 
[Great  applause.~\  I  say  this  was  not  good  brotherhood  in 
the  South — this  was  not  kind,  the  course  of  Christian 
policy  was  not  to  irritate  feeling.  It  was  their  duty  to  be 
forbearing,  it  was  our  duty  to  be  forbearing — for  the  sake 
of  the  Union — and  I  do  not  say  this  in  the  miserable  cant 
of  the  Union  Safety  Committee,  who  are  upholding  a  mere 
union  of  self-interest,  but  I  mean  the  glorious  Union  that 
was  made  by  our  fathers  for  liberty,  the  Union  for  free- 
dom, the  Union  for  Christianity.  Now  this  law  was  fired 
right  in  the  face  of  the  North,  in  the  face  of  the  moral 
feeling  of  the  North — it  was  a  bombarding  of  the  North 
— park  after  park  of  artillery — and  the  cannoneer,  alas  ! 
was  one  who  fired  at  his  own  hearthstone  !  And  this 
great  man,  not  many  years  ago,  made  a  prediction  at 
Niblo's  Garden.  He  said,  in  effect,  that  this  subject  of 
slavery  had  arrested  the  religious  feelings  of  the  country, 
that  it  had  taken  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men, 
that  it  is  not  to  be  trilled  with  or  despised,  and  that  any 
attempt  to  coerce  it  into  silence,  to  compress  and  confine 
it,  warm  as  it  is,  would  assuredly  cause  an  explosion,  which 
would  endanger  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  itself. 
Ah  !  how  soon  has  he  forgotten  his  own  great  words  !  It 
was  spoken  as  only  Webster  can  speak;  and  when  I  re- 
member that  prediction  and  turn  to  this  law,  I  cannot  but 
cry  out  in  the  deepest  sorrow — Oh,  Lucifer!  son  of  the 
morning,  how  art  thou  fallen  !  I  would  not  speak  harshly 
of  Daniel  Webster — the  time  was  when  there  was  no  man  I 
so  much  revered;  and  for  statesman's  genius,  for  stature 
of  understanding,  there  is  no  man  on  the  globe,  since  the 
death  of  Robert  Peel,  who  is  his  equal.     No,  I  would  not 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY.  193 

cast  stones  at  him.  I  would  rather  do  as  did  the  sons  of 
Noah,  and  going  backward  cast  a  cloak  over  his  nakedness. 
And  yet  when,  in  these  times,  every  one  has  to  step  over, 
or  through,  or  around  Webster,  I  cannot  but  allude  to  him, 
and  I  say  that  much  as  I  revere  him,  much  as  I  am  proud 
of  him — and  I  am  proud  of  him  for  his  noble  intellect,  en- 
cased in  such  a  noble  frame — yet  Liberty  is  dearer,  Truth 
is  dearer,  Christianity  is  dearer. 

My  sixth  objection  is  that  bad  laws  are  a  treason  to  good' 
government.  I  know  of  nothing  that  has  so  promoted  a 
disregard  of  authority,  and  a  contempt  of  all  law,  as  the 
enactment  of  this  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

And  I  object  to  the  law  because  of  its  sequences.  Bad 
laws  always  bring  bad  sequences;  the  evil  does  not  stop 
with  the  law  itself  or  its  enactment.  And  the  first  bad  se- 
quence that  came  of  it  was  that  impotent,  empty  thunder- 
bolt of  a  Union  Safety  Committee,  whose  members  read 
their  ledgers  for  their  duty,  and  feel  in  their  pockets  for 
their  consciences.  [Great  applause.~\  There  must  be  some 
scarecrows,  I  suppose,  in  every  large  field,  though  men  do 
do  not  usually  feel  like  electing  themselves  to  that  office. 
\LaughterI\ 

Another  objection  to  the  law  is  that  it  brought  into 
vogue  a  style  of  reasoning  that,  if  believed  in,  would  over- 
throw all  human  governments.  The  higher  law — the  law 
of  conscience,  the  law  of  God,  the  law  upon  which  obedi- 
ence to  all  law  is  based  —  has  been  cried  down  and  scouted, 
not  by  politicians  only  but  by  ministers.  Ministers  of  Jehovah 
have  cast  scorn  on  the  higher  law  of  Jehovah,  and  preached 
up  the  lower  law  doctrine;  and  very  low  they  have  gottoo, 
we  should  judge,  from  their  sepulchral  tones  at  present. 
Nay,  more,  they  have  taken  this  opportunity  to  show  their 
ill-blood  against  rival  denominations,  and  even  to  vent 
their  ill-will  against  individuals,  mixing  up  private  wrongs 
with  public  wrongs,  and  personal  feuds  with  national 
questions.  And  documents  teaching  this  doctrine  have 
been  sent  by  tens  of  thousands  through  the  groaning  mails 
all  over  our  land,  through  all  the  valleys  and  over  all   the 

plains  and  across   the   mountains,  into  towns  and  villages 
13 


194  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  hamlets.  And  this  doctrine,  so  taught  and  so  sent,  is 
nothing  else  than  the  doctrine  of  kings  and  despots,  of  the 
divine  right  of  rulers,  of  non-resistance  to  power,  however 
oppressive.  It  is  nothing  else  than  a  dressing  up  of  the  old 
doctrine  of  Laud  and  the  Stuarts  in  a  modern  suit.  If 
that  is  the  doctrine  to  be  taught  and  believed  and  adopted, 
then  there  is  no  chance  for  republican  institutions.  Why 
is  it  that  France  has  no  firm  republic  after  all  its  revolutions  ? 
Why  is  it  that  Italy, — groaning  Italy, — striving  and  strug- 
gling for  a  republic,  does  not  gain  it?  Why  is  it  that 
Hungary — bleeding,  prostrate  Hungary — failed  in  her  at- 
tempt ?  It  is  because  the  common  people  are  trodden 
down,  because  they  have  given  up  their  consciences  to 
priests  and  magistrates;  and  if  this  comes  to  be  the  custom 
in  America,  then  all  hope  of  freedom  is  lost.  Human  nature 
is  a  poor  affair — man  is  but  a  pithy,  porous,  flabby  substance, 
till  you  put  conscience  into  him;  and  as  for  building  a  re- 
public on  men  who  do  not  hold  to  the  rights  of  private 
conscience,  who  will  not  follow  their  own  consciences 
rather  than  that  of  any  priest  or  public,  you  might  as  well 
build  the  Custom  House  in  Wall  Street  on  a  foundation  of 
cotton  wool  !  But  the  nation  that  regards  conscience  more 
than  anything  else,  above  all  customs  and  all  laws,  is,  like 
New  England,  with  its  granite  hills,  immovable  and  in- 
vincible; and  the  nation  that  does  not  regard  conscience  is 
a  mere  base  of  sand,  and  quicksand  too,  at  that.  If  you 
want  this  country  to  be  like  Turkey,  or  Egypt,  or  Algiers, 
give  up  the  rights  of  private  conscience,  and  you  will  have 
it  so,  soon  enough. 

Yes  !  The  time  will  come  when,  on  reading  the  epitaph 
of  a  man,  which  records  that  here  lies  A.  B.,  author  of  a 
learned  commentary  on  this  or  that  book,  and  defender  of 
the  doctrine  that  the  people  must  give  up  their  consciences 
to  magistrates  and  priests,  the  people  will  lift  up  their 
hands  in  astonishment,  and  exclaim,  "  God  have  mercy  on 
his  soul  !  "     \Cheering^\ 

My  friends,  if  I  have  had  the  appearance  of  severity  in 
these  remarks,  I  have  not  meant  to  be  severe;  I  have  only 
wished  to  say  frankly  and  fully  what  I   most  deeply  and 


AMERICAN  SLAVERY. 


*95 


truly  believe,  and  if  I  should  meet  a  slaveholder  in  con- 
versation, I  should  say  just  the  same.  He  might  reply,  I 
don't  believe  all  you  do,  but  you  say  what  you  think,  and  I 
like  you;  you  are  no  doughface.  [Laughter.]  I  don't  ask 
you  to  believe  just  what  I  say,  but  I  do  ask  you  to  think 
of  it;  think  of  it  with  the  Bible  in  your  hands,  think  of  it 
on  your  knees,  think  of  it  as  patriots,  as  philanthropists, 
as  Christian  men,  as  inheritors  of  immortality,  and  if  you 
will  think  of  it,  O  !  if  you  will  think  of  it,  you  will  find 
the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free. 


ON   WHICH    SIDE   IS   PEACE? 


There  are  periods  in  the  history  of  man,  and  of  com- 
munities, in  which  timid  counsels  are  rash  and  dangerous. 
When  a  building  is  on  fire,  and  quantities  of  explosive  ma- 
terials are  awaiting  its  approach,  the  only  moderation  con- 
sists in  the  most  intense  courage  and  desperate  daring. 
He  is  the  prudent  man  who  rushes  in  between  the  flame 
and  the  powder  and  separates  them.  The  man  who  ad- 
vises the  fireman  to  wait — who  hopes  the  evil  will  cure 
itself — is  a  madman  and  an  incendiary.  We  are  brought  into 
a  condition  of  national  affairs  in  which  the  smooth  and  easy 
road  will  lead  to  destruction,  while  peace  lies  at  the  end 
of  a  straight  but  narrow  way. 

The  North  desires  peace.  True  civilization  will  always 
desire  it.  It  is  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  innumerable 
fruits  of  learning  and  refinement  ripen.  All  the  interests 
of  the  North — agricultural,  manufacturing,  commercial, 
social,  civil,  and  religious — demand  domestic  peace.  The 
sentiment  of  peace  pervades  all  classes  of  men,  and  in 
breadth  and  power  it  approaches  the  dignity  of  a  nat- 
ural law.  It  holds  down  all  repulsive  influences  with  a 
grasp  as  silent  but  as  omnipotent  as  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. This  longing  for  quiet  is  not  to  be  blamed.  It  is 
wise  and  legitimate.  It  springs  from  the  very  nature  of  a 
civilization  which  has  much  treasure  to  guard,  and  much 
to  develop.  But,  by  as  much  as  it  is  desirable,  by  so 
much  should  wise  men  see  to  it  that  they  follow  those 
measures  which   really  lead  to  it,  and  avoid  those  which, 


*  Editorial  article  in  The  Independent,  June  26,  1856,  written  during  the 
first  campaign  of  the  Republican  Party,  when  John  C.  Fremont  was  their 
presidential  candidate  (James  Buchanan  representing  the  Democratic 
Party);  and  the  question  at  issue  was  chiefly  the  policy  of  permitting  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  free  Territories  of  the  United  States. 


Jz. 


ON  WHICH  SIDE  IS  PEACE? 


197 


under  a  specious  appearance  of  peace,  lead  inevitably  to 
the  most  fatal  commotions. 

The  building  is  on  fire  already.  The  flame  is  running 
into  the  magazine.  What  is  prudence?  To  let  it  alone? 
To  counsel  moderation  ?  Or  to  arouse  and  take  the  ele- 
ments into  our  hand,  and  control  while  yet  they  may  be 
controlled  ? 

There  are  fifteen  States  in  our  Union  which  have  based 
their  social  condition  upon  a  system  of  involuntary  servi- 
tude. Whether  right  or  wrong,  that  system  is  one  which 
works  more  mischief  on  the  whites  than  upon  the 
blacks.  It  demoralizes  not  only  their  manners  and  per- 
sonal habits,  but  their  political  ideas.  For  intelligence 
among  slaves  would  make  them  insubordinate.  They 
must  be  kept  low  in  the  scale  of  civilization  or  they 
cannot  be  managed.  To  do  this,  not  only  must  they  not 
be  taught,  but  they  must  not  even  hear  too  much.  Preach- 
ing must  be  guarded,  political  speeches  must  be  guarded, 
conversation  must  be  guarded,  newspapers  must  be  cir- 
cumspect. One  spark  may  explode  a  magazine,  and  one 
word  touch  off  a  servile  insurrection  fatal  alike  to  master 
and  slave.  To  keep  fetters  on  their  servants,  they  must 
keep  fetters  on  their  own  tongues.  Every  mouth  is  a 
prison,  every  tongue  is  a  prisoner.  Liberty  of  speech  and 
of  the  press,  liberty  of  political  action,  in  the  Slave  States, 
but  especially  the  more  southern  ones,  would  break  them 
up.  Men  cannot  couple  liberty  and  monarchy  together. 
They  will  not  work  in  one  yoke.  If  slavery  is  taken,  all  its 
sequences,  guards,  exclusions,  and  inclusions  must  go  with 
it.  The  man  who  lives  in  the  South,  who  believes  in  the 
slave  system,  is  only  consistent,  having  gone  so  far,  in  going 
farther  and  putting  down  inflammatory  speech.  And  as 
all  free  speech  or  speech  for  freedom  is  inflammatory  when 
uttered  amidst  those  who  are  enslaved,  there  is  no  other 
way  but  to  suppress  it.  If  it  is  right  to  have  slavery,  it  is 
right  to  have  its  necessary  defenses.  Ignorance  is  right  if 
slavery  is  right.  Free  speech  is  wrong  if  slavery  is  right. 
A  system  of  force  cannot  deal  with  moral  suasion.  You 
cannot  lay  the  foundations  of  a  political  system  upon  the 


io8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

law  of  Might,  and  then  run  up  its  towers  and  spires  by  the 
doctrine  of  Right. 

Therefore  it  is,  that  if  the  Slave  States  are  right  in  main- 
taining their  system  of  slavery,  the  South  can  no  more  help 
being  driven  along  the  path  of  these  doctrines  of  despot- 
ism than  a  ship  can  help  flying  wildly  over  the  waves  when 
omnipotent  storms  drive  her.  As  a  ship  may  be  carried  by 
an  unknown  and  unsuspected  current  far  out  of  its  track 
and  away  from  the  intent  of  its  master,  so  communities 
oftentimes  are  carried  by  powerful  latent  tendencies,  over 
which  they  have  no  control,  and  whose  very  existence  they 
do  not  suspect.  It  is  so  with  the  South.  The  people  of 
the  South  are  going  upon  a  current  which  exists  without 
their  volition.  The  tendency  of  things  drifts  men  and  parties. 
One  step  after  another  is  taken  because  a  pressure  is  on 
them  which  they  cannot  resist. 

There  is,  then,  no  abstract  repugnance  to  free  speech  in 
the  South.  Very  much  the  contrary.  But  there  is  a  prac- 
tical conviction  that  it  will  not  do.  Facts  drive  them  from 
their  own  doctrines.  There  is  no  theoretic  disposition  to 
abridge  liberty  of  speech  in  Congress.  But  our  country  is 
now  so  sympathetically  connected,  the  transmission  of 
news  is  so  marvelously  easy  and  quick,  that  Congress  has 
become  a  speaking  trumpet.  The  whole  nation  hears  its 
speeches.  Is  it  strange  that  men  who  stand  upon  a  sys- 
tem which  is  in  perpetual  danger,  should  object  to  have  the 
North  put  its  lips  to  that  trumpet  and  blow  its  blasts  of 
freedom  all  over  Southern  plantations?  The  Southern 
man  says:  "With  you  it  is  not  a  necessity  to  speak;  with  us 
it  is  a  matter  of  necessity  to  have  silence.  You  can  carry 
on  all  your  commerce,  your  civic  arts,  your  industrial  pur- 
suits, without  uttering  such  speeches  of  liberty.  If  you  are 
silent  it  does  you  no  harm.  But  our  position  is  one  of  life 
and  death.  Such  utterance  sets  fire  to  the  foundations  on 
which  we  stand.  It  is  not  fair.  It  is  only  a  theoretic  sen- 
timent that  impels  you.  It  is  self-existence  that  drives 
us!  "  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  is  true.  A  system  of  slavery 
is  imperiled  by  the  natural  conduct  of  a  system  of  liberty. 
It  is  the  necessity  of  slavery  to  make  freedom  dumb. 


OiV  WHICH  SIDE  IS  PEACE? 


199 


The  same  secret,  fatal  current  of  necessity  drifts  the 
South  toward  the  extension  of  slavery.  While  Free  States 
are  growing  with  prodigious  disproportion,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  Slave  States  will  become  imbecile  and  help- 
less in  comparison.  Virginia  cannot  grow — Pennsylvania 
cannot  stand  still.  The  Carolinas  are  sinking  by  the  nature 
of  their  industry — New  York  is  advancing  prodigiously. 
Georgia  has  no  chance  in  a  match  with  Ohio.  If  the  Slave 
States  stand  as  they  are,  and  depend  upon  the  inherent 
energies  of  their  own  system,  they  are  doomed,  inevitably, 
to  become  the  last  and  least.  That  which  they  lack,  there- 
fore, in  intrinsic  force,  they  are  compelled  to  seek  by  exten- 
sion. Arkansas  supplements  Virginia.  When  New  York 
weighs  down  the  Carolinas,  Texas  is  thrown  in  to  bring  up 
the  scale.  That  which  the  South  ask  is,  the  liberty  of 
carving  two-thirds  of  the  continent  into  States,  to  makeup 
the  continual  disparity  induced  by  the  slave  system,  as 
compared  with  the  system  of  free  labor. 

Every  Northern  man  should  thoroughly  understand  that 
the  policy  of  the  South  is  not  one  of  vexatious  haughtiness. 
It  is  a  policy  the  necessity  of  which  springs  from  the  very 
organization  of  their  society,  from  the  irresistible  nature 
of  their  industrial  system.  They  cannot  help  themselves. 
If  they  would  they  cannot.  They  are  on  a  current  which 
sweeps  them  whether  they  will  or  not.  As  long  as  the 
North  is  left  to  believe  that  the  demands  of  the  South  are 
from  excitement,  that  they  have  been  provoked  to  violence, 
it  will  seem  very  reasonable  to  expect  that  forbearance, 
conciliation,  and  compromise  will  restore  good  temper,  and 
with  returning  temper,  that  things  will  grow  peaceable. 
But  when  it  is  believed  that  these  events  in  the  South  come 
from  a  law  stronger  than  volition,  from  a  law  which  under- 
lies society,  and  compels  its  movements,  and  which  will  still 
compel  them,  the  question  assumes  a  very  different  aspect. 
And  wise  men  will  be  called  to  reflect  whether  it  is  best  to 
put  men  who  represent  this  system  and  all  these  tendencies 
into  the  places  of  supreme  national  power;  whether  it  will 
be  for  the  peace  of  this  land  that  the  whole  government 
shall  go  over  to  the  side  of  slavery,  and  be  administered  for 


200  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  sake  of  giving  advantage  and  equipoise  to  this  perpetu- 
ally careening  and  sinking  system  of  servile  industry.  Shall 
this  system  be  permitted  to  control  the  continent  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  up  year  by  year  its  own  desperate  weakness  ? 

The  men  who  have  for  twenty  years  been  acting  under 
this  slave  necessity — who  have  been  the  involuntary  slaves 
of  their  own  slave  system — are  seeking  to  retain  their  hold 
upon  the  government. 

The  men  who  denied  the  right  of  petition;  who  made 
war  on  Mexico;  who  introduced  Texas  as  a  Slave  State; 
who  compelled  the  North,  in  1850,  to  take  the  Compro- 
mise, promising  that  it  should  be  a  finality;  who  broke  a 
nation's  word  and  faith,  and  abolished  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, promising  that  Kansas  should  be  free  or  slave  as 
its  people  chose;  who,  before  the  words  of  promise  were 
cold,  invaded  Kansas  with  armed  bands,  and  committed 
on  the  real  settlers  every  crime  which  is  marked  on  the 
criminal  calendar;  who  sent  thither  United  States  troops, 
and  brought  the  whole  force  of  the  Government  to  cor- 
roborate the  civil  war  which  the  South  had  kindled  there; 
who,  failing  in  intimidating  free  speech,  assaulted  with  a 
bludgeon,*  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  one  of  the  noblest  na- 
tional men,  and  with  almost  unanimous  consent  justified 
the  felony — this  party  have  published  a  platform,  and  nom- 
inated a  candidate  for  the  next  four  critical  years  in  our 
history.  All  those  tendencies  which,  from  time  to  time, 
have  broken  out  from  the  necessities  of  the  slave  system 
are,  in  this  platform,  reduced  to  the  form  of  political 
doctrines.  Upon  these  new  and  revolutionary  doctrines, 
born  of  the  womb  and  nursed  upon  the  bosom  of  Slavery, 
it  is  proposed  to  shape  the  policy  of  the  next  Administra- 
tion, and  Mr.  Buchanan  has  accepted  the  platform,  and  is 
pledged,  if  elected,  to  execute  the  doctrines  of  that  plat- 
form. 


*  Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  while  sitting  at  his  desk  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  was  assaulted  by  Preston  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina, 
who  so  beat  him,  defenseless  and  held  down  by  his  desk,  that  his  life  was 
despaired  of;  and  in  fact  he  died  about  eighteen  years  after  (March  11,  1S74) 
from  an  illness  proceeding  from  his  injuries  received  in  that  assault. 


f^U^l^s 


ON  WHICH  SIDE  IS  PEACE?  201 

We  ask  every  considerate  man,  will  it  be  possible,  with 
such  a  history  coming  on,  to  avoid  a  conflict,  compared 
with  which  anything  we  have  ever  known  will  be  child's 
play  ?  Is  that  the  road  to  peace  which  proposes  to  turn 
over  to  Southern  hands,  for  construction  and  control,  our 
Constitution,  our  National  Government,  our  armed  forces, 
and  our  whole  Territory?  When  the  arms  of  the  South 
shall  be  made  strong,  and  her  feet  shall  be  made  firm  upon 
the  high  places  of  Government,  is  there  anything  in  the 
bearing  and  temper  of  the  South  hitherto  which  may  lead 
us  to  hope  for  moderation  ?  Will  not  her  necessities  make 
her  as  violent  hereafter  as  heretofore?  If  the  lion's  whelp 
is  dangerous  even  when  kenneled,  will  it  become  harmless 
when  grown  to  the  full  lion,  and  roving  at  its  will  in  un- 
restrained liberty? 

Mr.  Buchanan,  in  his  letter  of  acceptance,  holds  out  to 
the  North  the  ever  grateful  and  always  deceitful  promise 
of  peace.  His  administration,  he  affirms,  shall  inure  to  the 
benefit  of  peace  at  home  and  abroad.  That  he  will  avoid 
foreign  war  is  very  probable,  inasmuch  as  the  South 
mortally  dreads  that.  But  domestic  peace  cannot  come 
unless  Mr.  Buchanan  violates  the  letter  and  spirit  of  that 
platform  on  which  he  stands;  unless  he  throws  himself  en- 
tirely out  of  the  current  of  that  influence  by  which,  if  at 
all,  he  is  to  be  elected;  unless  he  breaks  himself  away  from 
all  those  political  associates  who  have  made  him  their  rep- 
resentative. In  short,  the  Cincinnati  platform  is  a  platform 
every  plank  of  which  is  made  of  Southern  pine.  It  stands 
sharply  against  Northern  doctrines.  It  portends  an  open 
and  undisguised  sweep  of  Southern  ideas  across  our  whole 
continent.  And  unless  the  North  has  made  up  its  mind  to 
go  into  the  minority,  to  give  up  all  the  inherent  advantages 
belonging  to  free  labor,  to  yield  up  liberty  of  speech,  and 
freedom  of  soil,  and  nationality  of  legislation,  then  the 
election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  will  be  the  beginning  of  an  ex- 
citement and  of  a  warfare  such  as  has  never  been  dreamed 
of  hitherto. 

Every  vote  for  him  is  a  vote  for  war.  No  doubt  Mr. 
Buchanan  may  desire  to  administer  for  peace.     But  when 


202  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  man  has  gone  out  into  the  rapids,  what  he  wishes  has 
very  little  to  do  with  the  question  of  his  going  over  the 
falls.  Elected  upon  that  platform,  he  cannot  choose  any 
more  what  he  will  do.  It  is  a  masked  battery.  It  is  a 
platform  bristling  with  artillery.  It  is  full  of  shells  and 
rockets.  It  will  sweep  the  country  with  doctrines  such  as 
never  have  been  known  before.  It  is  very  silent  now.  The 
platform  lies  before  the  public,  as  a  man-of-war  lies  peace- 
fully at  anchor.  Her  sides  are  still.  Her  decks  are  quiet. 
Her  magazine  sleeps.  She  is  peaceful  indeed,  and  yet  she 
is  stuffed  full  of  materials  that  only  need  a  quickening,  and 
every  port-hole  will  fly  open,  every  cannon  blaze,  and  the 
whole  ship  belch  thunder  and  lightning  with  broadsides  of 
death. 

If  a  man  wishes  to  put  the  torch  to  the  Future,  let  him 
vote  for  the  Southern  men  and  platform.  If  men  wish 
wilder  times,  fiercer  conflicts,  deadlier  civil  war,  let  them 
vote  for  the  Southern  platform.  Northern  moderation 
now  will  be  bloodshed  by  and  by. 

The  only  way  to  peace  is  that  way  which  shall  chain 
slavery  to  the  place  that  it  now  has,  and  say  to  the  Dragon, 
"  In  thine  own  den  thou  mayst  dwell,  and  lie  down  in 
thine  own  slime.  But  thou  shalt  not  go  forth  to  ravage 
free  territory,  nor  leave  thy  trail  upon  unspotted  soil." 

Until  liberty  controls  the  institutions  of  liberty,  until 
freemen  rule  in  the  land  of  freedom,  we  shall  have  nothing 
but  disturbance.  And  the  sooner  moderate  men  grow 
bold,  and  take  a  firm  and  manly  course,  the  sooner  will 
conflict  and  contention  die  out  and  leave  this  fair  land  to 
prosperity. 

By  an  ever-acting  and  inevitable  law,  the  South  must 
agitate  the  country,  until  a  wall  is  built  against  her  aggres- 
sion. Then  the  fire  will  spread  no  more,  but  will  burn 
within  her  own  sphere.  But  it  will  be  a  purifying  fire. 
It  will  burn  up  her  dross. 

After  a  time  she  will  find  slavery  intolerable,  and  de- 
stroy it  for  her  own  salvation. 


A 


V"s<St- 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY. 


"  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Stand  ye  in  the  ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old 
paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for 
your  souls.  But  they  said,  We  will  not  walk  therein.  Also  I  set  watch- 
men over  you  saying,  Hearken  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet.  But  they 
said,  We  will  not  hearken  Therefore  hear,  ye  nations,  and  know,  O  con- 
gregation, what  is  among  them.  Hear,  O  earth  :  behold,  I  will  bring  evil 
upon  this  people,  even  the  fruit  of  their  thoughts,  because  they  have  not 
hearkened  unto  my  words,  nor  to  my  law,  but  rejected  it." — Jer.  vi.  16-19. 


This  is  a  terrible  message.  It  was  God's  word  of  old  by 
the  mouth  of  his  prophet,  Jeremiah.  The  occasion  of  it 
was  a  sudden  irruption  upon  Judah  of  victorious  enemies. 
God  sent  the  prophet  to  reveal  the  cause  of  this  disaster. 
The  prophet  declared  that  God  was  punishing  his  people 
because  they  were  selfish  and  unjust  and  covetous,  and 
because  the  whole  Church,  with  its  ministry,  was  whelmed 
in  the  same  sins.  These  mischiefs  had  been  glossed  over 
and  excused  and  palliated  and  hidden,  and  not  healed. 
There  had  been  a  spirit  that  demanded  union  and  quiet 
rather  than  purity  and  safety.  God,  therefore,  threatens 
further  afflictions,  because  of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts; 
and  then, — for  such  always  is  the  Divine  lenity, — as  it  were, 
giving  them  another  opportunity  and  alternative,  he  com- 
mands them  to  seek  after  God;  to  look  for  a  better  way; 
to  search  for  the  old  way,  the  right  way,  and  to  walk  in  it. 

*Preached  October  30, 1859,  while  John  Brown  was  in  prison  awaiting  trial 
for  his  doings  at  Harper's  Ferry.  John  Brown's  raid  took  place  while  the 
country  was  just  organizing  for  the  campaign  which  resulted  in  the  election 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  was  at  once  attempted  to  turn  the  occurrence  against 
the  cause  of  liberty,  by  representing  it  as  a  symptom  and  premature  de- 
velopment of  what  was  intended  by  the  Republican  party  against  the  rights 
of  the  South.  It  was  necessary  that  the  friends  of  liberty  should  be  vin- 
dicated, without  at  the  same  time  taking  part,  or  seeming  to  take  part, 
against  those  in  bonds. 


204  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

I  need  not  stop  to  point  out  the  remarkable  pertinence 
which  these  things  have,  in  many  respects,  to  our  nation  in 
the  past  and  to  our  times  in  the  present.  After  a  long 
silence  upon  this  subject,  I  avail  myself  of  the  state  of  the 
public  mind  to  make  some  observations  on  the  present 
state  of  our  land. 

The  surprise  of  a  whole  nation  at  a  recent  event  is  itself 
the  best  evidence  of  the  isolation  of  that  event.  A  burning 
fragment  struck  the  earth  near  Harper's  Ferry.  If  the 
fragment  of  an  exploding  aerolite  had  fallen  down  out  of 
the  air,  while  the  meteor  swept  on,  it  would  not  have 
been  more  sudden  or  less  apparently  connected  either  with 
a  cause  or  an  effect ! 

Seventeen  men,  white  men,  without  a  military  base,  with- 
out supplies,  without  artillery,  without  organization  more 
than  as  a  squad  of  militia,  attacked  a  State,  and  undertook 
to  release  and  lead  away  an  enslaved  race!  They  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  called  by  the  sufferers,  nor  to  have  been 
welcomed  by  them.  They  volunteered  a  grace,  and  sought 
to  enforce  its  acceptance.  Seventeen  white  men  held  two 
thousand  in  duress.  They  barricaded  themselves,  and 
waited  until  the  troops  of  two  States,  the  employe's  of  a 
great  railway,  and  a  portion  of  the  forces  of  the  Federal 
government  could,  traveling  briskly  night  and  day,  reach 
them.     Then,  at  one  dash,  they  were  snuffed  out ! 

I  do  not  wonder  that  Virginians  feel  a  great  deal  of  mor- 
tification. Everybody  is  sympathetically  ashamed  for 
them  !  It  is  quite  natural  that  every  effort  should  be  made 
to  enlarge  the  proportions  of  this  escapade,  that  they  may 
hide  their  weakness  and  incompetency  behind  a  smartly 
upblown  horror  !  No  one  doubts  the  bravery  of  Virginians  ! 
It  needs  no  praising.  But  even  brave  men  have  panics. 
Courage  is  sometimes  caught  at  unawares.  Certainly  it 
strikes  us,  at  a  distance,  as  a  remarkable  thing,  that  prison- 
ers three  to  one  more  than  their  captors,*  and  two  thousand 
citizens,  should  have  remained  days  and  nights  under  the 
fear  and  control  of  seventeen  white  men.     Northern  cour- 


*  Brown  captured  the  arsenal  and  between  forty  and  fifty  of  the  principal 
inhabitants. 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  205 

age  has  been  at  a  discount  in  the  South  hitherto.  It 
ought  hereafter  to  rise  in  value,  at  least  in  Virginia ! 

The  diligence  which  is  now  shown  on  the  part  of  manj^ 
public  presses  to  inflame  the  public  mind  and  infect  it  with 
fear  is  quite  foolish.  The  inoculation  will  not  take.  The 
North  may  not  be  courageous,  but  it  certainly  is  not  silly. 
There  is  an  element  of  the  ludicrous  in  this  transaction 
which  I  think  will  effectually  stop  all  panic. 

Seventeen  men  terrified  two  thousand  brave  Virginians 
into  two  days'  submission, — that  cannot  be  got  over!  The 
common  sense  of  common  people  will  not  fail  to  see  through 
all  attempts  to  hide  a  natural  shame  by  a  bungling  make- 
believe  that  the  danger  was  really  greater  than  it  was!  The 
danger  was  nothing,  and  the  fear  very  great,  and  the  cour- 
age none  at  all.  And  nothing  can  now  change  the  facts  ! 
All  the  newspapers  on  earth  will  not  make  this  case  appear 
any  better.  Do  what  you  please, — muster  a  crowd  of  sup- 
posed confederates,  call  the  roll  of  conspirators,  include  the 
noblest  men  of  these  States,  and  exhibit  this  imaginary  army 
before  the  people,  and,  in  the  end,  it  will  appear  that  seven- 
teen white  men  overawed  a  town  of  two  thousand  brave 
Virginians,  and  held  them  captives  until  the  sun  had  gone 
laughing  twice  around  the  globe  ! 

And  the  attempt  to  hide  the  fear  of  these  surrounded 
men  by  awaking  a  larger  fear  will  never  do.  It  is  too  literal 
a  fulfillment,  not  exactly  of  prophecy,  but  of  fable;  not  of 
Isaiah,  but  of  ^Esop. 

A  fox  having  been  caught  in  a  trap,  escaped  with  the  loss 
of  his  tail.  He  immediately  went  to  his  brother  foxes  to 
persuade  them  that  they  would  all  look  better  if  they  too 
would  cut  off  their  tails.  They  declined.  And  our  two 
thousand  friends,  who  lost  their  courage  in  the  presence  of 
seventeen  men,  are  now  making  an  appeal  to  this  nation  to 
lose  its  courage  too, that  the  cowardice  of  the  few  maybe  hid- 
den in  the  cowardice  of  the  whole  community!  It  is  impos- 
sible.   We  choose  to  wear  our  courage  for  some  time  longer. 

As  I  shall  not  recur  to  this  epic  in  Virginia  history  again 
to-night,  I  must  say  a  word  in  respect  to  the  head  and 
heart  of  it.     For  it  all  stood  in  the  courage  of  one  man. 


206  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

An  old  man,  kind  at  heart,  industrious,  peaceful,  went 
forth,  with  a  large  family  of  children,  to  seek  a  new  home  in 
Kansas.  That  infant  colony  held  thousands  of  souls  as 
noble  as  liberty  ever  inspired  or  religion  enriched.  A  great 
scowling  Slave  State,  its  nearest  neighbor,  sought  to  tread 
down  this  liberty-loving  colony,  and  to  dragoon  slavery  into 
it  by  force  of  arms.  The  armed  citizens  of  a  hostile  State 
crossed  the  State  lines,  destroyed  the  freedom  of  the  ballot- 
box,  prevented  a  fair  expression  of  public  sentiment,  cor- 
ruptly usurped  law-making  power,  and  ordained  by  fraud 
laws  as  infamous  as  the  sun  ever  saw;  assaulted  its  infant 
settlements  with  armed  hordes,  ravaged  the  fields,  destroyed 
harvests  and  herds,  and  carried  death  to  a  multitude  of 
cabins.  The  United  States  government  had  no  marines 
for  this  occasion!  No  Federal  troops  posted  in  the  cars 
by  night  and  day  for  the  poor,  the  weak,  the  grossly 
wronged  men  of  Kansas.  There  was  an  army  there  that 
unfurled  the  banner  of  the  Union,  but  it  was  on  the  side  of 
the  wrong-doers,  not  on  the  side  of  the  injured. 

It  was  in  this  field  that  Brown  received  his  impulse.  A 
tender  father,  whose  life  was  in  his  son's  life,  he  saw  his 
first-born  seized  like  a  felon,  chained,  driven  across  the 
country,  crazed  by  suffering  and  heat,  beaten  like  a  dog  by 
the  officer  in  charge,  and  long  lying  at  death's  door! 
Another  noble  boy,  without  warning,  without  offense,  un- 
armed, in  open  day,  in  the  midst  of  the  city,  was  shot  dead! 
No  justice  sought  out  the  murderers;  no  United  States 
attorney  was  dispatched  in  hot  haste;  no  marines  or  sol- 
diers aided  the  wronged  and  weak! 

The  shot  that  struck  the  child's  heart  crazed  the  father's 
brain.  Revolving  his  wrongs,  and  nursing  his  hatred  of 
that  deadly  system  that  breeds  such  contempt  of  justice  and 
humanity,  at  length  his  phantoms  assume  a  slender  reality, 
and  organize  such  an  enterprise  as  one  might  expect  from  a 
man  whom  grief  had  bereft  of  good  judgment.  He  goes  to 
the  heart  of  a  Slave  State.  One  man, — and  with  sixteen 
followers !  he  seizes  two  thousand  brave  Virginians,  and 
holds  them  in  duress  ! 

When  a  great  State  attacked  a  handful  of  weak  colonists, 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  207 

the  government  and  nation  were  torpid,  but  when  seven- 
teen men  attacked  a  sovereign  State,  then  Maryland  arms, 
and  Virginia  arms,  and  the  United  States  government 
arms,  and  they  three  rush  against  seventeen  men. 

Travelers  tell  us  that  the  Geysers  of  Iceland — those  sin- 
gular boiling  springs  of  the  North — may  be  transported 
with  fury  by  plucking  up  a  handful  of  grass  or  turf  and 
throwing  it  into  the  springs.  The  hot  springs  of  Virginia 
are  of  the  same  kind!  A  handful  of  men  was  thrown  into 
them,  and  what  a  boiling  there  has  been  ! 

But,  meanwhile,  no  one  can  fail  to  see  that  this  poor, 
child-bereft  old  man  is  the  manliest  of  them  all.  Bold, 
unflinching,  honest,  without  deceit  or  evasion,  refusing 
to  take  technical  advantages  of  any  sort,  but  openly 
avowing  his  principles  and  motives,  glorying  in  them  in 
danger  and  death,  as  much  as  when  in  security, — that 
wounded  old  father  is  the  most  remarkable  figure  in  this 
whole  drama.  The  Governor,  the  officers  of  the  State,  and 
all  the  attorneys  are  pygmies  compared  with  him. 

I  deplore  his  misfortunes.  I  sympathize  with  his  sor- 
rows. I  mourn  the  hiding  or  obscuration  of  his  reason. 
I  disapprove  of  his  mad  and  feeble  schemes.  I  shrink 
from  the  folly  of  the  bloody  foray,  and  I  shrink  likewise 
from  all  the  anticipations  of  that  judicial  bloodshed,  which 
doubtless  ere  long  will  follow, — for  when  was  cowardice 
ever  magnanimous?  If  they  kill  the  man,  it  will  not  be  so 
much  for  treason  as  for  the  disclosure  of  their  cowardice  ! 

Let  no  man  pray  that  Brown  be  spared.  Let  Virginia 
make  him  a  martyr.  Now,  he  has  only  blundered.  His 
soul  was  noble;  his  work  miserable.  But  a  cord  and  a 
gibbet  would  redeem  all  that,  and  round  up  Brown's  fail- 
ure with  a  heroic  success. 

One  word  more,  and  that  is  as  to  the  insecurity  of  those 
States  that  carry  powder  as  their  chief  cargo.  Do  you 
suppose  that  if  tidings  had  come  to  New  York  that  the 
United  States  armory  in  Springfield  had  been  seized  by 
seventeen  men,  New  Haven,  and  Hartford,  and  Stamford, 
and  Worcester,  and  New  York,  and  Boston,  and  Albany 
would  have  been  thrown  into  a  fever  and  panic  in  conse- 


208  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

quence  of  the  event  ?  We  scarcely  should  have  read  the 
papers  to  see  what  became  of  it.  We  should  have  thought 
that  it  was  a  matter  which  the  Springfield  people  could 
manage.  The  thought  of  danger  would  not  have  entered 
into  our  heads.  There  would  not  have  been  any  danger. 
But  in  a  State  where  there  is  such  inflammable  stuff  as 
slavery,  there  is  danger,  and  the  people  of  the  South 
know  it;  and  they  cannot  help  it.  I  do  not  blame  them  so 
much  for  being  afraid:  there  is  cause  for  fear  where  they 
have  such  a  population  as  they  have  down  at  the  bottom 
of  society.  But  what  must  be  the  nature  of  State  and  do- 
mestic institutions  which  keep  brave  men  at  the  point  of 
fear  all  their  life  long? 

I  do  not  propose,  at  this  time,  to  express  my  opinion 
upon  the  general  subject  of  Slavery.  I  have  elsewhere, 
and  often,  deliberately  uttered  my  testimony.  Reflection 
and  experience  only  confirm  my  judgment  of  its  immeasur- 
able evils.  It  is  double-edged  evil,  that  cuts  both  ways, 
wounding  master  and  slave;  a  pest  to  good  morals;  a  con- 
sumption of  the  industrial  virtues;  a  burden  upon  society 
in  its  commercial  and  economic  arrangements;  a  political 
anomaly;  and  a  cause  of  inevitable  degradation  in  religious 
ideas,  feelings,  and  institutions.  All  other  causes  of  trouble 
derived  from  the  weakness  or  the  wickedness  of  men  put 
together  are  not  half  so  mischievous  to  our  land  as  is  this 
gigantic  evil. 

But  it  exists  in  our  land,  and  with  a  wide-spread  and  a 
long-established  hold.  The  extent  of  our  duties  toward 
the  slave  and  toward  the  master  is  another  and  separate 
question.  Our  views  upon  the  nature  of  slavery  may  be 
right,  and  our  views  of  duty  toward  it  may  be  wrong. 

At  this  time  it  is  peculiarly  necessary  that  all  good  men 
should  be  divinely  led  to  act  with  prudence  and  efficient 
wisdom. 

Because  it  is  a  great  sin,  because  it  is  a  national  curse,  it 
does  not  follow  that  we  have  a  right  to  say  anything  or  do 
anything  about  it  that  may  happen  to  please  us.  We  cer- 
tainly have  no  right  to  attack  it  in  any  manner  that  may 
gratify  men's  fancies  or  passions.     It  is  computed  that  there 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY. 


209 


O 


are  four  million  colored  slaves  in  our  nation.  These  dwell 
in  fifteen  different  Southern  States,  with  a  population  of 
ten  million  whites.  These  sovereign  States  are  united  to 
us  not  merely  by  federal  ligaments,  but  by  vital  interests, 
by  a  common  national  life.  And  the  question  of  duty 
is  not  simply  what  is  duty  toward  the  blacks,  not  what 
is  duty  toward  the  whites,  but  what  is  duty  to  each  and  to 
both  united.  I  am  bound  by  the  great  law  of  love  to  con- 
sider my  duties  toward  the  slave,  and  I  am  bound  by  the 
great  law  of  love  also  to  consider  my  duties  toward  the 
white  man,  who  is  his  master  !  Both  are  to  be  treated  with  .-— J 
Christian  wisdom  and  forbearance.  We  must  seek  to  ben- 
efit the  slave  as  much  as  the  white  man,  and  the  white  man 
as  really  as  the  slave.  We  must  keep  in  mind  the  interest 
of  every  part, — of  the  slaves  themselves,  of  the  white  popu- 
lation, and  of  the  whole  brotherhood  of  States  federated 
into  national  life.  And  while  the  principles  of  liberty  and 
justice  are  one  and  the  same,  always  and  everywhere,  the 
wisest  method  of  conferring  upon  men  the  benefit  of  lib- 
erty and  justice  demands  great  consideration,  according  to 
circumstances. 

How  to  apply  an  acknowledged  principle  in  practical  life 
is  a  task  more  difficult  than  the  defense  of  the  principle. 
It  is  harder  to  define  what  would  be  just  in  certain  emergen- 
cies than  to  establish  the  duty,  claims,  and  authority  of 
justice. 

Can  any  light  be  thrown  upon  this  difficult  path  ?  Some 
light  may  be  shed;  but  the  difficulties  of  duty  can  never 
be  removed  except  by  the  performance  of  duty.  Yet 
some  things  may  be  known  beforehand,  and  guide  to  prac- 
tical solutions. 

I  shall  proceed  to  show  the  wrong  way  and  the  right  way. 

1.  First,  we  have  no  right  to  treat  the  citizens  of  the 
South  with  acrimony  and  bitterness  because  they  are  in- 
volved in  a  system  of  wrong-doing.  Wrong  is  to  be  ex- 
posed. But  the  spirit  of  rebuke  may  be  as  wicked  before 
God  as  the  spirit  of  the  evil  rebuked.  Simplicity  and 
firmness  in  truth  are  more  powerful  than  any  vehement 
bitterness.    Speaking  the  truth  in  love  is  the  Apostle's  pre- 


14 


i 


2IO  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

scription.  Some  men  so  love  that  they  will  not  speak 
painful  truth,  and  some  men  utter  truth  so  bitterly  as  to 
destroy  love;  and  both  are  evil-doers.  A  malignant  speech 
about  slavery  will  not  do  any  good;  and,  most  of  all,  it  will 
not  do  those  any  good  who  most  excite  our  sympathy, — 
the  children  of  bondage.  If  we  hope  to  ameliorate  the  con- 
dition of  the  slave,  the  first  step  must  not  be  taken  by 
setting  the  master  against  him.  We  may  be  sure  that  God 
will  not  employ  mere  wrath  for  wisdom;  and  that  he  will 
raise  up  and  send  forth,  when  his  day  comes,  fearless  men, 
who  shall  speak  the  truth  for  justice,  in  the  spirit  of  love. 
Therefore  it  is  a  matter  not  merely  of  political  and  secular 
wisdom,  but  of  Christian  conscience,  that  those  who  have 
at  heart  the  welfare  of  the  enslaved  should  maintain  a 
Christian  spirit.  This  can  be  done  without  giving  up  one 
word  of  truth  or  one  principle  of  righteousness.  A  man 
may  be  fearless  and  plain-spoken,  and  yet  give  evidence 
of  being  sympathetic  and  kind-hearted  and  loving. 

2.  The  breeding  of  discontent  among  the  bondmen  of 
our  land  is  not  the  way  to  help  them.  Whatever  gloomy 
thoughts  the  slave's  own  mind  may  brood,  we  are  not  to 
carry  disquiet  to  him  from  without. 

If  I  could  have  my  way,  every  man  on  the  globe  should  be 
a  freeman,  and  at  once  !  But  as  they  cannot  be,  will  not  be, 
for  ages,  is  it  best  that  bitter  discontent  should  be  inspired 
in  them,  or  Christian  quietness  and  patient  waiting  ?  If  rest- 
lessness would  bring  freedom,  they  should  never  rest.  But 
I  firmly  believe  that  moral  goodness  in  the  slave  is  the 
harbinger  of  liberty !  The  influence  of  national  freedom 
will  gradually  reach  the  enslaved,  it  will  surely  inspire  that 
restlessness  which  precedes  development.  Germination  is 
the  most  silent,  but  most  disturbing,  of  all  natural  processes. 
Slaves  cannot  but  feel  the  universal  summer  of  civilization. 
In  this  way  they  must  come  to  restless  yearnings.  We  can- 
not help  that,  and  would  not  if  we  could.  It  is  God's  sign 
that  spring  has  come  to  them.  The  soul  is  coming  up. 
There  must  be  room  for  it  to  grow.  But  this  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent thing  from  surly  discontent,  stirred  up  from  without, 
and    left    to    rankle  in  their  unenlightened  natures.     The 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  211 

time  is  rapidly  coming  when  the  Southern  Christian  will 
feel  a  new  inspiration.  We  are  not  far  removed  from  a 
revival  of  the  doctrines  of  Christian  manhood  and  the  divine 
rights  of  men.  When  this  pentecost  comes,  the  slaves  will 
be  stirred  by  their  own  masters.  We  must  work  upon  the 
master.  Make  him  discontented  with  slavery,  and  he  will 
speedily  take  care  of  the  rest.  Before  this  time  comes,  any 
attempt  to  excite  discontent  among  the  slaves  will  work 
mischief  to  them,  and  not  good.  And  my  experience — and  I 
have  had  some  experience  in  this  matter — is,  that  men  who 
tamper  with  slaves  and  incite  them  to  discontent  are  not 
themselves  to  be  trusted.  They  are  not  honest  men,  unless 
they  are  fanatical.  If  they  have  their  reason,  they  usually 
have  lost  their  conscience..  I  do  not  know  why  it  is  so,  but 
my  experience  has  taught  me  that  men  who  do  such  things 
are  crafty,  and  untrustworthy.  Conspirators,  the  world 
over,  are  bad  men.  And  if  I  were  in  the  South,  I  should, 
not  from  fear  of  the  master,  but  from  the  most  deliberate 
sense  of  the  injurious  effects  of  it  to  the  slave,  never  by  word 
nor  act  do  anything  to  excite  discontent  among  those  who 
are  in  slavery.  The  condition  of  the  slave  must  be  changed, 
but  the  change  cannot  go  on  in  one  part  of  the  community 
alone.  There  must  be  change  in  the  law,  change  in  the 
Church,  change  in  the  upper  classes,  change  in  the  middle 
and  in  all  classes.  Emancipation,  when  it  comes,  will  come 
either  by  revolution  or  by  a  change  of  public  opinion  in  the 
whole  community.  No  influences,  then,  are  adequate  to  the 
relief  of  the  slave,  which  are  not  of  a  proportion  and  power 
sufficient  to  modify  the  thought  and  the  feeling  of  the  whole 
community.  The  evil  is  not  partial.  It  cannot  be  cured  by 
partial  remedies.  Our  plans  must  include  a  universal 
change  in  policy,  feeling,  purpose,  theory,  and  practice  in 
the  whole  nation.  The  application  of  simple  remedies  to 
single  spots  in  this  great  body  of  disease  will  serve  to  pro- 
duce a  useless  irritation:  it  will  merely  fester  the  hand,  but 
not  cure  the  whole  body. 

3.  No  relief  will  be  afforded  to  the  slaves  of  the  South, 
as  a  body,  by  any  individual;  or  by  any  organized  plan  to 
carry  them  off,  or  to  incite  them  to  abscond. 


212  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

The  more  enlightened  and  liberty-loving  among  the 
Southern  slaves  bear  too  much  of  their  masters'  blood  not 
to  avail  themselves  of  any  opening  to  escape.  It  is  their 
right;  it  will  be  their  practice.  Free  locomotion  is  an  in- 
cident of  slave-property,  which  the  master  must  put  up 
with.  Nimble  legs  are  of  much  use  in  tempering  the  se- 
verity of  slavery.  If,  therefore,  an  enslaved  man,  acting 
from  the  yearnings  of  his  own  heart,  desires  to  run  away, 
who  shall  forbid  him  ?  In  all  the  earth,  wherever  a  hu- 
man being  is  held  in  bondage,  he  has  a  right  to  slough  his 
burden  and  break  his  yoke  if  he  can.  If  he  wishes  liberty, 
and  is  willing  to  dare  and  suffer  for  it,  let  him  !  If  by  his 
manly  courage  he  achieves  it,  he  ought  to  have  it.  I 
honor  such  a  man  ! 

Nay,  if  he  has  escaped  and  comes  to  me,  I  owe  him  shel- 
ter, succor,  defense,  and  God-speed  to  a  final  safety.  If  there 
were  as  many  laws  as  there  are  lines  in  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  as  many  officers  as  there  were  beasts  in  Daniel's 
lion's  den,  I  would  disregard  every  law  but  God's,  and  help 
the  fugitive  !  A  man  whose  own  heart  has  inspired  a  cour- 
age sufficient  to  achieve  what  he  desired,  shall  never  come 
to  my  door  and  not  be  made  as  welcome  as  my  own  child. 
I  will  adopt  him  for  God's  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
Christ  who  broods  over  the  weak  and  perishing.  Nor  am  I 
singular  in  such  feelings  and  purposes.  Ten  thousand 
men,  even  in  the  South,  would  feel  and  do  the  same.  A 
man  who  would  not  help  a  fellow-creature  flying  for  his 
liberty  must  be  either  a  villain  or  a  politician. 

I  stand  on  the  outside  of  this  great  cordon  of  darkness, 
and  every  man  that  escapes  from  it,  running  for  his  life, 
shall  have  some  help  from  me,  if  he  comes  forth  of  his  own 
free  accord;  yet  I  would  never  incite  slaves  to  run  away,  or 
send  any  other  man  to  do  it.  We  have  no  right  to  carry 
into  the  midst  of  slavery  exterior  discontent;  and  for  this 
reason:  that  it  is  not  good  for  the  slaves  themselves.  It  is  short- 
sighted humanity,  at  best,  and  poor  policy  for  both  the 
blacks  and  the  whites.  And  I  say  again,  I  would  not  trust 
a  man  that  should  do  it.  It  would  injure  the  blacks  chiefly 
and    especially.     How  it  would  injure   them   will    appear 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  213 

when  I  come  to  speak  positively  of  what  is  the  right  way 
to  promote  the  liberty  of  the  enslaved.  I  may  say  here, 
however,  that  the  higher  a  man  is  raised  in  the  scale  of 
being,  the  harder  it  will  be  to  hold  him  in  bondage  and 
to  sell  him;  while  the  more  he  is  like  an  animal,  the  easier 
it  will  be  to  hold  him  in  thrall  and  harness.  The  more 
you  make  slave-holders  feel  that  when  they  oppress  and 
sell  a  man  they  are  oppressing  and  selling  God's  image, 
the  harder  it  will  be  for  them  to  continue  to  enslave  and 
traffic  in  human  beings.  Therefore,  whatever  you  do  to 
inspire  in  the  slave  high  and  noble  and  godlike  feelings 
tends  to  loosen  his  chains,  and  whatever  shall  inspire  in 
him  base,  low,  and  cruel  feelings  tightens  them. 

Running  away  is  all  fair  for  single  cases.  It  is  God's 
remedy  for  all  cases  of  special  hardship.  It  is  the  natural 
right  of  any  slave  who  has  manhood  enough  to  resent  even 
tolerant  bondage.  We  are  not  speaking  of  the  remedy  for 
individuals, — but  the  remedy  for  the  whole  system.  Four 
million  men  cannot  run  away,  until  God  sends  ten  Egyptian 
plagues  to  help  them.  And  those  who  go  among  the  slaves 
to  stir  up  discontent  will  help  the  hundreds  at  the  expense 
of  the  millions.  Those  left  behind  will  be  demoralized, 
and,  becoming  less  trustworthy,  will  grow  sullen  under  in- 
creased severity  and  vigilance. 

4.  Still  less  would  we  tolerate  anything  like  insurrection 
and  servile  war.  It  would  be  the  most  cruel,  hopeless,  and 
desperate  of  all  conceivable  follies,  to  seek  emancipation  by 
the  sword  and  by  blood.  And  though  I  love  liberty  as  my 
own  life,  though  I  long  for  it  in  every  human  being,  though 
if  God,  by  unequivocal  providences,  should  ordain  that  it 
should  come  again  as  of  old,  through  terrible  plagues  on  the 
first-born,  and  by  other  terrors  of  ill,  I  should  submit  to  the 
Divine  behest;  yet,  so  far  as  human  instrumentality  is  con- 
cerned, by  all  the  conscience  of  a  man,  by  all  the  faith  of  a 
Christian,  and  by  all  the  zeal  and  warmth  of  a  philanthro- 
pist, I  protest  against  any  counsels  that  lead  to  insurrection, 
servile  war,  and  bloodshed.  It  is  bad  for  the  master,  bad 
for  the  slave,  bad  for  all  that  are  neighbors  to  them,  bad 
for  the  whole  land, — bad  from  beginning  to  end  ! 


1 


2i4  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

The  right  of  a  race  or  nation  to  seize  their  freedom  is  not 
to  be  disputed.  It  belongs  to  all  men  on  the  face  of  the 
globe,  without  regard  to  complexion.  A  people  have  the 
right  to  change  their  rulers,  their  government,  their  whole 
political  condition.  This  right  is  neither  granted  nor  limited 
in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  left,  as  are  the  functions  of 
life,  and  even  existence  itself,  as  a  thing  not  requiring  com- 
mands or  legislation.  But,  according  to  God's  Word,  so 
long  as  a  man  remains  a  servant,  he  must  obey  his  master. 
The  right  of  the  slave  to  throw  off  the  control  of  his  master 
is  not  abrogated.  The  right  of  the  subject  to  do  this  is 
neither  denned  nor  limited.  But  the  use  of  this  right  must 
conform  to  reason,  and  not  to  mere  impulse.  The  leaders 
of  a  people  have  no  right  to  whelm  their  helpless  followers 
in  terrible  disaster  by  inciting  them  to  rebel,  under  circum- 
stances that  afford  not  the  slightest  hope  that  their  rebellion 
will  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  successful  revolution.  The 
nations  of  Italy  are  showing  great  wisdom  and  fitness  in 
their  leaders  for  their  work,  in  that  they  are  quelling  fretful 
and  irregular  outbreak,  and  holding  the  people  steadfast  till 
success  shall  surely  crown  uprising  revolution.  This  has 
been  the  eminent  wisdom  of  that  Hungarian  exile,  Kossuth. 
In  spite  of  all  that  is  written  and  said  against  this  noble 
man,  I  stand  to  my  first  full  faith  in  him.*  The  uncrowned 
hero  is  the  noblest  man,  after  all,  in  Europe  !  And  his 
statesmanship  has  been  shown  in  this:  that  his  burning 
sense  of  the  right  of  his  people  to  be  free  has  not  led 
him  to  incite  them  to  premature,  partial,  and  easily  over- 
matched revolt.  A  man  may  give  his  own  life  rather  than 
abide  in  servitude,  but  he  has  no  right  to  lead  a  whole 
people  to  slaughter,  without  the  strongest  probabilities  of 
success. 

If  nations  were  all  armed  men,  it  would  be  different.  Sol- 
diers can  die.  But  a  nation  is  made  up  of  other  materials 
than   armed    men;    it    includes   women    and  children  and 


*In  December,  1851,  Louis  Kossuth  came  to  America,  and  Mr.  Beecher 
and  Plymouth  Church  were  among  his  warmest  friends  and  most  liberal 
helpers,  with  what  he  called  "  material  aid." 


THE   NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  215 

youth.  These  are  to  be  considered,  and  not  merely  men 
of  muscle  and  knuckle  and  bone. 

Now,  if  the  Africans  in  our  land  were  intelligent,  if  they 
understood  themselves,  if  they  had  self-governing  power,  if 
they  were  able  first  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  adverse  laws 
and  institutions,  and  afterwards  to  defend  and  build  them- 
selves up  in  a  civil  state,  then  they  would  have  just  the  same 
right  to  assume  their  independence  that  any  nation  has. 

But  does  any  man  believe  that  this  is  the  case  ?  Does 
any  man  believe  that  this  vast  horde  of  undisciplined 
Africans,  if  set  free,  would  have  cohesive  power  enough 
to  organize  themselves  into  a  government,  and  main- 
tain their  independence  ?  If  there  be  men  who  be- 
lieve this,  I  am  not  among  them.  I  certainly  think  that 
even  slaves  would  be  made  immeasurably  better  by  liberty; 
but  I  do  not  believe  they  would  be  made  better  by  liberty 
gained  by  insurrection  or  rebellion  in  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances which  surround  them  at  the  South.  A  regulated  lib- 
erty; a  liberty  possessed  with  the  consent  of  their  masters; 
a  liberty  under  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the  country;  a 
liberty  which  should  make  them  common  beneficiaries  of 
those  institutions  and  principles  which  make  us  wise  and 
happy, — such  a  liberty  would  be  a  great  blessing  to  them. 
Freedom,  with  a  law  and  government,  is  an  unspeakable 
good,  but  without  them  it  is  a  mischief.  And  anything  that 
tends  to  incite  among  men  a  vague  insurrectionary  spirit  is 
a  great  and  cruel  wrong  to  them. 

If,  in  view  of  the  wrongs  of  slavery,  you  say  that  you  do 
not  care  for  the  master,  but  only  for  the  slave,  I  reply,  that 
you  should  care  for  both  master  and  slave!  Though  you  do 
not  care  for  the  fate  of  the  wrong-doing  white  man,  I  do! 
But  even  though  your  sympathy  were  only  for  the  slave, 
then  for  his  sake  you  ought  to  set  your  face  against  any- 
thing like  an  insurrectionary  spirit. 

Let  us  turn  from  these  specifications  of  the  wrong  way 
to  some  considerations  relating  to  the  right  way. 

1.  If  we  would  benefit  the  African  at  the  South,  we  must 
begin  at  the  North.  This  is  to  some  men  the  most  disagreea- 
ble part  of  the  doctrine  of  emancipation.     It  is  ver}^  easy  to 


r 


216  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

labor  for  the  emancipation  of  beings  a  thousand  miles  off; 
but  the  practical  application  of  justice  and  humanity  to 
those  about  us  is  not  so  agreeable.  The  truths  of  God  re- 
specting the  rights  and  dignities  of  men  are  just  as  im- 
portant to  free  colored  men  as  to  enslaved  colored  men. 
The  lever  with  which  to  lift  the  load  of  Georgia  is  in  New 
York.  I  do  not  believe  the  whole  free  North  can  tolerate 
grinding  injustice  toward  the  poor  and  inhumanity  toward 
the  laboring  classes,  without  exerting  an  influence  unfavora- 
ble to  justice  and  humanity  in  the  South.  No  one  can  fail 
to  see  the  inconsistency  between  our  treatment  of  those 
amongst  us  who  are  in  the  lower  walks  of  life  and  our  pro- 
fessions of  sympathy  for  the  Southern  slaves.  How  are  the 
free  colored  people  treated  at  the  North  ?  They  are  almost 
without  education,  and  with  but  little  sympathy  for  their  ig- 
norance. They  are  refused  the  common  rights  of  citizen- 
ship which  the  whites  enjoy.  They  cannot  even  ride  in  the 
cars  of  our  city  railroads.  They  are  snuffed  at  in  the  house 
of  God,  or  tolerated  with  ill-concealed  disgust.  Can  the 
black  man  be  a  mason  in  New  York?  Let  him  be  employed 
as  a  journeyman,  and  every  Irish  lover  of  liberty  that  carries 
the  hod  or  trowel  would  leave  at  once,  or  compel  him  to 
leave!  Can  the  black  man  be  a  carpenter?  There  is  scarcely 
a  carpenter's  shop  in  New  York  in  which  a  journeyman 
would  continue  to  work,  if  a  black  man  was  employed  in  it. 
Can  the  black  man  engage  in  the  common  industries  of  life  ? 
There  is  scarcely  one  from  which  he  is  not  excluded.  He  is 
crowded  down,  down,  down,  through  the  most  menial  call- 
ings, to  the  bottom  of  society.  We  tax  them,  and  then  re- 
fuse to  allow  their  children  to  go  to  our  public  schools.  We 
heap  upon  them  moral  obloquy  more  atrocious  than  that 
which  the  master  heaps  upon  the  slave.  And,  notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  we  lift  ourselves  up  to  talk  to  the  Southern  peo- 
ple about  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  human  soul,  and  es- 
pecially the  African  soul!  It  is  true  that  slavery  is  cruel. 
But  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  there  is  not  more  love  to  the 
race  in  the  South  than  in  the  North.  We  do  not  own  them, 
so  we  do  not  love  them  at  all.  The  prejudice  of  the  whites 
against  color  is  so  strong  that  they  cannot  endure  to  ride  or 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  217 

sit  with  a  black  man,  so  long  as  they  do  not  own  him.  As 
neighbors,  they  are  not  to  be  tolerated,  but  as  property  they 
are  most  tolerable  in  the  house,  the  church,  the  carriage,  the 
couch  !  The  African  owned,  may  dwell  in  America;  but  un- 
owned, he  must  be  expatriated.  Emancipation  must  be 
jackal  to  colonization.  The  choice  given  to  the  African  is  si 
plantation  or  colonization.  Our  Christian  public  sentiment 
is  a  pendulum  swinging  between  owning  or  exporting  the 
colored  poor  in  our  midst.  ^X 

Whenever  we  are  prepared  to  show  toward  the  lowest,  the 
poorest,  and  the  most  despised  an  unaffected  kindness,  such 
as  led  Christ,  though  the  Lord  of  Glory,  to  lay  aside  his 
dignities,  and  to  take  on  himself  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
suffer  an  ignominious  death,  that  he  might  rescue  men  from 
ignorance  and  bondage, —  whenever  we  are  prepared  to  do 
such  things  as  these,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  example  of  the 
North  will  not  be  unfelt  at  the  South.  Every  effort  that  is 
made  in  Brooklyn  to  establish  schools  and  churches  for  the 
free  colored  people,  and  to  encourage  them  to  educate  them- 
selves and  to  become  independent,  is  a  step  toward  emanci- 
pation in  the  South.  The  degradation  of  free  colored  men 
in  the  North  will  fortify  slavery  in  the  South  ! 

2.  We  must  quicken  all  the  springs  of  feeling  in  the  Free  ^7  ^/ 
States  in  behalf  of  human  liberty,  and  create  a  public  senii-    / 
ment,  based  upon  truths  of  Christian  manhood.     For  if  we  y 
act  to  any  good  purpose  on  the  minds  of  the  South,  we  must 
do  it  through  a  salutary  and  pure  public  sentiment  in  the 
North.     When  we  have  corrected  our  own  practice,  and  set 
an  example  of  the  right  spirit,  then  we  shall  have  a  position, 
from   which   to   exert  a  beneficial  public  influence  on  the    / 
minds  of  Southern  slaveholders.     For  this  there  must  be  4 
full  and  free  discussion.     Under  our   institutions,   public 
opinion  is  the  monarch;  and  free  speech  and  debate  form 
public  opinion. 

The  air  must  be  vital  with  the  love  of  liberty.  Liberty 
with  us  must  be  raised  by  religion  from  the  selfishness  of  an 
instinct  to  the  sanctity  of  a  moral  principle!  We  must  love 
it  for  ourselves  and  demand  it  for  others.  Since  Christ  took 
man's  nature,  human  life  has  a  divine  sanctity.     We  must 


2l8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

inspire  in  the  public  mind  a  profound  sense  of  the  rights  of 
men  founded  upon  their  relations  to  God.  The  glory  of  in- 
telligence, refinement,  genius,  has  nothing  to  do  with  men's 
rights.  The  rice  slave,  the  Hottentot,  are  as  much  God's 
children  as  Humboldt  or  Chalmers.  That  they  are  in  deg- 
radation only  makes  it  more  imperative  upon  us  to  secure 
to  them  the  birthright  which  in  their  ignorance  they  sell 
for  a  mess  of  pottage. 

These  things  must  become  familiar  again  to  our  pulpits. 
Our  children  must  be  taught  to  glow  again  in  our  schools 
over  the  heroic  ideals  of  liberty.  Mothers  must  twine  the 
first  threads  of  their  children's  life  with  the  golden  threads 
of  these  divine  truths,  and  the  whole  of  life  must  be  woven 
to  the  heavenly  pattern  of  Liberty ! 

What  can  the  North  do  for  the  South,  unless  her  own 
heart  is  purified  and  ennobled  ?  When  the  love  of  liberty  is 
at  so  low  an  ebb  that  churches  dread  the  sound,  ministers 
shrink  from  the  topic;  when  book-publishers  dare  not  pub- 
lish or  republish  a  word  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  cut  out 
every  living  word  from  school-books,  expurgate  life-passages 
from  Humboldt,  Spurgeon,  and  all  foreign  authors  or  teach- 
ers; and  when  great  religious  publication  Societies,  endowed 
for  the  very  purpose  of  speaking  fearlessly  the  truths  which 
interest  would  let  perish,  pervert  their  trust,  and  are  dumb, 
first  and  chiefly,  and  articulate  only  in  things  that  thousands 
of  others  could  publish  as  well  as  they, — what  chance  is 
there  that  public  sentiment,  in  such  a  community,  will  have 
any  power  with  the  South  ? 

But  the  end  of  these  things  is  at  hand.  A  nobler  spirit 
is  arising.  New  men,  new  hearts,  new  zeals,  are  coming 
forward,  led  on  by  all  those  signs  and  auspices  that  God 
foresends  when  he  prepares  his  people  to  advance.  This 
work,  well  begun,  must  not  go  back.  It  must  grow,  like 
spring,  into  summer.  God  will  then  give  it  an  autumn — 
without  a  winter.  And  when  such  a  public  sentiment  fills 
the  North,  founded  upon  religion,  and  filled  with  fearless 
love  to  both  the  bond  and  the  free,  it  will  work  all  over 
the  continent,  and  nothing  can  be  hid  from  the  shining 
thereof. 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  2ig 

n 

3.  By  all   the   ways  consistent  with   the  fearless  asser- 
tion of  truth,  we  must  maintain  sympathy  and   kindness       I 
toward  the  South.     We  are  brethren;  and  I  pray  that  no 
fratricidal  influences  be  permitted  to  sunder  this  Union. 
There  was  a  time  when  I  thought  the  body  of  death  would 

be  too  much  for  life,  and  that  the  North  was  in  danger  of 
taking  disease  from  the  South,  rather  than  they  our  health. 
That  time  has  gone  past.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  shall 
be  separated  by  their  act  or  ours.  We  have  an  element 
of  healing,  which,  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves  and  our  princi- 
ples, and  God  is  kind  to  us,  will  drive  itself  further  and  fur- 
ther into  the  nation,  until  it  penetrates  and  regenerates 
every  part.  When  the  whole  lump  shall  have  been  leav- 
ened thereby,  old  prejudices  will  be  done  away,  and  new 
sympathies  will  be  created. 

I  am  for  holding  the  heart  of  the  North  right  up  to  the 
heart  of  the  South.  Every  heart-beat  will  be,  ere  long,  not 
a  blow  riveting  oppression,  but  a  throb  carrying  new  health. 
Freedom  in  the  North  is  stronger  than  slavery  in  the  South. 
We  are  yet  to  work  for  them  as  the  silent  spring  works  for 
us.  They  are  a  lawful  prey  to  love.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
tell  the  South  what  I  mean  by  loving  this  Union.  I  mean 
liberty,  I  mean  the  decay  of  slavery,  and  its  extinction.  If 
I  might  speak  for  the  North,  I  would  say  to  the  South: 
"  We  love  you,  and  hate  your  slavery.  We  shall  leave  no 
fraternal  effort  untried  to  deliver  you,  and  ourselves  with 
you,  from  the  degradation,  danger,  and  wickedness  of  this 
system."  And  for  this  we  cling  to  the  Union.  There  is 
health  in  it. 

4.  We  are  to  leave  no  pains  untaken,  through  the  Chris- 
tian conscience  of  the  South,  to  give  to  the  slave  himself 

a  higher  moral  status.  I  lay  it  down  as  an  axiom,  that  J^ 
whatever  gives  more  manhood  to  the  slave  slackens  the 
bonds  that  bind  him,  and  that  whatever  lowers  him  in  the 
scale  of  manhood  tightens  those  bonds.  If  you  wish  to 
work  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  African,  seek  to  make 
him  a  better  man.  Teach  him  to  be  an  obedient  servant, 
and  an  honest,  true,  Christian  man.  These  virtues  are  God's 
step-stones  to  liberty.     That  man  whom  Christ  first  makes 


\ 


220  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

free  has  a  better  chance  to  be  civilly  free  than  any  other. 
To  make  a  slave  morose,  fractions,  disobedient,  and  unwill- 
ing to  work  is  the  way  to  defer  his  emancipation.  We  do 
not  ask  the  slave  to  be  satisfied  with  slavery.  But,  feeling 
its  grievous  burden,  we  ask  him  to  endure  it  while  he  must, 
"as  unto  God,  and  not  unto  man;"  not  because  he  does 
not  love  liberty,  but  because  he  does  love  Christ  enough 
to  show  forth  His  spirit  under  grievous  wrong.  Bad  slaves 
will  never  breed  respect,  sympathy,  and  emancipation. 
Truth,  honor,  fidelity,  manhood, — these  things  in  the  slave 
will  prepare  him  for  freedom.  It  is  the  low  animal  condi- 
tion of  the  African  that  enslaves  him.  It  is  moral  enfran- 
chisement that  will  break  his  bonds. 

The  Pauline  treatment  is  the  most  direct  road  to  liberty. 
No  part  of  the  wisdom  of  the  New  Testament  seems  to  me 
more  divinely  wise  than  Paul's  directions  to  those  in  slavery. 
This  is  the  food  that  servants  need  now  at  the  South,  every- 
where, the  world  over  !  If  I  lived  in  the  South,  I  should 
preach  these  things  to  slaves,  with  a  firm  conviction  that  so 
I  should  advance  the  day  of  their  liberty.  I  should  feel 
that  I  was  carrying  them  further  and  further  toward  their 
emancipation.  There  is  no  disagreement  between  the  true 
spirit  of  emancipation  and  the  enforcement  of  every  sin- 
gle one  of  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testament  respecting 
servants. 

5.  The  things  which  shall  lead  to  emancipation  are  not 
so  complicated  or  numerous  as  people  blindly  think.  A 
few  virtues  established,  a  few  usages  maintained,  a  few 
rights  guaranteed  to  the  slaves,  and  the  system  is  vitally 
wounded.  The  right  of  chastity  in  the  woman,  the  unblem- 
ished household  love,  the  right  of  parents  in  their  children, 
— on  these  three  elements  stands  the  whole  weight  of  so- 
J  ciety.  Corrupt  or  enfeeble  these,  and  there  cannot  be  super- 
incumbent strength.  Withhold  these  rights  from  savage 
people,  and  they  can  never  be  carried  up.  They  are  the 
integral  elements  of  associated  human  life.  We  demand, 
and  have  a  right  to  demand,  of  the  Christian  men  of  the 
South,  that  they  shall  revolutionize  the  moral  condition  of 
the  slaves. 


( 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  221 

I  stand  up  in  behalf  of  two  million  women  who  are  with- 
out a  voice,  to  declare  that  there  ought  to  be  found  in 
Christianity,  somewhere,  an  influence  that  shall  protect 
their  right  to  their  own  persons,  and  that  their  purity  shall 
stand  on  some  other  ground  than  the  caprice  of  their  mas- 
ters !  I  demand  that  the  Christian  Church,  both  North 
and  South,  shall  bear  a  testimony  in  behalf  of  marriage 
among  the  slaves,  which  shall  make  it  as  inviolable  as  mar- 
riage among  the  whites.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  another 
code  of  morals  prevails  upon  the  plantation  than  that 
which  prevails  in  the  plantation  mansion.  So  long  as  hus- 
band and  wife  are  marriageable  commodities,  liable  to  be 
sold  apart,  to  form  new  connections,  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  sanctity  in  wedlock. 

Let  it  be  known  in  New  York  that  a  man  has  two  wives, 
and  there  is  no  church  so  feeble  of  conscience  that  they 
will  not  instantly  eject  him;  and  law  will  promptly  visit 
him  with  penalties.  But  the  communicants  of  slave- 
churches  not  only  live  with  a  second  while  their  first  com- 
panion is  yet  alive,  but  in  succession  with  a  third  and  fourth; 
nor  is  it  any  disqualification  for  church-membership.  The 
Church  and  the  State  wink  at  it.  It  is  the  commercial 
necessity  of  the  system.  If  you  will  sell  men,  you  must 
not  be  too  nice  about  their  moral  virtues. 

A  wedding  among  this  unhappy  people  is  but  a  name, — 
a  mere  form  to  content  their  conscience  or  their  love  of 
imitating  their  superiors.  Every  auctioneer  in  the  com- 
munity has  the  power  to  put  asunder  whom  God  has  joined. 
The  bankruptcy  of  their  owner  is  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
marriage  relation  in  half  the  slaves  on  his  plantation. 

Neither  is  there  any  gospel  that  has  been  permitted  to 
rebuke  these  things.  There  is  no  church  that  I  have 
ever  known  in  the  South  that  bears  testimony  against  them. 
Neither  will  the  churches  in  the  North,  as  a  body,  take 
upon  themselves  the  responsibility  of  bearing  witness 
against  them. 

I  go  further.  I  declare  that  there  must  be  a  Christian 
public  sentiment  which  shall  make  the  family  inviolate. 
Men  sometimes  say,  "  It  is  rarely  the  case  that  families  are 


222  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

separated."  It  is  false  !  It  is  false  !  There  is  not  a  slave- 
mart  that  does  not  bear  testimony,  a  thousand  times  over, 
against  such  an  assertion.  Children  are  bred  like  colts  and 
calves,  and  are  dispersed  like  them. 

It  is  in  vain  to  preach  a  gospel  to  slaves  that  leaves  out 
personal  chastity  in  man  and  woman,  or  that  leaves  their 
purity  subject  to  another's  control;  that  leaves  out  the 
sanctity  of  the  marriage  state,  and  the  unity  and  inviola- 
bility of  the  family.  And  yet  no  gospel  has  borne  such  a 
testimony  in  favor  of  them  as  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  the 
South  !  If  ministers  will  not  preach  liberty  to  the  captive, 
they  ought  at  least  to  preach  the  indispensable  necessity  of 
household  virtue  !  If  they  will  not  call  upon  the  masters 
to  set  their  slaves  free,  they  should  at  least  proclaim  a 
Christianity  that  protects  woman,  childhood,  and  house- 
hold ! 

The  moment  that  woman  stands  self-poised  in  her  own 
purity,  the  moment  man  and  woman  are  united  together 
by  bonds  which  cannot  be  sundered  during  their  earthly 
life,  the  moment  the  right  of  parents  to  their  children  is 
recognized, — that  moment  there  will  be  a  certain  sanctity 
and  protection  of  the  eternal  and  Divine  government  rest- 
ing upon  father  and  mother  and  children,  and  the  death- 
blow of  slavery  will  have  been  struck  !  You  cannot  make 
slavery  profitable  after  these  three  conditions  are  secured. 
The  moment  you  make  slaves  serfs,  they  are  no  longer 
a  legal  tender,  and  are  uncurrent  in  the  market;  and  fami- 
lies are  so  cumbrous,  so  difficult  to  support,  so  expensive, 
that  owners  are  compelled,  from  reasons  of  pecuniary  inter- 
est, to  discontinue  the  system. 

Therefore,  if  you  will  only  disseminate  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel,  if  you  will  put  timid  priests  out  of  the  way,  and 
lying  Societies  whose  cowardice  slanders  the  Gospel  which 
they  pretend  to  diffuse,  and  if  you  will  bring  a  whole  solar 
flood  of  truth  to  bear  upon  the  practical  morals  of  the 
slave,  you  will  begin  to  administer  a  remedy,  if  God  designs 
to  cure  it  by  moral  means,  which  will  inevitably  heal  the 
evil. 

6.  Among  the  means  to  be  employed  for  promoting  the 


THE  NATION'S  DUTY  TO  SLAVERY.  223 

liberty  of  the  slave  we  must  not  fail  to  include  the  power 
of  true  Christian  prayer.  When  slavery  shall  cease,  it  will 
be  by  such  instruments  and  influences  as  shall  exhibit 
God's  hand  and  heart  in  the  work.  Its  downfall  will  have 
been  achieved  so  largely  through  natural  causes,  so  largely 
through  reasons  as  broad  as  nations,  that  it  will  be  apparent 
to  all  men  that  God  led  on  the  emancipation;  man  being  only 
one  element  among  the  many.  Therefore,  we  have  every 
encouragement  to  direct  our  prayers  without  ceasing  to  God 
that  he  will  restrain  the  wrath  of  man,  inspire  men  with 
wisdom,  overrule  all  evil  laws,  and  control  the  commerce 
of  the  globe,  so  that  the  poor  may  be  protected,  that  the 
bond  may  become  free,  that  the  ignorant  may  become  wise, 
that  the  master  and  slave  may  respect  each  other,  and  that 
at  length  we  may  be  an  evangelized  and  Christian  people. 
May  God,  in  his  own  way  and  time,  speed  the  day  ! 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF 
PRINCIPLE.* 


"  And  there  was  delivered  unto  him  the  book  of  the  prophet  Esaias. 
And  when  he  had  opened  the  book,  he  found  the  place  where  it  was  writ- 
ten, The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted, 
to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord." — Luke  iv.  17-19. 

These  words  are  remarkable,  to-day,  for  their  meaning 
and  for  their  historical  position.  The  first  sermon  which 
Christ  made,  upon  entering  his  public  ministry,  was  this 
one  at  Nazareth,  where  he  had  been  brought  up.  That  he 
chose  these  words  in  entering  upon  his  mission — these 
words,  of  all  the  Law,  of  all  the  Psalms,  and  of  all  the 
Prophets — gives  them  peculiar  significancy.  And,  when 
we  consider  their  contents,  they  become  yet  more  memo- 
rable, since  they  were  the  charter  and  index  of  his  mis- 
sion,— the  text  not  only  of  his  sermon,  but  of  his  life. 
Christ  came  to  save  the  world, — not  laws,  not  govern- 
ments, not  institutions,  not  dynasties,  but  the  people.  The 
fulfillment  of  his  mission  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  condi- 
tion of  nationalities  and  the  character  of  peoples.  Though 
peace  breathe  balm  over  all  the  world,  and  every  law  is 
obeyed,  and  every  government  rides  among  the  people  as 
a  man-of-war  dressed  for  holiday  upon  a  tranquil  sea,  there 
is  no  reason  for  rejoicing  if  the  people  are  ignorant  and 
their  capacities  are  undeveloped,  if  they  are  mean  and 
sordid,  and  their  morals,  like  a  Chinese  foot,  are  cramped 
too  small  to  walk  upon.  But  though  there  be  wars  and 
rumors  of  war,  revolutions  and  tumults,  the  world  is  pros- 


*  Thanksgiving  Day,  November  29,  1S60. 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  225 

perous  if  by  these  convulsions  the  race  is  freed  from  op- 
pression, thoroughly  aroused,  and  incited  to  bolder  enter- 
prise and  to  nobler  moral  character. 

We  are,  then,  to  study  the  advance  of  Christ's  kingdom 
in  the  whole  aspect  of  the  world.  The  Church  is  of  the 
people.  God's  Church  includes  the  whole  human  race. 
Our  separate  churches  are  but  doors  to  the  grand  spirit- 
ual interior.  The  good  men  who  love  God  and  man  with 
overruling  affection,  of  all  nations,  and  of  every  tongue, 
are  the  true  Church. 

To-day  we  are  assembled  to  give  thanks  for  national 
mercies.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  the  year  that  is  closing. 
Who  knew,  when  January  set  her  cold,  calm  face  toward 
the  future,  that  she  was  the  herald  of  such  a  summer  ? 
When  was  there  ever  a  year  so  fertile  ?  so  propitious  to  all 
industry  ?  It  has  been  a  procession  of  rejoicing  months, 
flower-wreathed  and  fruit-laden, — a  very  holiday  year  ! 

The  soil  awoke  with  new  ardor;  everything  that  lived  by 
the  soil  felt  the  inspiration.  Every  root,  and  every  blade, 
and  every  stem,  and  every  bough  has  this  year  tasked  it- 
self for  prodigal  bounty.  Except  a  narrow  strip,  this  con- 
tinent has  been  so  blessed  with  husbandry  as  to  make 
this  year  memorable  even  among  years  hitherto  most  em- 
inent. The  meadow,  the  tilled  fields,  the  grazing  past- 
ures, the  garden,  the  vineyard,  the  orchard,  the  very  fence- 
row  berry-bushes  and  wild  wall-vines,  have  been  clothed 
with  unexampled  bounty  and  beauty.  Nature  seems  to 
have  lacked  messengers  to  convey  her  intents  of  kind- 
ness, and  the  summer,  like  a  road  surprised  with  quad- 
ruple freights,  has  not  been  able  to  find  conveyance  for 
all  its  treasures.  The  seas  have  felt  the  divine  ardor. 
The  fishermen  never  reaped  such  harvests  from  the 
moist  furrows  of  the  ocean  as  this  year.  These  husband- 
men of  the  sea,  who  reap  where  they  have  not  sowed  and 
grow  rich  upon  harvests  which  they  have  not  tilled,  have 
this  year  put  in  the  crooked  hook  for  their  sickle  with 
admiring  gladness  for  the  strange  and  unwonted  abund- 
ance of  the  deep. 

All  the  sons  of  God  rejoice,  and  all  good  men  rejoice.    It 
15 


2  26  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

needs  but.  one  element  to  complete  the  satisfaction.  If 
we  could  be  sure  that  this  is  God's  mercy,  meant  for  good, 
and  tending  thereto,  we  should  have  a  full  cup  to-day. 
That  satisfaction  is  not  denied  us.  The  Mayor  of  New 
York,  in  a  public  proclamation,  in  view  of  this  prodigal 
year,  that  has  heaped  the  poor  man's  house  with  abund- 
ance, is  pleased  to  say  that  there  is  no  occasion  apparent 
to  him  for  thanksgiving.  We  can  ask  no  more.  When 
bad  men  grieve  at  the  state  of  public  affairs,  good  men 
should  rejoice.  When  infamous  men  keep  fast,  righteous 
men  should  have  thanksgiving.  God  reigns  and  the  Devil 
trembles.     Amen.     Let  us  rejoice  !  * 

But  it  is  not  now  to  these  topics  that  I  shall  confine  my 
remarks.  I  propose  to  glance  at  other  reasons  for  thanks- 
giving. 

i.  The  advantage  and  increasing  influence  of  nations 
which  in  the  main  tend  to  conserve  human  liberty,  and 
the  decadence  and  dwindling  of  those  nations  that  have 
flourished  by  exaction  and  tyranny,  is  matter  of  gratula- 


*Mayor  Fernando  Wood's  proclamation  is  such  a  curiosity  of  wicked- 
ness, even  in  the  annals  of  New  York  city,  that  we  append  it : — 

"  Mayor's  Office,  New  York,  November  24,  i860. 

"  Proclamation. — In  accordance  with  custom  and  the  proclamation  of 
the  Governor  of  the  State,  it  becomes  my  duty,  as  Mayor,  to  recommend 
to  the  people  of  this  city  the  observance  of  THURSDAY,  the  29th  inst, 
as  a  day  of  'Thanksgiving  and  Prayer.' 

"  While  in  my  judgment  the  country,  either  in  its  political,  commercial, 
or  financial  aspect,  presents  no  features  for  which  we  should  be  thankful, 
we  are  yet  called  upon  by  every  consideration  of  self-preservation  to  offer 
up  to  the  Father  of  all  mercies  devout  and  fervent  prayer,  for  his  inter- 
position and  protection  from  the  impending  evils  which  threaten  our  insti- 
tutions and  the  material  interests  of  the  people. 

"Therefore,  acknowledging  our  dependence  on  Almighty  God,  and 
deeply  sensible  of  our  own  unworthiness,  let  the  day  set  apart  as  Thanks- 
giving be  observed  by  the  people  of  this  city  as  one  of  humiliation  and 
supplication, — not  omitting  in  our  prayers  the  expression  of  the  hope  that 
those  who  have,  in  violation  of  the  Federal  compact,  unpatriotically  and 
unwisely  influenced  these  injuries  upon  us,  may  be  the  only  sufferers  by 
their  own  wickedness  and  folly. 

*'  [l.  s.]  Given  under  my  hand  and  seal,  this  day  and  year  aforesaid. 

"  Fernando  Wood,  Mayor." 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  227 

tion.     It  should  make  good  men  glad  when  wicked  men 
and  wicked  nations  grow  weak. 

2.  The  emergence  of  the  common  people  to  that  degree 
of  political  power  that  makes  it  necessary  now  for  the 
whole  of  Western  Europe  to  ask  their  permission  for  the 
establishment  of  any  throne  or  monarchy  is  cheering  and 
auspicious.  Crowns  were  once  made  of  gold  beaten  out 
on  the  people's  backs.  Now  the  strongest  crowns  are 
made  of  paper, — the  paper  votes  of  the  common  people. 
Therein  we  rejoice,  and  will  rejoice. 

3.  The  resurrection  of  Italy  is  another  memorable  event  of 
the  year.  I  see  as  many  tokens  of  a  Divine  presence  in  Italy 
as  of  old  there  were  in  the  emancipation  and  conduct  of  the 
Israelites  from  Egypt.  That  such  a  conjunction  of  events 
should  have  taken  place;  that  such  a  monarch  as  Victor 
Emmanuel,  who  almost  reconciles  republicans  to  kings, 
should  have  sat  waiting;  that  such  a  consummate  statesman, 
of  noblest  patriotism,  as  Cavour,  should  have  been  prepared 
and  waiting;  that  such  a  hero,  simple,  true,  pure,  disinter- 
ested, self-sacrificing,  skillful,  and  lion-like,  as  Garibaldi, 
should  have  come  at  the  hour,  are  marks  of  the  planning  of 
God.  Men  never  devise  such  combinations.  It  would  have 
been  significant  had  either  of  these  men  come  singly.  That 
all  should  have  come  together, — a  soldier  to  beat  down  the 
old  despotism,  a  statesman  to  organize  the  new  liberty,  a  just 
and  patriot  king  to  preside  over  the  people's  government, 
and  a  people,  divided  for  centuries,  but  now  at  last  united, 
— this  reveals  the  mind  and  will  of  God.     Let  us  rejoice  ! 

4.  The  growing  moderation  of  the  Russian  monarchy,  the 
quiet  improvement  of  the  people,  the  emancipation  of  the 
serfs,  ought  to  engage  the  attention  and  receive  the  sym- 
pathy of  every  Christian  people.  There  is  a  great  work 
begun  in  Russia.  This  gigantic  nation,  the  antithesis  of 
America  politically  and  geographically,  is,  like  her,  almost 
half  a  globe  of  herself.  The  end  we  cannot  now  even  sus- 
pect. Prophets  are  dead.  God  no  longer  tells  beforehand 
what  he  is  going  to  do.  But,  by  the  clearing  that  has  been 
made  for  the  foundations,  by  the  materials  that  are  gather- 
ing, and  by  the  workmen  that  are  employed,  we  judge  that 


2  28  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

no  mean  structure  is  about  to  arise  to  the  glory  of  God. 
There  is  an  immense  History  now  in  birth.  May  the  un- 
measured future  be  for  Humanity,  Justice,  and  Piety  ! 

5.  In  the  rest  of  the  world  there  are  signs,  but  more  re- 
mote, of  good.  Heathen  nations  are  growing  weaker, 
Christian  nations  are  growing  stronger.  The  nations  of 
Heathenism  are  imbecile.  The  nations  of  Christianity  are 
of  vigorous  stock,  and  have  a  future.  Already  Christian 
nations  rule  the  world.  Who  may  war,  how  long,  for  what, 
with  whom,  depends  upon  the  will  of  Christian  peoples. 
There  is  a  Christian  police  around  this  globe  ! 

6.  Our  own  land  has  not  been  behind.  In  this  march  of 
nations  our  country  has  kept  step.  We  know  it  by  the  vic- 
tor}' of  ideas,  by  the  recognition  of  principles  instead  of 
mere  policies,  by  the  ascendency  of  justice,  and  by  the 
ratifying  rage  of  all  who  love  oppression  and  oppressors. 

To-day  should  not  be  profaned  by  partisan  congratula- 
tions;* but  we  should  be  ungrateful  to  God,  who  has  guided 
us  through  peril  and  darkness,  and  at  length  brought  us 
forth  into  illustrious  victory,  if  we  did  not  to-day  remember, 
with  profound  gratitude  and  devout  thanksgiving,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  spirit  of  liberty  from  the  graves  of  our  fathers! 

The  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves  were  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  has  been  evilly  dealt  with.  Its  boughs  have  been 
lopped,  and  its  roots  starved  till  its  fruit  is  knurly.  Upon 
its  top  had  been  set  scions  of  bitter  fruits,  that  grew  and 
sucked  out  all  the  sap  from  the  better  branches.  Upon  its 
trunk  the  wild  boar  of  the  forest  had  whetted  his  tusks. 

But  now  again  it  blooms.  Its  roots  have  found  the  river, 
and  shall  not  want  again  for  moisture;  the  grafts  of  poison- 
ous fruits  have  been  broken  off  or  have  been  blown  out; 
mighty  spearmen  have  hunted  the  wild  swine  back  to  his 
thickets,  and  the  hedge  shall  be  broken  down  no  more 
round  about  it.  The  air  is  fragrant  in  its  opening  buds,  the 
young  fruit  is  setting.  God  has  returned  and  looked  upon 
it,  and  behold,  summer  is  in  all  its  branches  ! 

To  some  it  may  seem  that  the  light  in  this  picture  is  too 

*The  national  election  of  November,  1S60,  had  resulted  in  the  choice  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  President,  practically  giving  the  national  voice  for  the 
non-extension  of  slavery. 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  229 

high,  and  that  the  background  is  not  dark  enough.  I  do 
not  wish  you  to  think  that  the  background  is  not  dark;  for 
it  is.  There  is  excitement.  There  is  brewing  mischief. 
The  clouds  lie  lurid  along  the  Southern  horizon.  The  Car- 
ibbean Sea,  that  breeds  tornadoes  and  whirlwinds,  has 
heaped  up  treasures  of  storms  portentous,  that  seem  about 
to  break.  Let  them  break !  God  has  appointed  their 
bounds.  Not  till  the  sea  drives  back  the  shore,  and  the  At- 
lantic submerges  the  Continent,  will  this  tumult  of  an 
angry  people  move  the  firm  decrees  of  God.  He  who 
came  to  open  prison  doors,  to  deliver  captives,  to  loose 
those  that  are  bound, — he  it  is  that  is  among  us.  We  are 
surrounded  by  airy  hosts  greater  than  those  which  the 
prophet  of  old  saw  filling  the  mountains.  God  is  with  us. 
The  very  rage  of  wickedness  shows  his  presence. 

While  we  tremble,  then,  let  us  rejoice;  not  triumph,  nor 
boast,  nor  make  invidious  comparisons,  nor  throw  fuel  of 
passions  into  the  flames  already  too  hot.  But,  with  a  sober, 
temperate,  and  beneficent  joy,  let  us  give  thanks  to  God, 
that  he  has  begun  to  recall  this  nation  from  a  course  that 
would  have  wrought  utter  destruction;  and  that  now, 
though  waves  are  beating,  and  the  tempest  is  upon  the 
ship,  she  has  changed  her  course,  and  heads  right  away 
from  the  breakers  and  the  sand  ! 

But  be  sure  that,  in  these  times,  there  can  be  no  safe  navi- 
gation except  that  which  clings  to  great  universal  principles. 
Selfish  interests,  if  they  are  our  pilots,  will  betray  us.  Vain- 
glory will  destroy  us.  Pride  will  wreck  us.  Above  all,  the 
fear  of  doing  right  will  be  fatal.  But  Justice  and  Liberty 
are  pilots  that  do  not  lose  their  craft.  They  steer  by  a 
divine  compass.  They  know  the  hand  that  holds  the  winds 
and  the  storms.  It  is  always  safe  to  be  right;  and  our  busi- 
ness is  not  so  much  to  seek  peace  as  to  seek  the  causes  of 
peace.  Expedients  are  for  an  hour,  but  principles  are  for 
the  ages.  Just  because  the  rains  descend  and  winds  blow, 
we  cannot  afford  to  build  on  shifting  sands.  Nothing  can 
be  permanent  and  nothing  safe  in  this  exigency  that  does 
not  sink  deeper  than  politics  or  money.  We  must  touch 
the  rock,  or  we  shall  never  have  firm  foundations. 


230  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

I.  Our  prosperity  had  its  beginning  and  continuance  in 
Natural  Laws.  God's  will  in  nature  and  in  human  society 
is  the  source  of  human  strength  and  human  wisdom.  No 
matter  how  many  are  with  you,  if  your  councils  are  in  the 
face  of  divine  principles.  Peace,  regardless  of  equity,  is  a 
treacherous  sleep,  whose  waking  is  death.  It  is  not  half  so 
necessary  to  have  a  settlement  as  it  is  to  have  a  right  settle- 
ment. In  the  end,  right  political  economy  will  work  out 
prosperous  national  economy;  and  if  for  want  of  faith  in 
the  safety  of  rectitude  you  abandon  sound  and  proved  prin- 
ciples, or  let  them  go  by  default,  all  your  good  intentions 
will  not  save  you  from  national  misrule  and  national  wast- 
ing and  destruction.  The  mariner  who  should  take  refuge 
in  the  Maelstrom,  thinking  it  a  safe  harbor,  would  learn 
quickly  that  good  intentions  are  good  follies  when  men  run 
against  natural  law.  And  to  think  that  this  nation  has  been 
prospered  merely  on  account  of  the  skill,  the  wisdom,  or 
the  arrangements  and  combinations  of  men,  is  the  worst  of 
infidelities.  While  papers  and  parties  are  in  full  outcry, 
and  nostrums  are  advertised,  and  scared  politicians  are  at 
their  wits' ends,  (without  having  gone  far,  either,)  and  men 
of  weak  minds  are  beside  themselves,  and  imbeciles  stand 
doubting  in  the  streets,  know  ye  that  the  way  of  peace  is 
simple,  accessible,  and  easy.  Be  still.  Stand  firm  !  Have 
courage  to  wait.  Money  is  insane.  Fear  is  death.  Faith 
in  justice,  and  in  rectitude,  and  trust  in  God,  will  work 
out  safety.  The  worst  is  over.  Our  Northern  apathy  to 
freedom  and  our  greed  of  commerce  are  a  thousand  times 
more  dangerous  than  Southern  rage  and  threat.  Moral 
bankruptcy  will  ruin  us  all.  No  other  bankruptcies  will 
harm  us  ! 

Let  us  have  firm  courage,  kindness  of  temper,  willingness 
to  make  concessions  in  things  of  mere  policy,  but  no  con- 
cession of  principles,  no  yielding  of  moral  convictions,  no 
paltering  with  our  consciences.  Thirty  pieces  of  silver 
bought  Christ  and  hung  Judas.  If  you  sell  your  convictions 
to  Fear,  you  give  yourself  to  a  vagabond.  If  you  sell  your 
conscience  to  Interest,  you  traffic  with  a  fiend.  The  fear  of 
doing  right  is  the  grand  treason  in  times  of  danger.     When 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  231 

you  consent  to  give  up  your  convictions  of  justice,  human- 
ity, and  liberty,  for  the  sake  of  tranquillity,  you  are  like 
men  who  buy  a  treacherous  truce  of  tyrants  by  giving  up 
their  weapons  of  war.     Cowards  are  the  food  of  despots. 

When  a  storm  is  on  the  deep,  and  the  ship  labors,  men 
throw  over  the  deck-load;  they  cast  forth  the  heavy 
freights,  and  ride  easier  as  their  merchandise  grows  less. 
But  in  our  time  men  propose  to  throw  overboard  the  com- 
pass, the  charts,  the  chronometer,  and  sextant,  but  to  keep 
the  freight ! 

For  the  sake  of  a  principle  our  fathers  dared  to  defy  the 
proudest  nation  on  the  globe.  They  suffered.  They  con- 
quered. We  are  never  tired  of  praising  them.  But  when 
we  are  called  to  stand  firm  for  principle,  we  tremble,  we 
whine,  we  evade  duty,  and  shuffle  up  a  compromise,  by 
which  we  may  sell  our  conscience,  and  save  our  pocket. 

It  is  rank  infidelity,  and,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  stupend- 
ous infatuation,  to  suppose  that  the  greatness  of  this  nation 
ever  sprung  from  the  wisdom  of  expediency,  instead  of  the 
power  of  settled  principles.  Your  harbor  did  not  make  you 
rich;  you  made  the  harbor  rich.  Your  ships  did  not  create 
your  commerce;  your  commerce  created  your  ships;  and 
you  created  your  commerce.  Your  stores  did  not  make 
traffic.  Your  factories  did  not  create  enterprise.  Your 
firms,  your  committees,  your  treaties,  and  your  legislation 
did  not  create  national  prosperity.  Our  past  greatness 
sprung  from  our  obedience  to  God's  natural  and  moral 
law.  We  had  men  trained  to  courage,  to  virtue,  to  wisdom. 
And  manhood, — manhood,  —  manhood,  —  exercised  in  the 
fear  of  God,  has  made  this  nation.  Men  are  God's  vice- 
gerents; and  if  they  will  govern  as  he  governs,  then  they 
shall  be  creators,  too,  in  this  world.  The  reason  we  have 
prospered  in  days  past  is  not  that  we  have  known  how 
to  duck  and  dodge  and  trim;  it  is  not  that  we  have  known 
all  the  minute  ways  of  microscopic  statesmanship:  it  is 
because  we  have  known  just  enough  to  see  the  way  in 
which  natural  law  and  God's  kingdom  were  going,  and 
to  follow  them.  It  is  a  simple  thing;  it  is  no  secret; 
and  accursed  be  he  that  counsels  the  people  to  seek  peace 


232  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  prosperity  by  abandoning  the  causes  of  it,  and  that 
leads  them  into  destruction  by  leading  them  into  the  arms 
of  a  tinseled  folly  ! 

II.  Let  no  man  be  foolishly  fearful  of  excitement.  Our 
age  marks  the  growth  of  the  world  by  this:  that  excite- 
ment is  now  wholesome.  When  men  low  down  in  the  scale 
begin  to  be  stirred,  the  most  active  part  is  excited,  which 
is  passion.  But  when  men  have  outgrown  barbarism,  and 
live  in  moral  and  intellectual  elements,  then  excitement 
rouses  up  the  higher  nature.  Among  a  savage  people, 
excitement  works  downward  and  rages;  among  a  Christian 
and  civilized  people,  it  works  upward  and  toward  peace. 
Excitements  among  a  thinking  people  tend  to  clearer 
convictions,  to  surer  intuitions,  to  more  heroic  purposes, 
and  loftier  enthusiasms.  Do  not  be  afraid  because  the 
community  teems  with  excitement.  Silence  and  death 
are  dreadful.  The  rush  of  life,  the  vigor  of  earnest  men, 
the  conflict  of  realities,  invigorate,  cleanse,  and  estab- 
lish truth.  Our  only  fear  should  be  lest  we  refuse  God's 
work.  He  has  appointed  this  people,  and  our  day,  for  one 
of  those  world-battles  on  which  ages  turn.  Ours  is  a  piv- 
otal period.  The  strife  is  between  a  dead  past  and  a  liv- 
ing future;  between  a  wasting  evil  and  a  nourishing  good; 
between  Barbarism  and  Civilization. 

The  condition  of  the  common  people  always  measures 
the  position  of  any  nation  on  the  scale  of  civilization. 
The  condition  of  Work  always  measures  the  character 
of  the  common  people.  It  is  not  where  the  head  is, 
but  where  the  feet  are,  that  determines  a  nation's  posi- 
tion. By  ascertaining  where  the  working  people  are  in 
the  North  and  in  the  South,  you  can  determine  the  re- 
spective positions  of  these  two  sections  of  our  country. 
I  need  not  tell  you  what  is  the  relative  position  of  these 
two  extremes  and  opposites  on  any  scale  of  Christian  civil- 
ization. 

The  Southern  States  and  the  Northern  alike  found  poi- 
sonous seed  sown  in  colonial  days.  The  North  chose  to 
weed  it  out.  The  South  determined  to  cultivate  it,  and  see 
what    it  would   bear.      The    harvest-time  has   now  come. 


AGAIXST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  233 

We  are  reaping  what  we  sowed.  They  sowed  the  wind, 
and  they  are  about  to  reap  the  whirlwind.  Let  us  keep 
in  view  the  causes  of  things.  Our  prosperity  is  the  fruit 
of  the  seed  that  we  sowed,  and  their  fears,  their  alarms, 
their  excitements,  their  fevers,  their  tumults,  and  their 
rages  are  the  fruit  of  the  seed  that  they  sowed.  Ours 
is  wholesome;  theirs  is  poisonous.  All,  now,  that  we  de- 
mand is,  that  each  side  shall  reap  its  own  harvest. 

It  is  this  that  convulses  the  South.  They  wish  to  reap 
fruits  of  liberty  from  the  seed  of  slavery.  They  wish  to 
have  an  institution  which  sets  at  naught  the  laws  of  God, 
and  yet  be  as  refined  and  prosperous  and  happy  as  we  are, 
who  obey  these  laws;  and  since  they  cannot,  they  demand 
that  we  shall  make  up  to  them  what  they  lack.  The  real 
gist  of  the  controversy,  as  between  the  greatest  number  of 
Southern  States  and  the  North,  is  simply  this.  The  South 
claims  that  the  United  States  government  is  bound  to 
make  slavery  as  good  as  liberty  for  all  purposes  of  national 
life.  That  is  the  root  of  their  philosophy.  They  are  to 
carry  on  a  wasting  system,  a  system  that  corrupts  social 
life  in  its  very  elements,  to  pursue  a  course  of  inevitable 
impoverishment,  and  yet,  at  every  decade  of  years,  the 
government  is,  by  some  new  bounty  and  privilege,  to 
make  up  to  them  all  the  waste  of  this  gigantic  mistake  ! 
And  our  national  government  has  been  made  a  bribed 
judge,  sitting  on  the  seat  of  authority  in  this  land,  to  de- 
clare bankruptcy  as  good  as  honesty;  to  declare  wicked- 
ness as  good  as  virtue;  and  to  declare  that  there  shall 
be  struck,  from  period  to  period,  a  rule  that  will  bring 
all  men  to  one  common  municipal  and  communal  pros- 
perity, no  matter  what  may  be  the  causes  that  are  work- 
ing out  special  evils  in  them. 

The  Southern  States,  then,  have  organized  society  around 
a  rotten  core, — slavery:  the  North  has  organized  society 
about  a  vital  heart, — liberty.  At  length  both  stand  ma- 
ture. They  stand  in  proper  contrast.  God  holds  them 
up  to  ages  and  to  nations,  that  men  may  see  the  difference. 
Now  that  there  is  a  conflict,  I  ask  which  is  to  yield  ? 
Causes    having   been  true  to  effects,    and    effects  true  to 


234  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

causes;  these  gradually  unfolding  commercial  and  political 
and  moral  results  having  been  developed  in  the  two  great 
opposing  extremes  of  this  country,  the  time  has  come 
in  which  they  are  so  brought  into  contact  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  one  or  the  principle  of  the  other  must  yield. 
Liberty  must  discrown  her  fair  head;  she  must  lay  her  opal 
crown  and  her  diamond  scepter  upon  the  altar  of  Op- 
pression; or  else  Oppression  must  shrink,  and  veil  its  head, 
and  depart.  Which  shall  it  be  ?  Two  queens  are  not  to 
rule  in  this  land,  one  black  and  the  other  white;  one  from 
below  and  the  other  from  above.  Two  influences  are  not 
to  sit  in  culminated  power  at  the  seat  of  influence  in  this 
nation,  one  dragging  and  pulling  toward  the  infernal,  and 
the  other  drawing  and  exciting  toward  the  supernal.  No 
nation  could  stand  the  strain  to  which  it  would  be  sub- 
jected under  such  a  state  of  things. 

There  is  a  Divine  impulsion  in  this.  Those  who  resist 
and  those  who  strive  are  carried  along  by  a  stream  might- 
ier than  mere  human  volition.  Whether  men  have  acted 
well  or  ill,  is  not  now  the  question;  but  simply  this:  On 
which  side  will  you  be  found!  This  controversy  will  go  on. 
No  matter  what  you  do,  God  will  carry  out  his  own  provi- 
dences with  you  or  without  you,  by  you  or  against  you. 
You  cannot  hide  or  run  away,  or  shift  the  question,  or  stop 
the  trial.  Complaints  are  useless,  and  recriminations 
foolish  and  wicked. 

The  distinctive  idea  of  the  Free  States  is  Christian  civ- 
ilization, and  the  peculiar  institutions  of  civilization.  The 
distinctive  idea  of  the  South  is  barbaric  institutions.  In 
the  North  mind,  and  in  the  South  force,  rules.  In  the 
North  every  shape  and  form  of  society  in  some  way  rep- 
resents liberty.  In  the  South  every  institution  and  ele- 
ment of  society  is  tinged  and  pervaded  with  slavery.  The 
South  accepts  the  whole  idea  of  slavery,  boldly  and  con- 
sistently. The  North  will  never  have  peace  till  she  writh 
equal  boldness  accepts  liberty. 

While  liberty  and  slavery  are  kept  apart,  and  only  run 
upon  parallels,  there  may  be  peace.  But  there  is  no  way 
in    which  they  can  be  combined;  there  is  no  unity  made 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  235 

up  of  these  deadly  antagonisms.  And  all  devices,  and  cun- 
ning arrangements,  and  deceitful  agreements,  are  false  and 
foolish. 

The  truth  that  men  cannot  hush,  and  that  God  will  not 
have  covered  up,  is  the  irreconcilable  difference  between 
liberty  and  slavery  !     Which  will  you  advocate  and  defend  ? 

There  are  three  courses  before  us: — 

1.  To  go  over  to  the  South. 

2.  To  compromise  principles. 

3.  To  maintain  principles  upon  just  and  constitutional 
grounds,  and  abide  the  issue. 

1.  Shall  we,  then,  obliterate  from  our  statute-books  every 
law  for  liberty  ?  Shall  we  rub  down  and  efface  every  clear 
and  distinctive  feature  of  liberty  ?  Shall  we  assume  that 
one  is  just  as  good  as  the  other, — slavery  and  freedom  ? 
Are  we,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  go  over  to  the  South, 
yield  our  convictions,  and  our  moral  influences,  and  our 
whole  soul  and  body  of  teaching  and  conviction  ? 

This  course  is  not  to  be  thought  of  for  a  moment,  what- 
ever it  may  be  theoretically  considered.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  you  know,  and  I  know,  and  everybody  knows,  that 
there  will  be  no  change  in  the  convictions  of  the  North. 
We  have  reaped  too  bountifully  from  the  seed  we  have 
sown,  to  change.  Our  method  of  moral  and  political  til- 
lage will  be  the  same  as  heretofore. 

2.  Shall  we  then  compromise  ?  We  are  told  that  Satan 
appears  under  two  forms:  that  when  he  has  a  good  fair 
field,  he  is  out  like  a  lion,  roaring  and  seeking  whom  he 
may  devour;  but  that  when  he  can  do  nothing  more  in 
that  way,  he  is  a  serpent,  and  sneaks  in  the  grass.  And 
so,  it  is  Slavery  open,  bold,  roaring,  aggressive,  or  it  is 
Slavery  sneaking  in  the  grass,  and  calling  itself  Compro- 
mise.    It  is  the  same  devil  under  either  name. 

If  by  compromise  is  only  meant  forbearance,  kindness, 
well-wishing,  conciliation,  fidelity  to  agreements,  a  conces- 
sion in  things,  not  principles,  why,  then  we  believe  in 
compromise;  —  only  that  is  not  compromise,  interpreted 
by  the  facts  of  our  past  history!  We  honestly  wish  no 
harm  to  the  South  or  its  people:  we  honestly  wish  them 


236  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

all  benefit.  We  wish  no  harm  to  their  commerce;  none 
to  their  manufactures;  none  to  their  husbandry;  none  to 
their  schools  and  colleges;  none  to  their  churches  and  fam- 
ilies; none  to  their  citizens,  who  are  bone  of  our  bone  and 
blood  of  our  blood,  and  who  are  in  many  eminent  re- 
spects united  to  us  in  a  common  historic  glory.  We  are 
far  from  wishing  them  diminution  or  feebleness;  so  far 
from  it  we  most  heartily  and  sincerely,  and  with  much 
more  earnestness  than  they  reciprocate,  wish  them  rid- 
dance of  their  trouble.  We  neither  envy  nor  covet  their 
territory.  We  are  not  jealous  of  their  honors.  We  would 
that  they  were  doubled,  and  doubly  purified.  All  that 
belongs  to  the  South;  all  that  with  liberalest  construction 
was  put  in  the  original  bond,  shall  be  hers.  Her  own 
institutions  were  made  inviolate  in  all  her  States.  The 
basis  of  representation  in  the  South  was  made  broader 
than  in  the  North,  and  property,  as  well  as  citizens,  sends 
representatives  to  Washington.  We  will  not  complain.  The 
common  revenue  and  the  common  force  of  the  nation  pro- 
tect them  against  intestine  revolt.  Let  it  be  so.  The  Con- 
stitution gives  them  liberty  to  retake  their  fugitive  slaves 
wherever  they  can  find  them.  Very  well.  Let  them.  But 
when  the  Congress  goes  beyond  the  Constitution,  and  de- 
mands, on  penalty,  that  citizens  of  free  States  shall  help, 
and  render  back  the  flying  slave,  we  give  a  blunt  and  une- 
quivocal refusal.  We  are  determined  to  break  any  law 
that  commands  us  to  enslave  or  re-enslave  a  man,  and  we 
are  willing  to  take  the  penalty.  But  that  was  not  in  the 
original  bond.  That  is  a  parasitic  egg,  laid  in  the  Con- 
stitution by  corrupt  legislation  or  by  construction. 

We  do  not  ask  to  molest  the  South  in  the  enjoyment 
of  her  own  institutions.  But  we  will  not  be  made  consta- 
bles to  slavery,  to  run  and  catch,  to  serve  writs,  and  return 
prisoners.  No  political  hand  shall  rob  her.  We  will  de- 
fend her  coast;  we  will  guard  her  inland  border  from  all 
vexations  from  without;  and  in  good  faith,  in  earnest  friend- 
ship, in  fealty  to  the  Constitution  and  in  fellowship  with 
the  States,  we  will,  and  with  growing  earnestness  to  the 
end,   fulfill    every  just  duty,  every  honorable  agreement, 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  237 

and  every  generous  act,  within  the  limits  of  truth  and 
honor;  all  that,  and  no  more, — no  more,  though  the  heav- 
ens fall, — no  more,  if  States  unclasp  their  hands, — no  more, 
if  they  raise  up  violence  against  us, — no  more! 

We  have  gone  to  the  end.  There  is  no  need  of  com- 
promise in  this  matter,  then.  It  is  a  plain,  simple  matter. 
It  is  never  mystified  except  when  bad  men  have  bad  ends 
to  accomplish,  and  bring  up  a  mist  over  it. 

Let  us  look  things  right  in  the  face,  then,  and  speak 
some  plain  truths.  We  are  approaching  times  when  men 
will  not  hear  what  they  will  listen  to  now;  so  let  us  drop 
the  seed  beforehand. 

1.  The  secret  intentions  of  those  men  who  are  the  chief 
fomenters  of  troubles  in  the  South  cannot  in  anywise  be 
met  by  compromise.  They  dread  as  much  as  we  hate  it. 
What  do  those  men  that  are  really  at  the  bottom  of  this 
conspiracy  mean  ?  Nothing  more  or  less  than  this:  South- 
ern empire  for  slavery,  and  the  re-opening  of  the  slave- 
trade  as  a  means  by  which  it  shall  be  fed.  Free  commerce 
and  enslaved  work  is  their  motto.  They  will  not  yet  say 
it  aloud.  But  that  is  the  whispered  secret  of  men  in  Caro- 
lina, and  men  outside  of  Carolina.  Their  secret  purpose 
is  to  sweep  westward  like  night,  and  involve  in  the  cloud 
of  their  darkness  all  Central  America,  and  then  make  Af- 
rica empty  into  Central  America,  thus  changing  the  moral 
geography  of  the  globe.  And  do  you  suppose  any  com- 
promise will  settle  that  design,  or  turn  it  aside,  when  they 
have  made  you  go  down  on  your  knees,  and  they  stand 
laughing  while  you  cry  with  fear  because  you  have  been 
cozened  and  juggled  into  a  blind  helping  of  their  mon- 
strous wickedness  ? 

They  mean  slavery.  They  mean  an  Empire  of  Slavery. 
They  don't  any  longer  talk  of  the  evil  of  slavery.  It  is 
a  virtue,  a  religion  !  It  is  justice  and  divine  economy  ! 
Slaves  are  missionaries.  Slave-ships  bring  heathen  to 
plantation  -  Christianity.  They  imagine  unobstructed 
greatness  when  servile  hands  shall  whiten  the  plains  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  with  cotton.  Carolina  despises 
compromise.     She   means   no  such  thing  as  liberty.     She 


238  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

does  not  believe  in  the  word.  It  is  rubbed  out.  It  is 
gone  from  her  constitution  and  from  her  Bible.  Its  spirit 
is  departed  from  her  legislature  and  her  church. 

And  do  you  think,  poor  simple  peeping  sparrow,  that 
you  can  build  your  poor  moss  and  hair  nest  of  compro- 
mise on  the  face  of  the  perpendicular  cliff,  that  towers  a 
thousand  feet  high,  with  the  blackness  of  storms  sweeping 
round  its  top,  and  the  thunder  of  a  turbulent  ocean  break- 
ing upon  its  base, —  and  God,  more  terrible  than  either, 
high  above  them,  meaning  Justice  and  Retribution  ! 

2.  But  in  so  far  as  those  States  are  concerned  that  are 
contiguous  to  Carolina,  and  do  not  mean  these  things, 
even  for  them  compromise  can  never  reach,  nor  even  any 
longer  mollify,  the  causes  of  complaint;  for  I  hold  that 
the  causes  are  inherent  in  them,  not  in  us.  And  they  are 
endless.  If  you  cure  one,  another  will  spring  up  in  its 
place.  You  cannot  compromise  with  them  except  by  giv- 
ing up  your  own  belief,  your  own  principles,  and  your 
own  honor.  Moral  apostasy  is  the  only  basis  on  which 
you  can  build  a  compromise  that  will  satisfy  the  South  ! 

No  compromise  will  do  good  that  does  not  go  back  to 
the  nature  of  things,  and  change  moral  qualities.  To  be 
of  any  use,  compromise  must  make  the  slaves  contented, 
slavery  economical,  Slave  States  as  prosperous  as  Free 
States.  Compromise  must  shut  the  mouth  of  free  speech, 
or  it  will  send  the  shafts  of  truth  vibrating  into  the  midst 
of  slavery.  Compromise  must  cure  the  intolerance  of  the 
plantation,  the  essential  tyranny  of  slave-owners.  It  must 
make  evil  as  prosperous  as  good,  enforced  drudgery  as 
fruitful  as  free  labor. 

What  compromise  can  there  be  between  sickness  and 
health  ?  Between  violence  and  peace  ?  Between  speech 
for  liberty  and  speech  for  despotism  ?  There  may  be 
peace  between  opposites,  but  no  harmony,  no  compromise. 
If  the  South  is  fixed  in  her  servile  institutions,  the  North 
must  be  equally  firm  in  her  principles  of  liberty. 

You  cannot  prevent,  in  the  present  state  of  this  land,  the 
departure  of  the  children  of  oppression.  You  might  as 
well  attempt  to  prevent  the  tides  of  the  Atlantic  ocean. 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  239 

You  might  as  well  attempt  to  prevent  vegetation  in  the 
tropics.  Till  the  heavens  be  no  more,  and  their  orbs  cease 
to  draw,  men  will  aspire,  and  will  follow  aspiration.  There 
is  too  much  light  in  the  North,  and  even  in  the  darkness 
of  the  plantation,  to  keep  men  in  slavery.  When  one  man 
gains  his  freedom,  twenty  men  will  know  it,  and  to  gain 
theirs  will  do  what  he  did.  Every  hour  there  will  be  men 
who  will  take  their  life  in  their  hands  and  risk  all  for  lib- 
erty. It  is  of  no  use  to  tell  the  South  that  it  shall  not 
be  so.  It  is  of  no  use  to  whisper  to  them,  and  say,  "  Your 
trouble  shall  cease;  we  will  fix  this  matter  to  your  satis- 
faction." God  never  made  brick  or  trowel  by  which  to 
patch  up  that  door  of  deliverance.  By  night  and  by  day 
slaves  will  flee  away  and  escape. 

Compromise  is  a  most  pernicious  sham.  To  send  com- 
promises to  the  South  would  be  like  sending  painted 
bombs  into  the  camp  of  an  enemy,  which,  though  harm- 
less in  appearance,  would  blow  up  and  destroy  them. 
Suppose  you  tell  the  people  there  that  when  their  fugi- 
tives come  North  they  shall  be  surrendered  ?  Will  you 
not  please  to  catch  them  first  ?  You  know  you  cannot. 
There  are  five  hundred  men  that  run  through  the  North- 
ern States  where  there  is  one  that  stops  or  is  turned 
back.  They  know  it,  you  know  it,  we  all  know  it !  The 
radical  nature  of  the  feelings  of  the  North  is  such  that 
they  will  hurry  on  the  black  man  and  trip  his  hunter. 
If  the  managers  of  parties,  the  heads  of  conservative 
committees,  say  to  the  South,  "  Be  patient  with  us  a  little 
longer,  do  not  punish  us  yet,  let  down  the  rod  and  the 
frown,  spare  us  for  a  short  season,  and  we  will  see  that 
your  slaves  are  returned  to  you,"  do  you  suppose  there 
will  be  a  fulfillment  of  the  promise  ?  You  know  there  will 
not.  I  know  there  will  not.  I  would  die  myself,  cheer- 
fully and  easily,  before  a  man  should  be  taken  out  of 
my  hands  when  I  had  the  power  to  give  him  liberty,  and 
the  hound  was  after  him  for  his  blood.  I  would  stand 
as  an  altar  of  expiation  between  slavery  and  liberty,  know- 
ing that  through  my  example  a  million  men  would  live. 
A  heroic  deed,  in  which  one  yields  up  his  life  for  others, 


240  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

is  his  Calvary.  It  was  the  lifting  up  of  Christ  on  that 
hill-top  that  made  it  the  loftiest  mountain  on  the  globe. 
Let  a  man  do  a  right  thing  with  such  earnestness  that  he 
counts  his  life  of  little  value,  and  his  example  becomes 
omnipotent.  Therefore  it  is  said  that  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church.  There  is  no  such  seed 
planted  in  this  world  as  good  blood. 

I  see  that  my  words  are  being  reported;  and  as  free 
speech  may  get  into  Charleston,  some  men  there  may  see 
what  I  say;  and  let  me  say  this  to  my  Southern  brethren: 
We  mean  to  observe  the  Constitution,  and  keep  every 
compact  into  which  we  have  entered.  There  are  men  that 
would  deceive  you.  They  are  your  enemies  and  ours 
alike.  They  would  tell  lies  to  you,  but  we  will  not  stand 
up  and  indorse  them.  I  tell  you  that  as  long  as  there  are 
these  Free  States;  as  long  as  there  are  hills  in  which  men 
can  hide,  and  valleys  through  which  they  can  travel;  as 
long  as  there  is  a  loaf  in  the  cabin,  and  water  in  the  cruse: 
as  long  as  there  is  blood  in  the  veins,  and  humanity  in  the 
heart, — so  long  the  fugitive  will  not  want  for  sympathy 
and  help  to  escape  ! 

I  say,  again,  that  we  are  bound,  as  men  of  truth  and 
conscience,  to  look  this  matter  in  the  face,  and  ask,  "  Is 
there  any  benefit  to  be  expected  from  compromises?"  My 
friends,  we  are  not  reasoning  about  a  matter  of  which  we 
have  had  no  experience.  From  the  beginning  we  have 
been  living  on  compromises.  Now  there  is  a  history, 
and  we  can  make  scientific  inductions  from  facts,  and 
know  the  results  of  certain  courses.  Do  you  suppose  that 
if,  knowing  what  you  know  now,  you  had  sat  in  the  orig- 
inal Convention  to  frame  the  Constitution,  you  would 
have  made  compromises  ?  Persons  say,  "Are  you  wiser 
than  your  fathers  ?"  Yes  !  A  man  that  is  not  wiser  than 
his  father,  ought  not  to  have  had  such  a  father,  if  his  father 
was  wise  !  Our  fathers,  when  they  laid  the  foundations  of 
that  structure,  did  the  best  that  the  wisdom  of  that  time 
would  enable  them  to  do;  and  they  were  wise  men, — 
much  wiser,  doubtless,  for  their  time,  than  we  are  for  ours. 
But,    nevertheless,  we    may  know    now,  better  than  they 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  241 

did  then,  what  their  wisest  course  would  have  been.  When 
Carolina  refused  to  come  into  the  Confederacy  except  on 
the  ground  of  certain  favors  to  slavery,  then  was  the  time 
to  have  said  to  her,  "  Stay  out." 

Do  you  suppose  that  when  Carolina  infamously  said, 
"  I  will  not  come  in  unless  you  give  me  leave  to  traffic  in 
slaves  from  1790  till  1808," — do  you  suppose  that  then  it 
was  wise  for  our  fathers  to  give  her  what  she  demanded  ? 
I  do  not  blame  them;  they  acted  up  to  the  best  light  they 
had;  but  if  we,  knowing  the  facts  that  we  know  now, 
had  done  what  they  did,  we  should  have  been  infamous. 

When,  later,  the  compromise  of  1S50  was  set  on  foot, 
there  were  not  wanting,  as  there  are  not  wanting  now, 
men  who  lifted  up  their  voices  in  favor  of  compromise; 
and  I  think  that  very  few  who  saw  the  effects  of  com- 
promise at  that  time  believe  it  to  be  a  cure.  They  prom- 
ised finality.  They  took  renewed  courage,  and  with  a 
strong  arm  of  injustice  destroyed  a  compromise  still  ante- 
rior to  theirs, — namely,  the  Missouri  Compromise, — itself 
a  wickedness  only  paralleled  by  that  which  destroyed  it. 
It  ought  not  to  have  been  made;  but  after  it  was  made, 
it  should  have  been  removed  only  for  purposes  of  liberty, 
and  not  for  purposes  of  oppression.  We  sold  our  birth- 
right for  a  mess  of  pottage,  and  the  pottage  was  then 
stolen  ! 

We  have  had,  then,  a  long  experience  of  the  virtues  and 
merits  of  compromise;  and  what  has  been  the  result,  ex- 
cept growing  demands,  growing  impudence,  growing  wick- 
edness, and  increasing  dissatisfaction,  until  at  last  excite- 
ments that  used  to  come  once  in  twenty  years  began  to 
come  at  every  ten,  and  now  once  in  four  years,  and  you 
cannot  elect  a  President  strictly  according  to  constitu- 
tional methods,  without  having  this  nation  imperiled, 
banks  shaken,  stores  overturned,  panics  created,  and  cit- 
izens terrified  ?  You  have  come  to  that  state  in  which 
the  whole  nation  is  turmoiled,  and  agitated,  and  driven 
hither  and  thither,  on  account  of  the  evil  effects  of  com- 
promise. 

It  is  asked,  "What  shall  we  do?"     We  should  speak  the 

16 


242 


PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 


truth  about  our  feelings,  and  about  our  intentions.  The 
North  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  half-way  measures  or 
half-way  men.  A  whole  man  is  good  if  he  is  imperfect;  but 
a  half-way  man  has  no  place  in  heaven,  he  has  no  place  in 
hell,  and  he  is  not  wanted  on  earth  !  We  do  not  want  half- 
way measures,  nor  half-way  men.  We  want  true  men,  who 
will  say  to  the  South  :  "The  North  loves  liberty,  and  will 
have  it.  We  will  not  aggress  on  you.  Keep  your  institu- 
tions within  your  own  bounds  :  we  will  not  hinder  you.  We 
will  not  take  advantage  to  destroy,  or  one  whit  to  abate, 
your  fair  political  prerogatives.  You  have  already  gained 
advantages  of  us.  These  we  will  allow  you  to  hold.  You 
shall  have  the  Constitution  intact,  and  its  full  benefit.  The 
full  might  and  power  of  public  sentiment  in  the  North  shall 
guarantee  to  you  everything  that  history  and  the  Constitu- 
tion give  you.  But  if  you  ask  us  to  augment  the  area  of 
slavery;  to  co-operate  with  you  in  cursing  new  territory;  if 
you  ask  us  to  make  the  air  of  the  North  favorable  for  a 
slave's  breath,  we  will  not  do  it !  We  love  liberty  as  much  as 
you  love  slavery,  and  we  shall  stand  by  our  rights  with  all  the 
vigor  with  which  we  mean  to  stand  by  justice  toward  you." 
In  short,  the  North  cannot  love  slavery  or  cease  to  love 
liberty;  she  cannot  conceal  her  sentiments  or  restrain  their 
moral  power;  she  cannot  prevent  the  irritating  contrast  be- 
tween Free  States  and  Slave  States;  she  cannot  prevent 
the  growing  intelligence  of  slaves,  nor  their  love  of  liberty, 
nor  their  disposition  to  seek  it,  nor  the  sympathy  that  every 
generous  soul  must  feel,  nor  the  humane  and  irresistible 
wish  that  they  may  succeed  in  obtaining  freedom;  we  can- 
not sympathize  with  the  hounds  that  hunt  them,  nor  with 
the  miscreants  employed  to  witness  against  them,  nor  with 
the  disgraced  Federal  officers  that  are  bribed  with  double 
fees  to  convict  them  :  the  North  cannot  either  permit  her 
own  citizens — colored  men,  Christians,  honest  and  indus- 
trious, and  many  of  them  voters  a  thousand  times  better 
fitted  for  the  franchise  than  the  ignorant  hordes  of  imported 
white  men  that  have  cheated  their  way  against  law  and 
morals  to  the  exercise  of  the  vote — to  be  subject  to  seizure 
as  slaves  under  the  odious  and  ruthless  provisions  of  an  in- 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  243 

suiting  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  without  providing  for  them 
State  protection;  we  will  not  assist  in  inflicting  upon  free 
territory  an  evil  which  we  abhor,  and  which  we  believe  to 
be  the  greatest  blight  that  can  curse  a  people;  we  will  not  ac- 
cept the  new-fangled  and  modern  doctrine  that  slavery  is 
national  and  universal  instead  of  the  doctrine  of  our  fathers 
of  the  Revolution  and  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  who 
regarded  slavery  as  local,  existing  not  in  the  right  of  a 
national  law,  but  only  by  force  of  special  law;  certainly 
we  will  not  apostatize  from  the  faith  of  our  fathers  only 
for  the  sake  of  committing  disgraceful  crimes  against 
liberty ! 

Let  not  the  South  listen  to  any  man  who  pretends  that 
the  North  will  look  kindly  or  compromisingly  upon  slavery. 
In  every  other  respect  we  may  be  depended  upon  for  all 
sympathy,  aid,  and  comfort.  In  this  thing  we  shall  give 
the  strictest  and  most  literal  obedience  to  those  constitu- 
tional requirements  which  we  hate  while  we  obey,  and  be- 
yond bare  and  meager  duty  we  will  not  go  a  step. 

Now,  can  any  man  believe  that  peace  can  come  by  com- 
promise? It  is  a  delusive  hope.  It  is  a  desperate  shift  of 
cowardice.  It  will  begin  in  deceit  and  end  in  anger.  Com- 
promises are  only  procrastinations  of  an  inevitable  settle- 
ment with  the  added  burden  of  accumulated  interest.  Our 
political  managers  only  renew  the  note  with  compound  in- 
terest, and  roll  the  debt  over,  and  over,  until  the  interest 
exceeds  the  principal.  It  is  time  for  a  settlement.  We  may 
as  well  have  it  now  as  ever.  We  shall  never  be  better  pre- 
pared. It  will  never  be  so  easy  as  now.  It  would  have  been 
easier  ten  years  ago,  and  yet  easier  ten  years  before  that. 
Like  an  ulcer,  this  evil  eats  deeper  every  day.  Unless  soon 
cauterized  or  excised,  it  will  touch  the  vitals,  and  then  the 
patient  dies  ! 

The  supreme  fear  of  Northern  cities  is  pecuniary.  But 
even  for  money's  sake,  there  should  be  a  settlement  that 
will  stay  settled.  Compromises  bury  troubles,  but  cannot 
keep  down  their  ghosts.  They  rise,  and  walk,  and  haunt, 
and  gibber.  We  must  bury  our  evils  without  resurrection. 
Let  come  what  will,— secession,  disunion,  revolted  States, 


244  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  a  ragamuffin  empire  of  bankrupt  States,  confederated 
in  the  name  of  liberty  for  oppression,  or  whatever  other 
monstrosity  malignant  fortune  may  have  in  store, — nothing 
can  be  worse  than  this  endless  recurring  threat  and  fear, — 
this  arrogant  dragooning  of  the  South, — this  mercantile 
cringing  in  the  North.  Every  interest  cries  out  for  Rest. 
It  scarcely  matters  how  low  we  begin.  We  have  a  recupera- 
tive enterprise,  a  fertile  industry,  a  wealth  of  resources, 
which  will  soon  replace  any  waste.  Let  the  gates  of  a  per- 
manent settlement  be  set  up  in  bleak  and  barren  granite, 
and  we  will  speedily  cover  them  with  the  evergreen  ivy  of 
our  industry.  But  perpetual  uncertainty  is  destructive  of 
all  business.  That  is  not  a  settlement  that  only  hides,  that 
adjourns,  that  trumps  up  a  compromise  against  the  known 
feelings  of  both  parties,  and  which  must  inevitably  fall  to 
pieces  as  soon  as  the  hands  that  make  it  are  taken  off. 
Shall  every  quadrennial  election  take  place  in  the  full  fury 
of  Southern  threats?  Is  the  plantation-whip  to  control  our 
ballot-boxes?  Shall  Northern  sentiment  express  itself  by 
constitutional  means,  at  the  peril  of  punishment?  Must 
panic  follow  elections  ?  and  bankruptcy  follow  every  ex- 
pression of  liberty?  And  what  are  the  precious  advantages 
which  the  North  reaps,  which  make  it  worth  her  while  to 
undergo  such  ignominy  and  such  penalty? 

Every  advantage  that  can  be  reckoned  belongs  to  the 
North.  Ours  is  the  population.  Ours  is  free  labor.  Ours 
is  a  common  people  not  ashamed  of  toil,  and  able  to  make 
Work  a  badge  of  honor.  Ours  is  popular  intelligence,  com- 
petitive industry,  ingenuity  and  enterprise.  We  put  the 
whole  realm  and  wealth  of  Freedom  and  Civilization 
against  Slavery  and  Barbarism,  and  ask  what  have  we  to 
fear?  If  secession  and  separation  must  come, — which  God 
forbid  ! — which  can  best  bear  it,  Freedom  or  Slavery? 

The  North  must  accept  its  own  principles  and  take  the 
consequences.  Manliness  demands  this, — Honor  demands 
it.  But  if  we  will  not  heed  worthier  motives,  then  Interest 
demands  it.  If  even  this  is  not  strong  enough  for  com- 
mercial pusillanimity,  then  Necessity,  inevitable  and  irre- 
sistible, will  drive  and  scourge  us  to  it ! 


AGAINST  A  COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE.  245 

When  night  is  on  the  deep,  when  the  headlands  are  ob- 
scured by  the  darkness,  and  when  storm  is  in  the  air,  that 
man  who  undertakes  to  steer  by  looking  over  the  side  of 
the  ship,  over  the  bow,  or  over  the  stern,  or  by  looking  at 
the  clouds  or  his  own  fears,  is  a  fool.  There  is  a  silent 
needle  in  the  binnacle,  which  points  like  the  finger  of  God, 
telling  the  mariner  which  way  to  steer,  and  enabling  him 
to  outride  the  storm,  and  reach  the  harbor  in  safety.  And 
what  the  compass  is  to  navigation,  that  is  moral  principle 
in  political  affairs.  Whatever  the  issue  may  be,  we  have  but 
one  thing  to  do,  and  that  is  to  look  where  the  compass  of 
God  points,  and  steer  that  way.  You  need  not  fear  ship- 
wreck when  God  is  the  pilot. 

The  latter-day  glory  is  already  dawning.  God  is  calling 
to  the  nations.  The  long-oppressed  are  arousing.  The  des- 
potic thrones  are  growing  feeble.  It  is  an  age  of  liberty. 
The  trumpet  is  sounding  in  all  the  world,  and  one  nation 
after  another  is  moving  to  the  joyful  sound,  and  God  is 
mustering  the  great  army  of  liberty  under  his  banners  ! 
In  this  day,  shall  America  be  found  laggard  ?  While  des- 
potisms are  putting  off  the  garments  of  oppression,  shall 
she  pluck  them  up  and  put  them  on  ?  While  France  and 
Italy,  Germany  and  Russia,  are  advancing  toward  the  dawn, 
-shall  we  recede  toward  midnight  ?  From  this  grand  pro- 
cession of  nations,  with  faces  lightened  by  liberty,  shall 
we  be  missing  ?  While  they  advance  toward  a  brighter 
day,  shall  we,  with  faces  lurid  with  oppression,  slide  down- 
ward toward  the  pit  which  gapes  for  injustice  and  crime? 

Let  every  good  man  arouse  and  speak  the  truth  for  lib- 
erty. Let  us  have  an  invincible  courage  for  liberty.  Let 
us  have  moderation  in  passions,  zeal  in  moral  sentiments, 
a  spirit  of  conciliation  and  concession  in  mere  material  in- 
terests, but  unmovable  firmness  for  principles;  and — fore- 
most of  all  political  principles — for  Liberty  ! 


OUR   BLAMEWORTHINESS.* 


"And  there  arose  a  great  storm  of  wind,  and  the  waves  beat  into  the 
ship,  so  that  it  was  now  full.  And  he  was  in  the  hinder  part  of  the  ship, 
asleep  on  a  pillow,  and  they  awake  him,  and  say  unto  him,  Master,  carest 
thou  not  that  we  perish  ?  And  he  arose  and  rebuked  the  wind,  and  said 
unto  the  sea,  Peace,  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm." — Mark  iv.  37-39. 

At  the  close  of  a  laborious  day,  our  Saviour  entered  a 
ship,  upon  the  lake  of  Gennesaret,  to  cross  to  the  other 
side.  Wearied  by  his  great  tasks  of  mercy,  which  had  filled 
the  day,  he  fell  asleep.  Meantime,  a  sudden  and  violent 
wind,  to  which  that  lake  is  even  yet  subject,  swept  down 
from  the  hills,  and  wellnigh  overwhelmed  them.  They 
were  not  ignorant  of  navigation,  nor  unacquainted  with 
that  squally  sea.  Like  good  men  and  true,  doubtless,  they 
laid  about  them.  They  took  in  sail,  and  put  out  oars,  and, 
heading  to  the  wind,  valiantly  bore  up  against  the  gale, 
and  thought  nothing  of  asking  help  till  they  had  exerted 
every  legitimate  power  of  their  own.  But  the  waves  over- 
leaped their  slender  bulwarks,  and  filled  the  little  vessel 
past  all  bailing. 

Then,  when  they  had  done  all  that  men  could  do,  but  not 
till  then,  they  aroused  the  sleeping  Christ  and  implored  his 
succor.  Not  for  coming  to  him  did  he  rebuke  them,  but 
for  coming  with  such  terror  of  despair,  saying  to  them,  Why 
are  ye  so  fearful  ?    How  is  it  that  ye  have  no  faith  ?    He  out- 


*During  the  winter  of  1859-60  the  South  and  its  Democratic  allies  at 
the  North  were  industriously  charging  the  unhappy  state  of  the  country 
upon  the  Republican  party,  and  imputing  it  to  excesses  and  fanaticisms  in  the 
name  of  liberty.  This  sermon  was  preached  January  4,  1861,  the  Fast 
Day  appointed  by  President  Buchanan.  It  was  intended  to  show  that, 
while  the  nation  undoubtedly  had  ample  reason  for  fasting,  humiliation,  and 
confession,  this  reason  was,  not  that  too  much  had  been  done  for  liberty,  but 
too  little. 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  247 

breathed  upon  the  winds,  and  their  strength  quite  forsook 
them.  He  looked  upon  the  surly  waves,  and  they  hasted 
back  to  their  caverns.  There  is  no  tumult  in  the  heavens, 
on  the  earth,  nor  upon  the  sea,  that  Christ's  word  cannot 
control.  When  it  pleases  God  to  speak,  tempestuous  clouds 
are  peaceful  as  flocks  of  doves,  and  angry  seas  change  all 
their  roar  to  rippling  music. 

This  nation  is  rolling  helplessly  in  a  great  tempest.  The 
Chief  Magistrate  in  despair  calls  us  to  go  to  the  sleeping 
Saviour,  and  to  beseech  his  Divine  interference.  It  may  be 
true  that  the  crew  have  brought  the  ship  into  danger  by 
cowardice  or  treachery;  it  may  be  true  that  a  firm  hand  on 
the  wheel  would  even  yet  hold  her  head  to  the  wind,  and  ride 
out  the  squall.     But  what  of  that? 

Humiliation  and  prayer  are  never  out  of  order.  This 
nation  has  great  sins  unrepented  of;  and  whatever  may  be 
our  own  judgment  of  the  wisdom  of  public  men  in  regard 
to  secular  affairs,  we  cannot  deny  that  in  this  respect  they 
have  hit  rarely  well.  Instead  of  finding  fault  with  the 
almost  only  wise  act  of  many  days,  let  us  rather  admire 
with  gratitude  this  unexpected  piety  of  men  in  high  places. 

This  government  is  in  danger  of  subversion;  and  surely, 
while  the  venerable  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  nation,  and  all 
the  members  of  his  Cabinet,  are  doubtless  this  day  relig- 
iously abstaining  from  food,  according  to  the  proclamation, 
and  humbly  confessing  their  manifold  sins,  it  would  ill  be- 
come us  to  go  unconcerned  and  negligent  of  such  duties  of 
piety  and  patriotism.  Nor  need  we  be  inconveniently  frank 
and  critical.  What  if  some  shall  say  that  fasting  is  a  poor 
substitute  for  courage,  and  prayer  a  miserable  equivalent 
for  fidelity  to  duty?  What  if  the  national  authorities  have 
not  only  appointed  the  Fast,  but  afforded  sufficient  material 
in  their  own  conduct  for  observing  it?  It  is  all  the  more 
necessary  on  that  account  that  we  should  pause,  and  hum- 
ble ourselves  before  God,  and  implore  his  active  inter- 
ference. 

But  however  monstrous  the  pretense  of  trouble  may  be, 
the  danger  is  the  same.  Government  is  in  danger  of  sub- 
version.    No  greater  disaster  could  befall  this  continent  or 


248  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  world;  for  such  governments  fall  but  once,  and  then 
there  is  no  resurrection.  Since  there  is  no  famine  in  the 
land,  no  pestilence,  no  invasion  of  foreign  foe,  no  animosity 
of  the  industrial  classes  against  each  other,  or  against  their 
employers,  whence  is  our  danger?  from  what  quarter  come 
these  clouds,  drifting  with  bolts  of  war  and  destruction  ? 
Over  the  Gulf,  to  the  South,  the  storm  hangs  lurid  !  From 
the  treacherous  Caribbean  Sea  travel  the  darkness  and 
swirling  tornadoes  ! 

What  part  of  this  complicated  Government  has  at  last 
broken  down  ?  Is  it  the  legislative  ?  the  judicial  ?  the  execu- 
tive ?  Has  experience  shown  us  that  this  costly  machine, 
like  many  another,  is  more  ingenious  than  practicable  ?  Not 
another  nation  in  the  world,  not  a  contemporaneous  govern- 
ment, during  the  past  seventy-five  years,  can  compare,  for 
regularity,  simplicity  of  execution,  and  for  a  wise  and  facile 
accomplishment  of  the  very  ends  of  government,  with  ours. 
And  yet,  what  is  the  errand  of  this  day  ?  Why  are  we  ob- 
serving a  sad  Sabbath  ?  a  day  of  humiliation  ?  a  day  of  sup- 
plication ?  It  is  for  the  strangest  reason  that  the  world  ever 
heard.  It  is  because  the  spirit  of  liberty  has  so  increased 
and  strengthened  among  us,  that  the  Government  is  in  dan- 
ger of  being  overthrown  !  There  never  before  was  such  an 
occasion  for  fasting,  humiliation,  and  prayer  !  O.ther  nations 
have  gone  through  revolutions  to  find  their  liberties.  We 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution  to  put  down  liberty  !  Other 
people  have  thrown  off  their  governments  because  too 
oppressive.  Ours  is  to  be  destroyed,  if  at  all,  because  it  is 
too  full  of  liberty,  too  full  of  freedom.  There  never  was 
such  an  event  before  in  history. 

But  however  monstrous  the  pretense,  the  danger  is  here. 
In  not  a  few  States  of  this  Union  reason  seems  to  have  fled, 
and  passion  rules.  To  us  who  have  been  bred  in  cooler  lat- 
itudes and  under  more  cautious  maxims,  it  seems  incredible 
that  men  should  abandon  their  callings,  break  up  the  indus- 
tries of  the  community,  and  give  themselves  up  to  the  wild- 
est fanaticism,  at  the  expense  of  every  social  and  civil  inter- 
est, and  without  the  slightest  reason  or  cause  in  their 
relations  to  society  and  to  the  country,  past  or  future. 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  249 

Communities,  like  individuals,  are  liable  to  aberrations  of 
mind.  Panics  and  general  excitements  seem  to  move  by 
laws  as  definite  as  those  which  control  epidemics  or  the 
pestilence.  And  in  one  portion  of  our  land  such  an  insanity 
now  rules.  Cities  are  turned  into  camps.  All  men  are 
aping  soldiers.  For  almost  a  thousand  miles  there  is  one 
wild  riot  of  complaint  and  boasting.  Acts  of  flagrant 
wrong  are  committed  against  the  Federal  Government. 
And  these  things  are  but  the  prelude.  It  is  plainly  declared 
that  this  Government  shall  be  broken  up,  and  many  men 
mean  it;  and  that  the  President  elect*  of  this  great  nation 
shall  never  come  to  the  place  appointed  by  this  people. 
Riot  and  civil  war,  with  their  hideous  train  of  murders, 
revenges,  and  secret  villanies  are  gathering  their  elements, 
and  hang  in  ominous  terror  over  the  capital  of  this  nation. 

Meanwhile,  we  have  had  no  one  to  stand  up  for  order. 
Those  who  should  have  spoken  in  decisive  authority  have 
been — afraid !  Severer  words  have  been  used;  it  is  enough 
for  me  to  say  only  that  in  a  time  when  God,  and  providence, 
and  patriotism,  and  humanity  demanded  courage,  they  had 
nothing  to  respond  but  fear.  The  heart  has  almost  ceased 
to  beat,  and  this  Government  is  like  to  die  for  want  of  pul- 
sations at  the  center.  While  the  most  humiliating  fear 
paralyzes  one  part  of  the  Government,  the  most  wicked 
treachery  is  found  in  other  parts  of  it.  Men  advanced  to 
the  highest  places  by  the  power  of  our  Constitution,  have 
employed  their  force  to  destroy  that  Constitution.  They 
are  using  their  oath  as  a  soldier  uses  his  shield,  to  cover 
and  protect  them  while  they  are  mining  the  foundations, 
and  opening  every  door,  and  unfastening  every  protection 
by  which  colluding  traitors  may  gain  easy  entrance  and 
fatal  success.  Gigantic  dishonesties,  meanwhile,  stalk 
abroad  almost  without  shame.  And  this  Puritan  land,  this 
free  Government,  these  United  States,  like  old  Rome  in  her 
latest  imperial  days,  helpless  at  the  court,  divided  among 
her  own  citizens,  overhung  by  hordes  of  Goths  and  Barba- 
rians, seems  about  to  be  swept  with  the  fury  of  war. 

If  at  such  a  solemn  crisis  as  this  men  refuse  to  look  at 


*Abraham  Lincoln,  who  had  been  elected  in  the  November  previous. 


250  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

things  as  they  are;  to  call  their  sins  to  remembrance;  to 
confess  and  forsake  them;  if  they  shall  cover  over  the  great 
sins  of  this  people,  and  confess  only  in  a  sentimental  way, 
(as  one  would  solace  an  evening  sadness  by  playing  some 
sweet  and  minor  melody,)  then  we  may  fear  that  God  has 
indeed  forsaken  his  people.  But  if  we  shall  honestly  con- 
fess our  real  sins;  if  we  propose  to  cleanse  ourselves  from 
them;  if  we  make  prayer  not  a  substitute  for  action,  but 
an  incitement  to  it;  if  we  rise  from  our  knees  this  day  more 
zealous  for  temperance,  for  honesty,  for  real  brotherhood, 
for  pure  and  undefiled  religion,  and  for  that  which  is  the 
sum  and  product  of  them  all,  regulated  liberty  to  all  men, 
then  will  the  clouds  begin  to  break,  and  we  shall  see  the 
blue  shining  through,  and  the  sun,  ere  long,  driving  away 
the  tumultuous  storm,  shall  come  back  in  triumph. 

1.  It  is  well,  then,  that  every  one  of  us  make  this  day  the 
beginning  of  a  solemn  review  of  his  own  life,  and  the  tend- 
encies of  his  own  conduct  and  character.  A  general  repent- 
ance of  national  sins  should  follow,  rather  than  precede,  a 
personal  and  private  conviction  of  our  own  individual 
transgressions.  For  it  has  been  found  not  difficult  for  men 
to  repent  of  other  people's  sins;  but  it  is  found  somewhat 
difficult  and  onerous  to  repent  of  one's  own  sins.  We  are 
all  of  us  guilty  before  God  of  pride,  of  selfishness,  of 
vanity,  of  passions  unsubdued,  of  worldliness  in  manifold 
forms,  and  of  strife.  We  have  been  caught  in  the  stream, 
and  swept  out  into  an  ocean  of  thoughts  and  feelings 
which  cannot  bear  the  inquest  of  God's  judgment-day. 
And  we  have  lived  in  them  almost  unrebuked.  Each  man 
will  find  his  own  life  full  of  repentable  sins  unrepented  of. 

2.  We  should  take  solemn  account  of  our  guilt  in  the 
great  growth  of  social  laxity  and  vice  and  crime  in  our 
great  cities.  We  have  loved  ease  rather  than  duty.  Every 
American  citizen  is  by  birth  a  sworn  officer  of  state. 
Every  man  is  a  policeman.  If  bad  men  have  had  impunity, 
if  the  vile  have  controlled  our  municipal  affairs,  if  by  our 
delinquencies  and  indolence  justice  has  been  perverted,  and 
our  cities  are  full  of  great  public  wickedness,  then  we  can- 
not put  the  guilt  away  from  our  own  consciences.   We  have 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  251 

a  partnership  in  the  conduct  of  wicked  men,  unless  we  have 
exhausted  proper  and  permissible  means  of  forestalling  and 
preventing  it.  Every  citizen  of  such  a  city  as  this,  looking 
upon  intemperance,  upon  lewdness,  upon  gambling,  upon 
the  monstrous  wickednesses  that  ferment  at  the  bottom  of 
society,  or  beat  in  its  arteries,  should  feel  that  he  has  some 
occasion  to  repent  of  his  own  delinquency  and  moral  indif- 
ference. We  are  responsible  for  existing  evils  in  such  a 
nation  as  ours,  in  as  far  as  they  might  have  been  prevented 
or  limited  by  our  resolute  influence. 

3.  We  may  not  refuse  to  consider  the  growth  of  corrupt 
passions  in  connection  with  the  increase  of  commercial 
prosperity.  Luxury,  extravagance,  ostentation,  and  cor- 
ruption of  morals  in  social  life  have  given  alarming  evi- 
dence of  a  premature  old  age  in  a  young  country.  The  sins 
of  a  nation  are  always  the  sins  of  certain  central  passions. 
In  one  age  they  break  out  in  one  way,  and  in  another  age 
in  another  way;  but  they  are  the  same  central  sins,  after 
all.  The  corrupt  passions  which  lead  in  the  Southern  States 
to  all  the  gigantic  evils  of  slavery,  in  Northern  cities  break 
out  in  other  forms,  not  less  guilty  before  God,  because  of  a 
less  public  nature.  The  same  thing  that  leads  to  the  op- 
pression of  laborers  among  us  leads  to  oppression  on  the 
plantation.  The  grinding  of  the  poor,  the  advantages  which 
capital  takes  of  labor,  the  oppression  of  the  farm,  the  op- 
pression of  the  road,  the  oppression  of  the  shop,  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  ship,  are  all  of  the  same  central  nature,  and  as 
guilty  before  God  as  the  more  systematic  and  overt  oppres- 
sions of  the  plantation.  It  is  always  the  old  human  heart 
that  sins,  North  or  South;  and  the  natures  of  pride  and  of 
dishonesty  are  universal.  We  have  our  own  account  to 
render. 

4.  There  is  occasion  for  alarm  and  for  humiliation  before 
God,  in  the  spread  of  avarice  among  our  people.  The  in- 
tense eagerness  to  amass  wealth;  the  growing  indifference 
of  morals  as  to  methods  of  acquisition;  the  gradual  corrup- 
tion of  the  moral  sense,  so  that  property  and  self-interest 
dominate  the  conscience  and  determine  what  is  right  and 
wrong;  the  use  of  money  for  bribery  of  electors  and  elected; 


252 


PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


the  terrible  imputations  which  lie  against  many  of  our 
courts,  that  judges  walk  upon  gold  in  securing  place,  and 
then  sit  upon  gold  in  the  judgment-seat;  the  use  of  money 
in  legislation;  and  the  growing  rottenness  of  politics  from 
the  lowest  village  concern  to  matters  of  national  dimension, 
from  constables  to  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  these  United 
States: — is  this  all  to  be  confessed  only  in  a  single  smooth 
sentence  ? 

Such  is  the  wantonness  and  almost  universality  of  ava- 
rice as  a  corrupting  agent  in  public  affairs,  that  it  be- 
hooves every  man  to  consider  his  responsibilities  before 
God  in  this  matter.  The  very  planks  between  us  and  the 
ocean  are  worm-eaten  and  rotting,  when  ava»rice  takes  hold 
of  public  integrity;  for  avarice  is  that  sea-worm,  ocean- 
bred,  and  swarming  innumerable,  that  will  pierce  the 
toughest  planks,  and  bring  the  stoutest  ships  to  foundering. 
Our  foundations  are  crumbling.  The  sills  on  which  we  are 
building  are  ready  to  break.  We  need  reformation  in  the 
very  beginnings  and  elements  of  society.  If  in  other  parts 
of  our  land  they  are  in  danger  of  going  down  by  avarice 
in  one  form,  we  are  in  danger  of  going  down  by  avarice 
in  another  form. 

Our  people  are  vain,  and  much  given  to  boasting;  and 
because  they  love  flatteries,  those  deriving  from  them 
honor  and  trust  are  too  fond  of  feeding  their  appetite  for 
praise.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  we  hear  the  favorable 
side  of  our  doings  and  character,  and  become  used  to  a 
flattering  portrait.  Men  grow  popular  who  have  flowing 
phrases  of  eulogy.  Men  who  speak  unpalatable  truths  are 
disliked;  and  if  they  have  power  to  make  the  public  con- 
science uncomfortable,  they  are  said  to  abuse  the  liberty 
of  free  speech, — for  it  is  the  liberty  of  fanning  men  to 
sleep  that  is  supposed  to  be  legitimate;  the  liberty  of 
waking  men  out  of  sleep  is  supposed  to  be  license  !  And 
yet  we  shall  certainly  die  by  the  sweetness  of  flattery;  or, 
if  we  are  healed,  it  must  be  by  the  bitterness  of  faithful 
speech.  There  is  tonic  in  the  things  that  men  do  not  love 
to  hear;  and  there  is  damnation  in  the  things  that  wicked 
men  love  to  hear.     Free  speech  is  to  a  great  people  what 


O  UR  BLAME  IVOR  THIN  ESS. 


253 


winds  are  to  malarial  regions,  which  waft  away  the  elements 
of  disease,  and  bring  new  elements  of  health.  Where  free 
speech  is  stopped,  miasma  is  bred,  and  death  comes  fast. 

5.  But  upon  a  day  of  national  fasting  and  confession,  we 
are  called  to  consider  not  alone  our  individual  and  social 
evils,  but  also  those  which  are  national.  And  justice  re- 
quires that  we  should  make  mention  of  the  sins  of  this 
nation  on  every  side,  past  and  present.  I  should  violate 
my  own  convictions,  if,  in  the  presence  of  more  nearly 
present  and  more  exciting  influences,  I  should  neglect  to 
mention  the  sins  of  this  nation  against  the  Indian,  who, 
as  much  as  the  slave,  is  dumb,  but  who,  unlike  the 
slave,  has  almost  none  to  think  of  him,  and  to  speak  of 
his  wrongs.  We  must  remember  that  we  are  the  only 
historians  of  the  wrongs  of  the  Indian, — we  that  com- 
mit them.  And  our  history  of  the  Indian  nations  of  this 
country  is  like  the  inquisitor's  history  of  his  own  trials  of 
innocent  victims.  He  leaves  out  the  rack,  and  the  groans, 
and  the  anguish,  and  the  unutterable  wrongs,  and  puts  but 
his  own  glozingview  in  his  journal.  We  have  heaped  up  the 
account  of  treachery  and  cruelty  on  their  part,  but  we  have 
not  narrated  the  provocations,  the  grinding  intrusions,  and 
the  misunderstood  interpretations  of  their  policy,  on  our 
part.  Every  crime  in  the  calendar  of  wrong  which  a  strong 
people  can  commit  against  a  weak  one  has  been  committed 
by  us  against  them.  We  have  wasted  their  substance;  we 
have  provoked  their  hostility,  and  then  chastised  them  for 
their  wars;  we  have  compelled  them  to  peace  ignominiously ; 
we  have  formed  treaties  with  them  only  to  be  broken;  we 
have  filched  their  possessions.  In  our  presence  they  have 
wilted  and  wasted.  A  heathen  people  have  experienced 
at  the  hands  of  a  Christian  nation  almost  every  evil  which 
one  people  can  commit  against  another. 

Admit  the  laws  of  race;  admit  the  laws  of  advancing 
civilization  as  fatal  to  all  barbarism;  admit  the  indocility 
of  the  savage;  admit  the  rude  edges  of  violent  men  who 
form  the  pioneer  advance  of  a  great  people,  and  the  intrin- 
sic difficulties  of  managing  a  people  whose  notions  and 
customs  and  laws  are  utterly  different  from  our  own,  and 


254  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

then  you  have  only  explained  how  the  evil  has  been  done, 
but  you  have  not  changed  the  fact  nor  its  guilt.  The  mis- 
chief has  been  done,  and  this  is  simply  the  excuse.  It  is  a 
sorry  commentary  upon  a  Christian  nation,  and  indeed 
upon  religion  itself,  that  the  freest  and  most  boastfully  re- 
ligious people  on  the  globe  are  absolutely  fatal  to  any 
weaker  people  that  they  touch.  What  would  be  thought 
of  a  man  who,  when  he  became  converted  to  Christianity, 
was  dangerous  to  the  next  man's  pocket  ?  What  would  be 
thought  of  a  man  who  grew  dangerous  in  the  ratio  of  his 
moral  excellence?  And  what  must  be  the  nature  of  that 
Christianization  which  makes  this  Republic  a  most  dan- 
gerous neighbor  to  nations  weaker  than  itself  ?  We  are 
respectful  to  strength,  but  thieves  and  robbers  to  weakness. 
It  is  not  safe  for  any  to  trust  our  magnanimity  and  gen- 
erosity. We  have  no  chivalry.  We  have  avarice;  we  have 
haughty  arrogance;  we  have  assumptive  ways;  and  we 
have  a  desperate  determination  to  live,  to  think  only  of 
our  own  living,  and  to  sweep  with  the  besom  of  destruc- 
tion whatever  occupies  the  place  where  we  would  put  our 
foot. 

Nor  is  this  confined  to  the  Indian.  The  Mexicans  have 
felt  the  same  rude  foot.  This  nation  has  employed  its  gi- 
gantic strength  with  almost  no  moral  restriction.  Our 
civilization  has  not  begotten  humanity  and  respect  for 
others'  rights,  nor  a  spirit  of  protection  to  the  weak.  Nor 
can  we  excuse  ourselves  by  declaring  that  these  wanton 
cruelties  have  been  inspired  by  Southern  counsels,  and 
perpetrated  by  Southern  influence,  and  that  they  are  the 
legitimate  fruit  of  that  unholy  system  of  slavery  which  for 
fifty  years  has  swayed  the  government  of  this  nation. 
These  facts  are  undoubtedly  true.  But  we  must  not  forget 
that  we  permitted  the  outrages.  Resistance  was  feeble. 
Protests  were  mild.  We  preferred  to  suffer  such  wrongs 
upon  the  weak,  rather  than  imperil  our  peace  and  com- 
mercial prosperity  by  a  resolute  resistance. 

It  is  quite  in  vain  to  say  that  the  land  from  which  we 
sprung  did  the  same  that  we  are  doing.  A  wicked  daugh- 
ter is  not  excused  because  she  had  a  wicked  mother.     We 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  255 

boast  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race;  and  if  bone  and  muscle, 
and  indomitable  sense  of  personal  liberty,  and  a  disposi- 
tion to  do  what  we  please,  are  themes  for  Christian  rejoic- 
ing, then  the  Anglo-Saxon  may  well  rejoice.  There  are 
sins  that  belong  to  races;  there  are  sins  that  belong  to  peo- 
ples; there  are  sins  that  belong  to  generations  of  the  same 
people;  and  the  sins  that  I  have  enumerated  are  sins  that 
belong  to  our  stock. 

But  God  never  forgets  what  we  most  easily  forget. 
Either  moral  government  over  nations  is  apocryphal,  or 
judgments  are  yet  to  be  visited  upon  us  for  the  wrongs 
done  to  the  Indian,  and  to  our  weak  and  helpless  neighbors. 

6.  But  I  am  now  come  to  the  most  alarming  and  most 
fertile  cause  of  national  sin, — slavery.  We  are  called  by 
our  Chief  Magistrate  to  humble  ourselves  before  God  for 
our  sins.  This  is  not  only  a  sin,  but  it  is  a  fountain  from 
which  have  flowed  so  many  sins  that  we  cannot  rightly 
improve  this  day  without  a  consideration  of  them. 

In  one  and  the  same  year,  1620,  English  ships  landed 
the  Puritans  in  New  England  and  negro  slaves  in  Vir- 
ginia,— two  seeds  of  the  two  systems  that  were  destined 
to  find  here  a  growth  and  strength  unparalleled  in  his- 
tory. It  would  have  seemed  almost  a  theatric  arrange- 
ment, had  these  oppugnant  elements,  Puritan  liberty  and 
Roman  servitude, — (for,  whatever  men  may  say,  American 
slavery  is  not  Hebrew  slavery;  it  is  Roman  slavery.  We 
borrowed  every  single  one  of  the  elemental  principles 
of  our  system  of  slavery  from  the  Roman  law,  and  not 
from  the  old  Hebrew.  The  fundamental  feature  of  the 
Hebrew  system  was  that  the  slave  was  a  man,  and  not 
a  chattel,  while  the  fundamental  feature  of  the  Roman 
system  was  that  he  was  a  chattel,  and  not  a  man.  The 
essential  principle  of  the  old  Mosaic  servitude  made  it  the 
duty  of  the  master  to  treat  his  servants  as  men  and  to 
instruct  them  in  his  own  religion,  and  in  the  matters 
of  his  own  household;  while  the  essential  principle  of  Ro- 
man servitude  allowed  the  master  to  treat  his  servants  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  as  chattels,  goods),  —  it  would 
have  seemed,  I  say,  almost   a   theatric   arrangement  had 


256  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

these  oppugnant  elements,  Puritan  liberty  and  Roman 
servitude,  divided  the  land  between  them,  and,  inspiring 
different  governments,  grown  up  different  nations,  in 
contrast,  that  the  world  might  see  this  experiment  fairly 
compared  and  worked  out  to  the  bitter  end. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  so.  The  same  government  has 
nourished  both  elements.  Our  Constitution  nourished 
twins.  It  carried  Africa  on  its  left  bosom,  and  Anglo-Sax- 
dom  on  its  right  bosom;  and  these  two,  drawing  milk 
from  the  same  bosom,  have  waxed  strong,  and  stand  to- 
day federated  into  the  one  republic.  One  side  of  the  body 
politic  has  grown  fair  and  healthy  and  strong;  the  other 
side  has  grown  up  as  a  wen  grows,  and  a  wart,  vast,  but 
the  vaster  the  weaker.  We  have  yielded  new  territory  to 
this  terrible  disease.  They  have  demanded,  and  we  have 
permitted,  concessions,  legislative  compromises,  construc- 
tions. Peace  and  friendship  have  been  the  ostensible  pleas. 
The  ambition  of  political  parties  and  the  short-sighted  in- 
terests of  commerce  have  been  the  real  and  active  motives 
of  this  wicked  consent ! 

We  who  dwell  in  the  North  are  not  without  responsibil- 
ity for  this  sin.  Its  wonderful  growth  and  the  arrogance 
of  its  claims  have  been  in  part  through  our  delinquency. 
As  our  business  to-day  is  not  to  find  fault  with  the  South, 
I  am  not  discussing  this  matter  with  reference  to  them  at 
all,  but  only  with  reference  to  our  own  individual  profit. 
Because  the  South  loved  money,  they  augmented  this  evil; 
and  because  the  North  loved  money,  and  that  quiet  which 
befits  industry  and  commerce,  she  has  refused  to  insist 
upon  her  moral  convictions,  in  days  past,  and  yielded  to 
every  demand  carrying  slavery  forward  in  this  nation. 
You  and  I  are  guilty  of  the  spread  of  slavery  unless  we 
have  exerted,  normally  and  legitimately,  every  influence 
in  our  power  against  it.  If  we  have  said,  "To  agitate  the 
question  imperils  manufacturing,  imperils  shipping,  im- 
perils real  estate,  imperils  quiet  and  peace,"  and  if,  then, 
we  have  sacrificed  purity  and  honesty, — if  we  have 
bought  the  right  to  make  money  here  by  letting  slavery 
spread  and    grow   there, — we   have   been  doing   just   the 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS. 


257 


same  thing  that  they  have.  It  has  been  one  gigantic 
bargain,  only  working  out  in  different  ways,  North  and 
South.  It  is  for  us  just  as  much  as  for  them  that  the 
slave  works;  and  we  acquiesce.  We  clothe  ourselves  with 
the  cotton  which  the  slave  tills.  Is  he  scorched  ?  is  he 
lashed  ?  does  he  water  the  crop  with  his  sweat  and  tears  ? 
It  is  you  and  I  that  wear  the  shirt  and  consume  the  lux- 
ury. Our  looms  and  our  factories  are  largely  built  on  the 
slave's  bones.  We  live  on  his  labor.  I  confess  I  see  no 
way  to  escape  a  part  of  the  responsibility  for  slavery.  I 
feel  guilty  in  part  for  this  system.  If  the  relinquishment 
of  the  articles  which  come  from  slave  labor  would  tend 
even  remotely  to  abridge  or  end  the  evil,  I  would  without 
hesitation  forego  every  one;  but  I  do  not  see  that  it  would 
help  the  matter.  I  am  an  unwilling  partner  in  the  slave 
system.  I  take  to  myself  a  part  of  the  sin;  I  confess  it 
before  God;  and  pray  for  some  way  to  be  opened  by  which 
I  may  be  freed  from  that  which  I  hate  bitterly. 

But  this  state  of  facts  makes  it  eminently  proper  for  us  to 
confess  our  sin,  and  the  wrong  done  to  the  slave.  All  the 
wrongs,  the  crimes  of  some,  the  abuse  of  others,  the  neglect, 
the  misuse,  the  ignorance,  the  separations,  the  scourg- 
ings,  —  these  cannot  be  rolled  into  a  cloud  to  overhang  the 
South  alone.  Every  one  of  us  has  something  to  confess. 
Those  who  have  been  most  scrupulous,  if  God  should 
judge  their  life,  their  motives,  and  their  conduct,  would 
find  that  they,  too,  had  some  account  in  this  great  bill  of 
slavery.  The  whole  nation  is  guilty.  There  is  not  a  lum- 
berman on  the  verge  of  Maine,  not  a  settler  on  the  far 
distant  northern  prairies,  not  an  emigrant  on  the  Pacific 
shore,  that  is  not  politically  and  commercially  in  alliance 
with  this  great  evil.  If  you  put  poison  into  your  system  in 
any  way,  there  is  not  a  nerve  that  is  not  affected  by  it; 
there  is  not  a  muscle  that  does  not  feel  it;  there  is  not  a  bone, 
nor  a  tissue,  nor  one  single  part  nor  parcel  of  your  whole 
body,  that  can  escape  it.  And  our  body  politic  is  pervaded 
with  this  deadly  injustice,  and  every  one  of  us  is  more  or 
less,  directly  or  indirectly,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  im- 
plicated in  it.     We  have  a  great  deal  to  confess  before  we 


17 


25 S  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

cast  reproaches  upon  the  South.  And  while  I  hold  Southern 
citizens  to  the  full  and  dreadful  measure  of  their  guilt  be- 
fore God,  and  would,  if  I  were  settled  there,  tell  them  their 
sin  as  plainly  as  I  tell  you  your  sin,  it  is  for  us  to-day,  and 
here,  to  consider  our  own  part  in  this  matter  ;  and  to  that  I 
shall  speak  during  the  residue  of  my  remarks. 

Originally,  we  were  guilty  of  active  participation  in 
slavery.  It  seems  very  strange  to  take  up  the  old  Boston 
books  and  read  the  history  of  slavery  in  Boston.  We  of 
the  North  early  abandoned  the  practice  of  holding  slaves. 
But  it  is  said  that  ours  is  a  cheap  philanthropy;  that, 
having  got  quit  of  our  slaves  by  selling  them,  we  turn  round 
and  preach  to  the  South  about  the  sin  of  holding  theirs. 
There  is  nothing  more  false  than  such  a  charge.  There  is 
nothing  more  illustrious  in  the  history  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  of  the  Northern  States  generally,  than  the  method 
by  which  they  freed  themselves  from  slavery.  This  State 
decreed  liberty  at  a  certain  period,  making  it  an  offense, 
the  penalty  attached  to  which  no  one  would  willingly 
inherit,  for  a  man  to  convey  away,  or  in  any  manner  what- 
soever to  sell  out  of  the  State,  a  person  held  as  a  slave; 
and  if  a  man,  anticipating  the  day  of  emancipation,  wished 
to  make  a  journey  to  the  South  with  his  slaves,  he  had  to 
give  bonds  for  their  return  before  he  went  away,  and  an 
account  when  he  came  back,  if  they  did  not  come  with 
him.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  humane  than  the 
provision  that  the  slave  should  not  be  sold  out  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  but  should  be  emancipated  in  it.  And  what 
is  true  of  New  York  in  this  respect,  is  true  of  the  States 
generally  that  emancipated  their  slaves. 

But  we  of  the  North  participated  in  the  beginnings,  and 
we  are  in  part  guilty  of  the  subsequent  spread  of  the 
system  of  slavery.  When  our  government  came  into  our 
hands,  after  the  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  we  had  gone 
through  such  a  schooling,  that  the  head,  the  conscience, 
and  the  heart  of  this  nation,  in  the  main,  were  right  on  the 
subject  of  human  liberties.  And  at  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  nearly  seventy-five  years  ago,  it 
might  be  said  that,  with  local  and  insignificant  exceptions, 


OUR  BLAME  IVOR THIXESS.  259 

there  was  but  one  judgment,  one  wish,  and  one  prophetic 
expectation;  namely,  that  this  whole  territory  should  be 
dedicated  to  liberty,  and  that  every  compliance  or  com- 
promise was  not  to  be  made  in  the  interest  of  oppression, 
but  was  to  be  made  only  to  give  oppression  time  to  die 
decently.  That  was  the  spirit  and  intent  of  every  conces- 
sion or  compromise  that  was  made. 

The  schools,  the  academies,  the  colleges,  the  intelligence, 
the  brain  of  this  nation,  at  that  time,  were  in  the  North, — 
and  in  the  North  I  include  all  the  territory  north  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line.  Churches,  religious  institutions,  those 
moral  elements  that  always  went  with  the  posterity  of  the 
Puritans,  were  then  also  in  the  North.  When  our  Consti- 
tution was  adopted, —  when  the  wheels  of  our  mighty 
Confederacy  were  adjusted,  and  the  pendulum  began  to 
swing, — at  that  time  the  public  sentiment  was  in  favor  of 
liberty.  All  the  institutions  were  prepared  for  liberty, 
and  all  the  public  men  were  on  the  side  of  liberty.  And 
to  the  North,  because  she  was  the  brain,  —  to  the  North, 
because  she  was  the  moral  center  and  heart  of  this  Con- 
federacy,— was  given  this  estate;  for  in  this  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  the  North  predominated  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  and  fixed  its  institutions,  as  the  South  has  fixed  its 
policy  since.  What,  then,  having  this  trust  put  into  her 
hands,  is  the  account  of  her  stewardship  which  the  North 
has  to  render  ?  If  now,  after  three  quarters  of  a  century 
have  passed  away,  God  should  summon  the  North  to  his 
judgment-bar  and  say,  "I  gave  you  a  continent  in  which, 
though  there  was  slavery,  it  was  perishing;  I  gave  you  a 
nation  in  which  the  sentiment  was  for  liberty  and  against 
oppression;  I  gave  you  a  nation  in  which  the  tendencies 
were  all  for  freedom  and  against  slavery;  I  gave  you  the 
supreme  intelligence;  I  gave  you  the  moral  power  in  a 
thousand  pulpits,  a  thousand  books,  a  thousand  Bibles,  and 
said,  'Take  this  nation,  administer  it,  and  render  up  your 
trust';"  —  if  now,  after  three  quarters  of  a  century  have 
passed  away,  God  should  thus  summon  the  North  to  his 
judgment-bar,  what  would  be  the  account  which  she  would 
have  to  render  ? — the  North,  that  was  strongest  in  the  head 


260  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  in  the  heart,  and  that  took  as  fair  a  heritage  as  men 
ever  attempted  to  administer  ?  To-day  liberty  is  dis- 
honored and  discrowned,  and  slavery  is  rampant,  in  this 
nation.  And  do  you  think  to  creep  out  of  the  responsi- 
bility and  say,  "  We  are  not  to  blame  ? "  What  have  you 
been  doing  with  your  intelligence,  your  books,  your  schools, 
your  Bibles,  your  missionaries,  your  ministers?  Where, 
where  is  the  artillery  that  God  Almighty  gave  you,  park 
upon  park,  for  use  in  this  contest,  provided  and  prepared 
for  that  special  emergency  ?  Much  as  I  love  the  North, — 
and  I  love  every  drop  of  Puritan  blood  that  the  world  ever 
saw,  because  it  seems  to  me  that  Puritan  blood  means 
blood  touched  with  Christ's  blood, — I  take  to  myself  part 
of  the  shame,  and  mourn  over  the  delinquency  of  the 
North,  that,  having  committed  to  it  the  eminent  task  of 
preserving  the  liberties  of  this  nation,  it  has  suffered  them 
to  be  eclipsed.  For  to-day  there  are  more  Slave  States 
than  there  were  States  confederated  when  this  nation  came 
together.  And  instead  of  having  three  or  four  hundred 
thousand  slaves,  we  have  more  than  four  millions;  instead 
of  a  traffic  suppressed,  you  and  I  are  witnesses  to-day  of  a 
traffic  to  be  reopened, —  of  rebellion,  treasonable  war, 
bloodshed,  separate  independence,  for  the  sake  of  reopen- 
ing the  African  slave-trade.  So  came  this  country  into  the 
hands  of  the  North  in  the  beginning,  and  so  it  is  going  out 
of  her  hands  in  the  end.  There  never  was  such  a  steward- 
ship; and  if  this  Confederacy  shall  be  broken  up,  if  the 
Gulf  States  shall  demand  a  division  of  the  country,  and 
the  intermediate  States  shall  go  off,  and  two  empires  shall 
be  established,  no  steward  that  has  lived  since  God's  sun 
shone  on  the  earth  will  have  such  an  account  to  render  of 
an  estate  taken  under  such  favorable  auspices,  as  the  North 
will  have  to  render  of  this  great  national  estate  which  was 
committed  to  her  trust.  It  is  an  astounding  sin  !  It  is  an 
unparalleled  guilt !  The  vengeance  and  zeal  of  our  hearts 
toward  the  South  might  be  somewhat  tempered  by  the 
reflection  that  we  have  been  so  faithless  and  so  wicked. 

That  is  not  the  worst.     That  is  the  material  side.     We 
have  stood  with  all  the  elements  of  power,  boasting  of  our 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  261 

influence,  and  really  swaying,  in  many  respects,  the  affairs 
of  this  continent;  and  yet  we  have  not  only  seen  this  tre- 
mendous increase  of  slavery,  but  we  have  permitted  the 
doctrines  of  liberty  themselves  to  be  stricken  with  leprosy. 
And  to-day,  to-day,  to-day,  if  you  were  to  put  it  to  the  vote 
of  this  whole  people,  I  do  not  know  that  you  could  get  a 
majority  for  any  doctrine  of  liberty  but  this:  that  each 
man  has  a  right  to  be  himself  free.  The  great  doctrine  of 
liberty  is  concisely  expressed  by  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence; and  it  is  this:  that  all  men  are  free,  born  with 
equal  political  rights,  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  And  there  is  no  true  right  that  is  not  founded 
on  this  doctrine  :  That  liberty  which  is  good  for  me  is 
indispensable  for  everybody.  A  right  love  of  liberty 
inspires  a  man  to  say,  "  I  will  have  it  and  everybody  shall 
have  it."  That  is  a  poor  love  of  liberty  that  makes  a  man 
a  champion  for  the  liberty  of  those  that  are  capable  of 
asserting  their  own  liberty.  But  I  doubt  whether  you  could 
get  a  popular  vote  for  the  liberty  of  all  men,  if  the  Africans 
were  known  to  be  included.  Why  should  you  ?  I  am 
ashamed  of  what  I  must  speak.  The  pulpit  has  been  so 
prostituted,  and  so  utterly  apostatized  from  the  very  root 
and  substance  of  Christianity,  that  it  teaches  the  most 
heathen  notions  of  liberty  ;  and  why  should  you  expect 
the  great  masses  of  men  to  be  better  informed  on  this  sub- 
ject than  its  preachers  are?  Do  you  believe  that  George 
Washington,  were  he  living,  would  now  be  able  to  live  one 
day  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  if  he  uttered  the  sentiments 
that  he  used  to  hold  ?  He  would  be  denounced  as  a  traitor, 
and  swung  up  on  the  nearest  lamp-post.  Do  you  suppose 
that  one  single  man  that  signed  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, if  living,  could  go  through  the  South  to-day 
repeating  the  sentiments  contained  in  that  document? 
The  lives  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
would  not  be  worth  one  day's  lease  in  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
Carolina,  or  Florida,  if  they  were  there  to  say  the  things 
plainly  which  they  said  when  they  framed  this  government, 
so  utterly  have  the  South  vomited  up  their  political  views; 
so  radically  have  they  changed  their  notions.     Was  this 


262  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

country  committed  to  our  care?  and  is  such  the  lesson  that 
we  have  taught  our  pupils  ?  Shall  the  schoolmaster  render 
back  the  scholars  that  he  undertook  to  teach,  with  their 
minds  debauched,  and  say  that  he  was  not  responsible  for 
what  they  learned  ?  And  if  any  part  of  the  country  was 
responsible  for  the  education  of  the  whole,  it  was  the  free- 
schooled,  million-churched  North.  The  result  of  our  in- 
struction is  this  :  slavery  has  spread  gigantically,  and  the 
doctrine  of  liberty  is  so  corrupted,  that  to-day  nothing  is 
more  disreputable  in  the  high  places  of  this  nation  than 
that  very  doctrine.  And  at  last,  when  the  sleeper,  long 
snoring,  having  been  awaked,  raised  himself  up,  and,  like 
all  new  zealots,  somewhat  intemperately  made  crusade  for 
liberty,  the  land  was  so  agitated,  and  with  such  surprise 
was  this  expression  of  the  public  sentiment  of  the  North 
received,  that  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  nation  has 
declared  that  the  advocates  of  the  old  colonial,  original, 
constitutional  doctrines  of  human  rights  were  the  cause  of 
all  the  trouble  ! 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  most  serious,  the  most  grievous 
charge  is  yet  to  be  made  upon  the  North.  So  far  have  we 
been  delinquent  in  the  trust  that  God  committed  to  us, 
that  from  the  very  fountain  out  of  which  flowed,  as  from 
the  heart  of  Christ,  the  first  drops  that  were  to  cleanse  men 
from  oppressions,  has  been  extracted  in  our  day,  and  in 
our  North  very  largely,  the  whole  spirit  of  humanity  which 
breathes  freedom. 

It  ill  becomes,  I  think,  one  profession  to  rail  against 
another,  or  the  members  of  the  same  profession  to  rail 
against  each  other.  I  have  no  accusations  to  make  against 
any;  but  I  will  forsake  my  profession,  for  the  time  being, 
and  stand  as  a  man  among  men,  to  lift  up  my  voice,  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul,  against  any  man  who,  professing  to 
be  ordained  to  preach,  preaches  out  of  Christ's  Gospel  the 
doctrines  of  human  bondage.  If  the  Bible  can  be  opened 
that  all  the  fiends  of  hell  may,  as  in  a  covered  passage, 
walk  through  it  to  do  mischief  on  earth,  I  say,  blessed  be 
infidels  !  If  men  can  make  the  Bible  teach  me  to  disown 
childhood;    if  men  can  make  the  Bible  teach  me  that  it  is 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  263 

lawful  to  buy  and  sell  men,  that  marriage  is  impracticable 
between  slaves,  that  laws  cannot  permit  any  custom  which 
would  hinder  the  easy  sale  of  such  property;  if  the  Bible 
can  be  made  the  sacred  document  and  constitutional 
guaranty  of  a  system  which  makes  it  impossible  that  a  man 
should  receive  education,  because  intelligence  is  costly,  and 
swells  the  slave  to  a  stature  not  convenient  for  selfish  econ- 
omy; if  a  man  can  take  the  Bible  and  lay  it  in  the  path 
over  which  men  are  attempting  to  walk  from  Calvary  up 
to  the  gate  of  heaven; — then  I  declare  that  I  will  do  by 
the  Bible  what  Christ  did  by  the  Temple:  I  will  take  a  whip 
of  cords,  and  drive  out  of  it  every  man  that  buys  and  sells 
men,  women,  and  children;  and  if  I  cannot  do  that,  I  will 
let  the  Bible  go,  as  God  let  the  Temple  go,  to  the  desolating 
armies  of  its  adversaries.  And  I  do  not  wonder  that,  after 
so  long  an  experience  of  the  world,  men  who  bombard 
universal  humanity,  men  who  plead  for  the  outrage  of 
slavery,  men  who  grope  to  find  under  crowns  and  scepters 
the  infamous  doctrines  of  servitude, — I  do  not  wonder  that 
they  are  pestered  with  the  idea  of  man's  infidelity.  Why, 
that  minister  who  preaches  slavery  out  of  the  Bible  is  the 
father  of  infidelity  !  Sometimes  men  become  infidel  to 
the  Church  for  the  sake  of  fidelity  to  religion.  The  Bible 
may  be  so  interpreted  by  a  besotted  priesthood,  that  plain 
men  may  be  driven  from  the  Book  for  their  very  faith  in 
its  essential  contents.  Every  abomination  on  earth  has 
been  at  one  time  or  another  justified  from  the  Bible  !  Thus 
men  learn  to  hate  the  Bible,  not  for  what  it  is  in  reality, 
but  because  it  is  made  the  bulwark  of  oppression;  and 
they  spurn  it  that  they  may  answer  the  call  of  God  in 
their  own  nature, — for  to  be  free  is  a  part  of  the  sovereign 
call  and  election  that  God  has  given  to  every  man  who  has 
a  sense  of  his  birthright  and  immortality.  And  in  a  com- 
munity where  the  minister  finds  reason  in  the  Bible  for 
slavery,  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  one  of  two  things 
will  take  place:  either  there  will  be  an  inquisition  to  re- 
deem the  Bible  from  such  abominable  prostitution,  or  else 
the  Bible  will  be  spurned  and  trodden  under  the  feet  of 
men. 


264  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

"  I  came  to  open  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound,"  said 
Christ;  and  that  is  the  text  on  which  men  justify  shutting 
them  and  locking  them.  "  To  proclaim  liberty  to  the 
captives;"  and  that  is  the  text  out  of  which  men  spin 
cords  to  bind  men,  women,  and  children.  "  To  set  at 
liberty  them  that  are  bruised;"  and  that  is  the  Book  from 
out  of  which  they  argue,  with  amazing  ingenuity,  all  the 
infernal  meshes  and  snares  by  which  to  keep  men  in 
bondage.     It  is  pitiful. 

Now  what  has  been  the  history  of  the  Book  but  this: 
that  wherever  you  have  had  an  untrammeled  Bible,  you 
have  had  an  untrammeled  people;  and  that  wherever  you 
have  had  a  Bible  shut  up,  you  have  had  a  shut-up  people  ? 
Where  you  have  had  a  Bible  that  the  priests  interpreted, 
you  have  had  a  king.  Where  you  have  had  a  Bible  that  the 
common  people  interpreted;  where  the  family  has  been  the 
church;  where  father  and  mother  have  been  God's  ordained 
priests;  where  they  have  read  its  pages  freely  from  begin- 
ning to  end  without  gloss  or  commentary,  without  the 
church  to  tell  them  how,  but  with  the  illumination  of  God's 
Spirit  in  their  hearts; — there  you  have  had  an  indomitable 
yeomanry,  a  state  that  would  not  have  a  tyrant  on  the 
throne,  a  government  that  would  not  have  a  slave  or  a  serf 
in  the  field.  Wherever  the  Bible  has  been  allowed  to  be 
free,  wherever  it  has  been  knocked  out  of  the  king's  hand, 
and  out  of  the  priest's  hand,  it  has  carried  light  like  the 
morning  sun,  rising  over  hill  and  vale,  round  and  round 
the  world;  and  it  will  do  it  again  !  And  yet  there  come 
up  in  our  midst  men  that  say  that  the  Bible  is  in  favor  of 
slavery.  And  as  men  that  are  about  to  make  a  desperate 
jump  go  back  and  run  before  they  jump,  so  these  men 
have  to  go  back  to  the  twilight  of  creation  and  take  a  long 
run;  and  when  they  come  to  their  jump,  their  strength  is 
spent,  and  they  but  stumble  ! 

It  is  in  consideration  of  this  wanton  change  which  has 
taken  place  (and  which  ought  never  to  have  been  permitted 
to  take  place,  in  view  of  the  instruments  that  God  put  into 
our  hands,  and  in  view  of  the  solemn  responsibility  that  he 
has  put  upon   us), — it  is  in  consideration  of  this  change 


OUR  BLAMEWORTHINESS.  265 

which  has  taken  place  in  the  moral  condition  of  the  coun- 
try, and  in  the  opinions  of  this  people  respecting  the 
great  doctrine  of  liberty,  and  the  worse  change  which  has 
in  part  corrupted  the  Church  at  its  very  core,  that  I  argue 
to-day  the  necessity  of  humiliation  and  repentance  before 
God. 

I  shall  first  confess  my  own  sin.  Sometimes  men  think 
I  have  been  unduly  active.  I  think  I  have  been  indolent. 
In  regard  to  my  duty  in  my  personal  and  professional  life, 
I  chide  myself  for  nothing  more  than  because  I  have  not 
been  more  alert,  more  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season. 
If  sometimes  in  intemperate  earnestness  I  have  wounded 
the  feelings  of  any,  if  I  have  seemed  to  judge  men  harshly, 
for  that  I  am  sorry.  But  for  holding  the  slave  as  my 
brother;  for  feeling  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  spirit  of 
liberty;  for  loving  my  country  so  well  that  I  cannot  bear 
to  see  a  stain  or  a  blot  upon  her;  for  endeavoring  to  take 
the  sands  from  the  river  of  life  wherewith  to  scour  white 
as  snow  the  morals  of  my  times,  and  to  cleanse  them  to 
the  uttermost  of  all  spot  and  aspersion, — for  that  I  have 
no  tears  to  shed.  I  only  mourn  that  I  have  not  been  more 
active  and  zealous,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  separate  myself 
from  my  share  of  the  responsibility.  I  am  willing  to  take 
my  part  of  the  yoke  and  burden.  I  will  weep  my  tears 
before  God,  and  pray  my  prayers  of  sincere  contrition  and 
penitence,  that  I  have  not  been  more  faithful  to  liberty  and 
religion  in  the  North  and  the  whole  land. 

But  be  sure  of  one  thing:  He  that  would  not  come 
when  the  sisters  sent,  but  tarried,  has  come,  and  the  stone 
is  rolled  away,  and  he  stands  by  the  side  of  the  sepulcher. 
He  has  called,  "  Liberty,  come  forth  !  "  and,  bound  yet 
hand  and  foot,  it  has  come  forth;  and  that  same  sovereign 
voice  is  saying,  "  Loose  him,  and  let  him  go  !  "  and  from 
out  of  the  tomb,  the  dust,  the  night,  and  the  degradation, 
the  better  spirit  of  this  people  is  now  emerging  at  the 
voice  of  God.  We  have  heard  his  call,  we  know  the  bid- 
ding, and  Death  itself  cannot  hold  us  any  longer;  and 
there  is  before  us,  we  may  fain  believe,  a  new  lease  of  life, 
a  more  blessed  national  existence.     That  there  will  not  be 


* 

266  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

concussions,  and  perhaps  garments  rolled  in  blood,  I  will 
not  undertake  to  say  :  there  may  be  some  such  things  as 
these;  but,  brethren,  this  nation  is  not  going  to  perish. 
This  Union  is  not  going  to  be  broken  and  shivered  like  a 
crystal  vase  that  can  never  be  put  together  again.  We  are 
to  be  tested  and  tried;  but  if  we  are  in  earnest,  and  if  we 
stand,  as  martyrs  and  confessors  before  us  have  stood, 
bearing  witness  in  this  thing  for  Christ,  know  ye  that  ere 
long  God  will  appear,  and  be  the  leader  and  captain  of  our 
salvation,  and  we  shall  have  given  back  to  us  this  whole 
land,  healed,  restored  to  its  right  mind,  and  sitting  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus. 

Love  God,  love  men,  love  your  dear  fatherland;  to-day 
confess  your  sins  toward  God,  toward  men,  toward  your 
own  fatherland;  and  may  that  God  that  loves  to  forgive 
and  forget,  hear  our  cries  and  our  petitions  which  we  make, 
pardon  the  past,  inspire  the  future,  and  bring  the  latter- 
day  glory  through  a  regenerated  zeal  and  truth,  inspired 
by  his  Spirit,  in  this  nation.     Amen,  and  amen. 


II 
CIVIL  WAR 


^/ftlrrfL^n-Asyh;  QU^uurtZ/. 


THE    BATTLE   SET   IN   ARRAY. 


"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto  me  ?  speak 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward." — Exod.  xiv.  15. 


Moses  was  raised  up  to  be  the  emancipator  of  three 
millions  of  people.  At  the  age  of  forty,  having,  through 
a  singular  providence,  been  reared  in  the  midst  of  luxury, 
in  the  proudest,  most  intelligent,  and  most  civilized  court 
on  the  globe,  with  a  heart  uncorrupt,  with  a  genuine  love 
of  his  own  race  and  people,  he  began  to  act  as  their  eman- 
cipator. He  boldly  slew  one  of  their  oppressors.  And, 
seeing  dissension  among  his  brethren,  he  sought  to  bring 
them  to  peace.  He  was  rejected,  reproved,  and  reproached ; 
and  finding  himself  discovered,  he  fled,  and,  for  the  sake 
of  liberty,  became  a  fugitive  and  a  martyr.  For  forty 
years,  uncomplaining,  he  dwelt  apart  with  his  father-in- 
law,  Jethro,  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  a 
herdsman.  At  eighty — the  time  when  most  men  lay  down 
the  burden  of  life,  or  have  long  laid  it  down — he  began 
his  life-work.  He  was  called  back  by  the  voice  of  God; 
and  now,  accompanied  by  his  brother,  he  returned,  con- 
fronted the  king,  and,  moved  by  Divine  inspiration,  de- 
manded, repeatedly,  the  release  of  his  people.  The  first  de- 
mand was  sanctioned  by  a  terrific  plague;  the  second,  by  a 
second  terrible  judgment;  the  third,  by  a  third  frightful  dev- 
astation; the  fourth,  by  a  fourth  dreadful  blow;  the  fifth, 
by  a  fifth  desolating,  sweeping  mischief.  A  sixth,  a  seventh, 
an  eighth,  and  a  ninth  time,  he  demanded  their  release. 
And  when  was  there  ever,  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  a  man 
that,  once  having  power,  would  let  it  go  till  life  itself  went 
with  it  ?  Pharaoh,  who  is  the  grand  type  of  oppressors, 
held  on  in  spite  of  the  Divine  command  and  of  the  Divine 

*  Preached  April  14,  1861,  during  the  siege  of  Fort  Sumter. 


270  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

punishment.  Then  God  let  fly  the  last  terrific  judgment, 
and  smote  the  first-born  of  Egypt;  and  there  was  wailing 
in  every  house  of  the  midnight  land.  And  then,  in  the 
midst  of  the  first  gush  of  grief  and  anguish,  the  tyrant 
said,  "  Let  them  go  !  let  them  go  !  "  And  he  did  let  them 
go;  he  shoved  them  out;  and  they  went  pell-mell  in  great 
confusion  on  their  way,  taking  up  their  line  of  march,  and 
escaped  from  Egypt. 

But  as  soon  as  the  first  anguish  had  passed  away,  Pha- 
raoh came  back  to  his  old  nature, — just  as  many  men  whose 
hearts  are  softened  and  whose  lives  are  made  better  by  afflic- 
tion, come  back  to  the  old  way  of  feeling  and  living,  as  soon  as 
they  have  ceased  to  experience  the  first  effects  of  the  afflic- 
tion,— and  he  followed  on  after  the  Israelites.  As  they  lay 
encamped — these  three  millions  of  people,  men,  women, 
and  children — just  apart  from  the  land  of  bondage,  near 
the  fork  and  head  of  the  Red  Sea,  with  great  hills  on  either 
side  of  them,  and  the  sea  before  them,  some  one  brought 
panic  into  the  camp,  saying,  "I  see  the  signs  of  an  advanc- 
ing host !  The  air  far  on  the  horizon  is  filled  with  rising 
clouds  !  "  Presently,  through  these  clouds,  began  to  be 
seen  glancing  spears,  mounted  horsemen,  and  a  great 
swelling  army.  Such,  to  these  lately  enslaved,  but  just 
emancipated  people,  was  the  first  token  of  the  coming  ad- 
versary. Surely,  they  were  unable  to  cope  with  the  disci- 
plined cohorts  of  this  Egyptian  king.  They,  that  were 
unused  to  war,  that  had  never  been  allowed  to  hold 
weapons  in  their  hands,  that  were  a  poor,  despoiled  people 
not  only,  but  that  had  been  subjected  to  the  blighting 
touch  of  slavery,  had  lost  courage.  They  did  not  dare  to 
be  free.  And  there  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  they  re- 
proached Moses,  and  said,  "  Because  there  were  no  graves  in 
Egypt,  hast  thou  taken  us  away  to  die  in  the  wilderness?" 

I  have  no  doubt  that,  if  Pharaoh's  courtiers  had  heard 
that,  they  would  have  said,  "  Ah  !  they  do  not  want  to  be 
free.     They  do  not  believe  in  freedom." 

"  Because  there  were  no  graves  in  Egypt,  hast  thou  taken  us 
away  to  die  in  the  wilderness  ?  Wherefore  hast  thou  dealt  thus 
with  us,  to  carry  us  forth  out  of  Egypt  ?  " 


THE  BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  271 

Were  these  people  miserable  specimens  of  humanity  ? 
They  were  just  what  slavery  makes  everybody  to  be. 

"  Is  not  this  the  word  that  we  did  tell  thee  in  Egypt,  saying, 
Let  us  alone,  that  we  may  serve  the  Egyptians  ?  " 

They  would  rather  have  had  peace  with  servitude,  than 
liberty  with  the  manly  daring  required  to  obtain  it. 

"  For  it  had  been  better  for  us  to  serve  the  Egyptians,  than  that 
we  should  die  in  the  wilderness." 

That  is  just  the  difference  between  a  man  and  a  slave. 
They  would  rather  have  lived  slaves,  and  eaten  their  pot- 
tage, than  to  suffer  for  the  sake  of  liberty  ;  a  man  would 
rather  die  in  his  tracks,  than  live  in  ease  as  a  slave. 

These,  then,  were  the  people  that  Moses  undertook  to 
emancipate,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  Moses's  life- 
work. 

"  And  Moses  said  unto  the  people,  Fear  ye  not,  stand  still" — 

That  was  wrong,  but  he  did  not  know  any  better. 

"  Fear  ye  not,  stand  still,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord, 
which  he  will  show  you  to-day  :  for  the  Egyptians,  whom  ye  have 
seen  to-day,  ye  shall  see  them  again  no  more  forever.  The  Lord 
shall  fight  for  you,  and  ye  shall  hold  your  peace." 

He  was  a  little  too  fast.  He  was  right  in  respect  to  the  re- 
sult, but  wrong  in  respect  to  the  means. 

"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto 
me  ?     Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward." 

They  were,  after  all,  to  do  something  and  dare  some- 
thing for  their  liberty.  No  standing  still,  but  going  for- 
ward ! 

"  Lift  up  the  rod,  and  stretch  out  thine  hand  over  the  sea,  and 
divide  it ;  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall  go  on  dry  ground 
through  the  midst  of  the  sea." 

You  recollect  the  rest.  They  walked  through  the  sea 
that  lay  as  a  protecting  wall  on  either  side  of  them.  They 
reached  the  other  side.  They  were  divided  from  the  camp 
of  the  Egyptians  by  a  fiery  cloud,  and  the  Egyptians  could 
not  touch  them.     And  what  was  the  fate  of  the  Egyptians  ? 


272  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

They  attempted  to  follow  the  children  of  Israel  through 
the  sea,  when  the  waters  closed  together,  and  their  host 
was  destroyed. 

God  has  raised  up  many  men,  at  different  periods  of  the 
world,  to  bring  his  cause  forth  from  its  various  exigencies. 
Wherever  a  man  is  called  to  defend  a  truth  or  a  principle, 
a  church  or  a  people,  a  nation  or  an  age,  he  may  be  said  to 
be,  like  Moses,  the  leader  of  God's  people.  And  in  every 
period  of  the  world  God  has  shut  up  his  people,  at  one 
time  or  another,  to  himself.  He  has  brought  their  enemies 
behind  them,  as  he  brought  the  Egyptians  behind  the 
children  of  Israel.  He  has  hedged  them  in  on  either  hand. 
He  has  spread  out  the  unfordable  sea  before  them.  He 
has  so  beset  them  with  difficulties,  when  they  were  attempt- 
ing to  live  for  right,  for  duty,  and  for  liberty,  that  they 
have  been  like  Israel. 

When  men  stand  for  a  moral  principle,  their  troubles  are 
not  a  presumption  that  they  are  in  the  wrong.  Since  the 
world  began,  men  that  have  stood  for  the  right  have  had  to 
stand  for  it,  as  Christ  stood  for  the  world,  suffering  for 
victory. 

In  the  history  which  belongs  peculiarly  to  us,  over  and 
over  again  the  same  thing  has  occurred.  In  that  grand  be- 
ginning struggle  in  which  Luther  figured  so  prominently, 
he  stood  in  a  doubtful  conflict.  He  was  in  the  minority; 
he  was  vehemently  pressed  with  enemies  on  every  side; 
nine  times  out  of  ten  during  his  whole  life  the  odds  were 
against  him.  And  yet  he  died  victorious,  and  we  reap  the 
fruit  of  his  victory. 

In  one  of  the  consequences  of  that  noble  struggle,  the 
assertion  in  the  Netherlands  of  civil  liberty  and  religious 
toleration,  the  same  thing  took  place.  Almost  the  entire 
globe  was  against  this  amphibious  republic,  until  England 
cared  for  them;  and  England  cared  for  them  very  doubt- 
fully and  very  imperfectly.  All  the  reigning  influences, 
all  the  noblest  of  the  commanding  men  of  the  Continent, 
were  against  them.  The  conflict  was  a  long  and  dubious 
one,  in  which  they  suffered  extremely,  and  conquered 
through  their  suffering. 


THE   BATTLE   SET  TV  ARRAY.  273 

In  the  resulting  struggle  in  England,  which  was  bor- 
rowed largely  from  the  Continent, — the  Puritan  uprising, 
the  Puritan  struggle, — the  same  thing  occurred.  The 
Puritans  were  enveloped  in  darkness.  Their  enemies  were 
more  than  their  friends.  The  issue  was  exceedingly  doubt- 
ful. Their  very  victory  began  in  apparent  defeat.  For 
when  at  last,  wearied  and  discouraged,  they  could  no 
longer  abide  the  restriction  of  their  liberty  in  England, 
they  fled  away  to  plant  colonies  upon  these  shores.  On  the 
sea  did  they  venture,  but  the  ocean,  black  and  wild,  before 
they  left  it  was  covered  with  winter. 

In  every  one  of  these  instances  darkness  and  the  flood 
lay  before  the  champions  of  truth  and  rectitude.  God  in 
his  providence  said  to  them,  though  they  were  without 
apparent  instrumentalities,  "  Go  forward  !  Venture  every- 
thing !  Endure  everything  !  Yield  the  precious  truths 
never  !  Live  forever  by  them  !  Die  with  them,  if  you  die 
at  all." 

The  whole  lesson  of  the  past,  then,  is  that  safety  and 
honor  come  by  holding  fast  to  one's  principles;  by  press- 
ing them  with  courage;  by  going  into  darkness  and  defeat 
cheerfully  for  them. 

And  now  our  turn  has  come.  Right  before  us  lies  the 
Red  Sea  of  war.  It  is  red  indeed.  There  is  blood  in  it. 
We  have  come  to  the  very  edge  of  it,  and  the  Word  of 
God  to  us  to-day  is,  "  Speak  unto  this  people  that  they  go 
forward!"  It  is  not  of  our  procuring.  It  is  not  of  our  wish- 
ing. It  is  not  our  hand  that  has  struck  the  first  stroke,  nor 
drawn  the  first  blood.  We  have  prayed  against  it.  We 
have  struggled  against  it.  Ten  thousand  times  we  have 
cried,  "  Let  this  cup  pass  from  us  !  "  It  has  been  overruled. 
We  have  yielded  everything  but  manhood,  and  principle, 
and  truth,  and  honor,  and  we  have  heard  the  voice  of  God 
saying,  "  Yield  these  never  !  "  And  these  not  being  yielded, 
war  has  been  let  loose  upon  this  land. 

Now,  let  us  look  both  ways  into  this  matter,  that  we  may 
decide  what  it  is  our  duty  to  do. 

1.  There  is  no  fact  susceptible  of  proof  in  history,  if  it 
be  not  true  that  this  Federal  Government  was  created  for 

iS 


=  74 


PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 


the  purposes  of  justice  and  liberty;  and  not  liberty,  either, 
with  the  construction  that  traitorous  or  befooled  heads  are 
attempting  to  give  it, — liberty  with  a  devil  in  it !  We  know 
very  well  what  was  the  breadth  and  the  clarity  of  the  faith 
of  those  men  who  formed  the  early  constitutions  of  this 
nation.  If  there  was  any  peculiarity  in  their  faith,  it  was 
that  their  notion  of  liberty  was  often  extravagant.  But 
there  was  no  doubtfulness  in  their  position.  And  the  in- 
struments which  accompanied  and  preceded  it,  and  the 
opinions  of  the  men  that  framed  it,  put  this  fact  beyond 
all  controversy:  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  meant  to  be  as  we  now  hold  it,  as  we  now  defend  it, 
as  we  have  held  it,  and  as  we  have  been  defending  it.  And 
at  length  even  this  is  conceded,  as  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  say  further  on,  by  the  enemies  of  liberty  in  this  country. 
The  Vice-President  of  the  so-called  Southern  Confederacy 
has  stated  recently  that  there  was  a  blunder  made  in  the 
construction  of  our  Constitution  on  this  very  truth  of 
universal  liberty,  thus  admitting  the  grand  fact  that  that 
immortal  instrument,  as  held  by  the  North,  embodies  the 
views  of  those  who  framed  it;  and  that  those  views  are 
unmistakably  in  favor  of  liberty  to  all. 

2.  There  can  be  no  disputing  the  fact  that,  from  com- 
mercial and  political  causes,  an  element  of  slavery  which 
had  a  temporary  refuge  in  the  beginning  in  this  land 
swelled  to  an  unforeseen  and  unexpected  power,  and  for 
fifty  years  has  held  the  administrative  power  of  the  country 
in  its  hands.  No  man  acquainted  with  our  politics 
hesitates  to  say,  that  while  the  spirit  of  liberty  first  sug- 
gested our  national  ideas  and  fashioned  our  national  insti- 
tutions, after  that  work  was  done  the  government  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  slave-power;  and  that  that  power  has 
administered  these  institutions  during  the  last  fifty  years 
for  its  own  purposes,  or  in  a  manner  that  has  been  antag- 
onistic to  the  interests  of  this  country. 

3.  Against  this  growing  usurpation  for  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  there  has  been  rising  up  and  organizing  a  proper 
legal  constitutional  opposition,  wishing  not  the  circum- 
scription or  injury  of  any  section  in  this  land,  but  endeav- 


THE  BATTLE  SET  TV  ARRAY.  275 

oring  to  keep  our  institutions  out  of  the  hands  of  despotism 
and  on  the  side  of  liberty.  For  twenty-five  years  there 
has  been  a  struggle  to  see  to  it  that  those  immortal  instru- 
ments of  liberty  should  not  be  wrested  from  their  original 
intent, — that  they  should  be  maintained  for  the  objects  for 
which  they  were  created. 

4.  What  are  the  means  that  have  been  employed  to 
maintain  our  institutions?  Free  discussion.  That,  simply. 
We  have  gone  before  the  people,  in  every  proper  form. 
For  twenty  years  of  defeat,  though  of  growing  influence, 
we  have  argued  the  questions  of  human  rights  and  human 
liberty,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Constitution  and  of  our 
fathers;  and  we  have  maintained  that  the  children  should 
stand  where  the  fathers  did.  At  last  the  continent  has  con- 
sented. We  began  as  a  handful,  in  the  midst  of  mobs  and 
derision  and  obloquy.  We  have  gone  through  the  ex- 
perience of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary.  The  cause  of  Christ 
among  his  poor  has  suffered  as  the  Master  suffered,  again 
and  again  and  again;  and  at  last  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  North  has  been  revolutionized.  What!  revolutionized 
away  from  the  doctrines  of  the  fathers?  No;  back  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  fathers.  Revolutionized  against  our  insti- 
tutions? No;  in  favor  of  our  institutions.  We  have  taken 
simply  the  old  American  principles.  That  is  the  history 
very  simply  stated.  The  children  have  gone  back  to  the 
old  landmarks.  We  stand  for  the  doctrines  and  instru- 
ments that  the  fathers  gave  us. 

5.  The  vast  majority  of  this  nation  are  now  on  the  side 
of  our  American  institutions,  according  to  their  original 
intent.  We  ask  only  this:  that  our  government  may  be 
what  it  was  made  to  be, — an  instrument  of  justice  and 
liberty.  We  ask  no  advantages,  no  new  prerogatives,  no 
privileges  whatsoever.  We  merely  say,  "  Let  there  be  no 
intestine  revolution  in  our  institutions,  but  let  them  stand 
as  they  were  made,  and  for  the  purposes  for  which  they 
were  created."  Is  there  anything  unreasonable,  anything 
wrong  in  that?  Is  it  wrong  to  reason?  Is  it  wrong  to 
discuss  ?  Is  it  wrong  to  go  before  a  free  people  with  their 
own  business,  and,  in  the  field,  in  the  caucus,  in  the  assembly, 


2~G  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

in  all  deliberative  bodies,  to  argue  fairly,  and  express  the  re- 
sult by  the  American  means, — the  omnipotence  of  the  vote  ? 
Is  that  wrong  ?  It  is  what  we  have  been  doing  for  the  last 
few  years.  By  the  prescribed  methods  of  the  Constitution, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  it  embodied  and  evoked,  we 
have  done  our  proper  work.  Before  God  we  cleanse  our 
hands  of  all  imputation  of  designing  injustice  or  of  seek- 
ing wrong.  We  have  not  sought  any  one's  damage.  We 
have  aimed  at  no  invidious  restrictions  for  any.  We  have 
simply  said,  "  God,  through  our  fathers,  committed  to  us 
certain  institutions,  and  we  will  maintain  them  to  the  end 
of  our  lives,  and  to  the  end  of  time." 

6.  Seven  States,  however,  in  a  manner  revolutionary 
not  only  of  government,  but  in  violation  of  the  rights  and 
customs  of  their  own  people,  have  disowned  their  country 
and  made  war  upon  it !  There  has  been  a  spirit  of  patriot- 
ism in  the  North;  but  never,  within  my  memory,  in  the 
South.  I  never  heard  a  man  from  the  South  speak  of  him- 
self as  an  American.  Men  from  the  South  always  speak 
of  themselves  as  Southerners.  When  I  was  abroad, 
I  never  spoke  of  myself  as  a  Northerner,  but  always  as  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States.  I  love  our  country;  and  it  is 
a  love  of  the  country,  and  not  a  love  of  the  North  alone, 
that  pervades  the  peaple  of  the  North.  There  has  never 
been  witnessed  such  patience,  such  self-denial,  such  mag- 
nanimity, such  true  patriotism,  under  such  circumstan- 
ces, as  that  which  has  been  manifested  in  the  North. 
And  in  the  South  the  feeling  has  been  sectional,  local. 
The  people  there  have  been  proud,  not  that  they  be- 
long to  the  nation,  but  that  they  were  born  where  the 
sun  burns.  They  are  hot,  narrow,  and  boastful, — for  out 
of  China  there  is  not  so  much  conceit  as  exists  among 
them.  They  have  been  devoid  of  that  large  spirit  which 
takes  in  the  race,  and  the  nation,  and  its  institutions,  and 
its  history,  and  that  which  its  history  prophesies, — the  pre- 
rogative of  carrying  the  banner  of  liberty  to  the  Pacific 
from  the  Atlantic. 

Now,  these  States,  in  a  spirit  entirely  in  agreement  with 
their  past  developments,  have  revolutionized  and  disowned 


THE   BATTLE  SET  EY  ARRAY.  277 

the  United  States  of  America,  and  set  up  a  so-called 
government  of  their  own.  Shall  we,  now,  go  forward 
under  these  circumstances? 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  nation  there  is  a 
deliberate  and  extensive  preparation  for  war,  and  this 
country  has  received  the  deadly  thrust  of  bullet  and 
bayonet  from  the  hands  of  her  own  children.  If  we  could 
have  prevented  it,  this  should  not  have  taken  place.  But 
it  is  a  fact !  It  hath  happened  !  The  question  is  no  longer 
a  question  of  choice.  The  war  is  brought  to  us.  Shall 
we  retreat,  or  shall  we  accept  the  hard  conditions  on  which 
we  are  to  maintain  the  grounds  of  our  fathers?  Hearing 
the  voice  of  God  in  his  providence  saying,  "  Go  forward  !  " 
shall  we  go  ? 

I  go  with  those  that  go  furthest  in  describing  the  wretch- 
edness and  wickedness  and  monstrosity  of  war.  The  only 
point  on  which  I  should  probably  differ  from  any  is  this  : 
that  while  war  is  an  evil  so  presented  to  our  senses  that  we 
measure  and  estimate  it,  there  are  other  evils  just  as  great, 
and  much  more  terrible,  whose  deadly  mischiefs  have  no 
power  upon  the  senses.  I  hold  that  it  is  ten  thousand 
times  better  to  have  war  than  to  have  slavery.  I  hold  that 
to  be  corrupted  silently  by  giving  up  manhood,  by  degen- 
erating, by  becoming  cravens,  by  yielding  one  right  after 
another,  is  infinitely  worse  than  war.  Why,  war  is  resur- 
rection in  comparison  with  the  state  to  which  we  should 
be  brought  by  such  a  course.  And  although  war  is  a  ter- 
rible evil,  there  are  other  evils  that  are  more  terrible.  In 
our  own  peculiar  case,  though  I  would  say  nothing  to 
garnish  it,  nothing  to  palliate  it,  nothing  to  alleviate  it, 
nothing  to  make  you  more  willing  to  have  it,  nothing  to 
remove  the  just  abhorrence  which  every  man  and  patriot 
should  have  for  it,  yet  I  would  say  that,  in  the  particular 
condition  into  which  we  have  been  brought,  it  will  not  be 
an  unmixed  evil.  Eighty  years  of  unexampled  prosperity 
have  gone  far  toward  making  us  a  people  that  judge  of 
moral  questions  by  their  relation  to  our  convenience  and 
ease.  We  are  in  great  danger  of  becoming  a  people  that 
shall  measure  by  earthly  rules, — by  the  lowest  standard  of 


278 


PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 


a  commercial  expediency.  We  have  never  suffered  for  our 
own  principles.  And  now  if  it  please  God  to  do  that 
which  daily  we  pray  that  he  may  avert, — if  it  please  God 
to  wrap  this  nation  in  war, — one  residt  will  follow  :  we 
shall  be  called  to  suffer  for  our  faith.  We  shall  be  called  to 
the  heroism  of  doing  and  daring,  and  bearing  and  suffer- 
ing, for  the  things  which  we  believe  to  be  vital  to  the  salva- 
tion of  this  people. 

On  what  conditions,  then,  may  we  retreat  from  this  war, 
and  on  what  conditions  may  we  have  peace  ? 

i.  We  may  do  it  on  condition  that  two-thirds  of  this 
nation  shall  implicitly  yield  up  to  the  dictation  of  one- 
third.  You  can  have  peace  on  that  ground.  Italy  could 
have  had  peace  at  the  hands  of  Francis  II.  They  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  say  to  that  tyrant,  "  Here  is  my  neck, 
put  your  foot  on  it,"  to  obtain  peace.  The  people  of  Hun- 
gary may  have  peace,  if  they  will  only  say  to  him  of  Vienna, 
"  Reign  over  us  as  you  please;  our  lives  are  in  your  hands." 
There  is  never  any  trouble  in  having  peace,  if  men  will 
yield  themselves  to  the  control  of  those  that  have  no  busi- 
ness to  control  them.  Two-thirds  of  this  nation  unques- 
tionably stand  on  the  side  of  the  original  articles  of  our 
Constitution  and  in  the  service  of  liberty,  and  one-third 
deny  and  reject  them.  Now  if  the  two-thirds  will  give  up 
to  the  one-third,  we  can  have  peace — for  a  little  while. 

2.  We  can  have  peace  if  we  will  legalize  and  establish 
the  right  of  any  discontented  community  to  rebel,  and  to 
set  up  intestine  governments  within  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  Yield  that  principle,  demoralize  govern- 
ment, and  you  can  have  peace — for  a  little  while.  You 
cannot  yield  that  principle  and  not  demoralize  government. 
And  if  it  is  right  for  seven  States  on  the  Gulf  to  secede,  it 
is  the  right  of  seven  States  on  the  Lakes.  If  it  is  the  right 
of  seven  States  on  the  Lakes,  it  is  the  right  of  five  or  three 
States  on  the  Ohio  River.  If  it  is  the  right  of  a  number 
of  States,  it  is  the  right  of  one  State.  And  if  it  is  the  right 
of  any  State,  there  is  not  a  State,  a  half  of  a  State,  a 
county,  or  a  town,  that  has  not  the  same  right.  It  is  the 
right   of    disintegration.     It    is   a   right   that  aims   at   the 


THE  BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  279 

destruction  of  the  attraction  of  governmental  cohesion. 
It  is  a  right  that  invalidates  all  power  in  government.  And 
if  you  will  grant  this  right;  if  you  will  consent  to  have 
this  government  broken  up;  if  you  are  willing  that  our 
country  should  degenerate  to  the  condition  of  wrangling 
and  rival  States, — you  can  have  peace — for  a  little  while. 

3.  We  can  have  peace  if  we  will  agree  fundamentally  to 
change  our  Constitution,  and,  instead  of  maintaining  a 
charter  of  universal  freedom,  to  write  it  out  as  a  deliberate 
charter  of  oppression. 

Mr.  Stephens,  the  Vice-President  of  the  so-called  Con- 
federate States,  declared,  in  a  formal  speech,  that  our 
Constitution  was  framed  on  a  fundamental  mistake,  inas- 
much as  it  took  it  for  granted  that  men  were  born  for 
freedom  and  equality.  They  have  expunged  the  doctrine 
of  universal  liberty,  and  put  in  its  place  the  doctrine  of 
liberty  for  the  strong  and  servitude  for  the  weak.  It  is  said 
that  the  African  race,  by  reason  of  their  nationality  and 
savagism,  are  not  fit  for  liberty,  and  that  the  white  race, 
by  reason  of  their  nationality  and  civilization,  are  fit  to 
govern  them.  It  is  merely  a  plea  that  weak  persons  are 
not  fit  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that  strong  persons 
are  fit  to  take  care  of  them;  and  it  is  a  plea  that  is  just  as 
applicable  to  any  other  peoples  as  to  the  Anglo-Saxons 
and  the  Africans.  It  is  simply  a  doctrine  that  might  makes 
right.  It  may  be  stated  in  this  form:  "You  are  weak  and 
I  am  strong,  and  I  am  therefore  your  lawful  master."  If 
it  is  good  for  the  Africans  and  the  Anglo-Saxons,  it  is  good 
for  all  other  races.  And  if  it  is  good  in  reference  to  races, 
it  is  good  in  reference  to  individuals.  Therefore  there  is 
not  a  workman,  there  is  not  a  poor  man,  there  is  not  a  man 
that  is  low  in  station,  at  the  North,  who  is  not  interested  in 
this  matter,  who  is  not  touched  in  his  rights,  and  who  is 
not  insulted  by  the  spirit  that  is  latent  in  the  new  Consti- 
tution of  the  so-called  Confederate  States.  It  holds  that 
there  is  appointed  of  God  a  governing  class  and  a  class  to 
be  governed, — a  class  that  are  born  governors  because  they 
are  strong  and  smart  and  well-to-do,  and  a  class  that  are 
born  servants  because  they  are  poor  and  weak  and  unable 


2 So  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  take  care  of  themselves.  Now  take  that  glorious,  flam- 
ing sentence  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
asserts  the  right  of  every  man  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,  and  which  pronounces  that  right  to  be 
alike  inalienable  to  all, — take  that  and  strike  it  out,  and 
put  in  its  place  this  infernal  article  of  the  new  Constitution 
of  the  Southern  States,  and  you  can  have  peace — for  a 
little  while.  There  is  no  trouble  about  having  peace. 
What  an  unreasonable  people  we  are  !  If  we  will  only  pay 
enough  for  peace  we  can  have  it. 

This  diabolical  principle  is  also  deliberately  held  and 
advocated  by  the  churches  of  the  South.  The  Southern 
churches  are  all  sound  on  the  question  of  the  Bible,  and 
infidel  on  the  question  of  its  contents  !  They  believe  that 
this  is  God's  Book;  they  believe  that  this  Book  is  the 
world's  charter;  and  they  believe  that  it  teaches  the  relig- 
ion of  servitude.  Every  sermon  that  I  have  received  within 
the  last  year  from  the  South  has  been  a  various  echo  of 
this  one  atrocious  idea,  held  in  common  with  all  the  des- 
potic preachers  of  Europe.  Any  man  that  has  read  Robert 
South's  sermons,  has  read  over  and  over  again  all  the  argu- 
ments contained  in  the  raw,  jejune  productions  of  Southern 
clerical  advocates  for  oppression.  In  all  the  discussions 
between  Milton  and  Salmasius,  and  in  all  the  writings  of 
Roman  priests  that  have  sought  to  bolster  up  sacerdotal 
rule,  these  arguments  have  been  put  forth  far  more  ably 
than  our  unscholarly  Southerners  have  put  them  forth. 
But  this  is  the  ground  which  has  been  taken  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  the  South:  that  in  Christ  Jesus  all  men  are 
not  created  equal, — that  white  masters  are,  but  that  black 
servants  are  not ! 

And  that  is  not  all.  Not  only  is  this  new  government 
framed  on  this  ground,  and  not  only  have  all  the  churches 
of  the  South  taken  this  ground,  so  that  it  may  be  said  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  as  it  was  said  of  one  of  the  old 
revolted  tribes,  "They  have  a  priest  to  their  house,"  but 
there  has  just  now  been  raised  up  in  the  North  a  club  of 
the  same  kind, — a  society  for  the  promotion  of  national 
unity,  on  the  basis  of  a  change  of  our  national  instruments 


THE  BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  281 

of  government.  This  society  proposes  to  restore  peace  to 
this  country.  And  how?  Exactly  as  you  restore  uni- 
formity of  color  in  a  room  where  some  things  are  red,  some 
blue,  and  some  yellow, — by  blowing  the  light  out  so  that 
in  darkness  all  things  will  be  of  the  same  color  !  We  are 
very  much  divided  in  this  land,  one  part  believing  in  lib- 
erty, and  the  other  believing  in  servitude;  and  it  is  pro- 
posed to  bring  these  two  parts  together  in  unity,  by 
destroying  the  distinction  between  them.  What  is  this 
society's  own  statement,  as  contained  in  the  letter  which 
they  have  put  forth  with  their  articles  ?  They  make  this 
formal  assertion:  that  that  portion  of  our  original  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  which  makes  all  men  free  and  equal 
has  been  misinterpreted,  or  is  false.  They  endeavor  to 
say  it  softly,  but  it  is  a  thing  that  cannot  be  said  softly. 
To  breathe  it,  to  whisper  it,  makes  it  louder  than  thunder  ! 
Indeed,  it  is  true  that  men  are  not  physiologically  equal. 
No  man  ever  believed  that  they  were.  They  do  not  weigh 
alike.  They  differ  in  respect  to  bone  and  tissue.  They 
are  not  the  same  as  regards  mental  caliber.  Their  dynamic 
forces  are  different.  They  are  not  capable  of  exerting  the 
same  amount  of  political  influence.  In  the  nations  of  Europe 
it  was  held  that  the  royal  head,  jura  Divino,  had  privileges 
which  the  nobles  had  not;  that  there  belonged  to  the 
nobles  prerogatives  which  did  not  belong  to  the  common- 
alty; and  that  the  political  rights  of  the  great  common 
people  were  to  be  graduated  according  to  their  status  in 
society.  But  our  fathers  said,  God  gives  the  same  political 
rights  to  all  alike.  The  people  are  king,  and  the  people 
are  nobles.  They  are  equal  in  this:  that  they  all  stand 
before  the  same  law  of  justice,  and  that  justice  is  to  be  the 
same  to  one  as  to  another.  The  richest  and  the  poorest, 
the  wisest  and  the  most  ignorant,  the  highest  and  the  low- 
est, are  on  an  equality  before  the  law.  The  Declaration 
of  Independence  taught  simply  that  every  man  born  into 
life  was  born  with  such  dignities,  with  such  a  nature  con- 
ferred upon  him,  that,  as  a  child  of  God,  he  has  a  right  to 
confront  government  and  legislature  and  laws,  and  say,  "  I 
demand,  in  common  with  every  other  man,  equal  justice, 


282  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

equal  protection,  to  life,  to  liberty,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness." And  this  is  what  our  society  in  the  North  for  the 
promotion  of  national  unity  undertake,  in  their  first  article, 
to  say  is  a  lie  ! 

Now,  you  can  have  your  American  eagle  as  you  want  it. 
If,  with  the  South,  you  will  strike  out  his  eyes,  then  you 
shall  stand  well  with  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Stephens  of  the 
Confederate  States;  if,  with  the  Christians  of  the  South, 
you  will  pluck  off  his  wings,  you  shall  stand  well  with  the 
Southern  churches;  and  if,  with  the  new  peace-makers  that 
have  risen  up  in  the  North,  you  will  pull  out  his  tail- 
feathers,  you  shall  stand  well  with  the  society  for  the  pro- 
motion of  national  unity  !  But  when  you  have  stricken 
out  his  eyes  so  that  he  can  no  longer  see,  when  you  have 
plucked  off  his  wings  so  that  he  can  no  longer  fly,  and 
when  you  have  pulled  out  his  guiding  tail-feathers  so  that 
he  can  no  longer  steer  himself,  but  rolls  in  the  dirt  a  mere 
buzzard,  then  will  he  be  worth  preserving?  Such  an  eagle 
it  is  that  they  mean  to  depict  upon  the  banner  of  America  ! 

Now  if  any  man  is  fierce  for  peace,  and  is  willing  to  pay 
the  price  demanded  for  it,  he  can  have  it.  On  those  condi- 
tions you  can  have  peace  as  long  as  the  Jews  did.  For  three 
guilty  days  they  were  rid  of  the  Saviour,  and  then  he  rose 
from  the  grave,  with  eternal  power  on  his  head,  and  be- 
yond all  touch  of  weakness  or  death,  then  ascended  on 
high  to  the  Source  of  eternal  power,  there  to  live,  and  to 
live  forever ! 

4.  We  must  accordingly,  if  we  go  on  to  purchase  peace 
on  these  terms,  become  partners  in  slavery,  and  consent, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  ratify  this  gigantic  evil.  We  can- 
not wink  at  it.  We  are  called  to  bear  overt  witness  either 
for  or  against  it.  Every  State  in  this  Union,  according  to 
the  new  Constitution,  must  be  open  to  slavery.  It  is  the 
design  of  not  a  few  men  at  the  North  to  make  this  the 
issue  at  the  next  election:  whether  we  shall  not  reconstruct 
this  government  according  to  the  Constitution  of  the  Con- 
federate States,  one  feature  of  which  is  that  slavery  shall 
have  liberty  to  go  wherever  it  pleases, — that  slavery  shall 
have  the  right  of  incursion  to  any  part  of  this  country.     If 


THE  BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  283 

you  consent  to  such  a  reconstruction  as  is  proposed,  you 
must  open  every  one  of  your  States  to  the  incoming  of 
slavery.  Not  only  that,  but  every  territory  on  this  continent 
is  to  be  opened  to  slavery.  We  are  called  to  take  the  exec- 
utive lancet,  and  the  virus  of  slavery,  and  lift  up  the  arm 
of  this  virgin  continent  and  inoculate  it  with  this  terrific 
poison.  If  you  will  do  these  things,  you  are  to  be  per- 
mitted to  escape  war. 

5.  Next  in  order  must  of  course  be  silence.  When  we 
have  gone  so  far,  we  shall  no  longer  have  any  right  of  dis- 
cussion, of  debate,  of  criticism, — we  shall  no  longer  have 
any  right  of  agitation,  as  it  is  called. 

On  these  conditions  we  may  have  peace.  If  we  reject 
these  conditions  we  are  to  have  separation,  demoralization 
of  government,  and  war. 

Now  are  you  prepared  to  take  peace  on  these  conditions  ? 
You  will  not  get  it  on  any  other  conditions.  If  you  have 
peace,  you  are  to  stigmatize  the  whole  history  of  the  past; 
you  are  to  yield  your  religious  convictions;  you  are  to  give 
over  the  government  into  the  hands  of  factious  revolution- 
ists; you  are  to  suppress  every  manly  sentiment,  and  every 
sympathy  for  the  oppressed.  Will  you  take  peace  on  such  a 
ground  as  that?  So  far  as  I  myself  am  concerned,  I  utterly 
abhor  peace  on  any  such  grounds.  Give  me  war  redder  than 
blood,  and  fiercer  than  fire,  if  this  terrific  infliction  is  nec- 
essary that  I  may  maintain  my  faith  of  God  in  human 
liberty,  my  faith  of  the  fathers  in  the  instruments  of  liberty, 
my  faith  in  this  land  as  the  appointed  abode  and  chosen 
refuge  of  liberty  for  all  the  earth  !  War  is  terrible,  but  that 
abyss  of  ignominy  is  yet  more  terrible  ! 

What,  then,  if  we  will  go  forward  in  the  providence  of 
God,  and  maintain  our  integrity,  are  the  steps  that  are 
before  us  ? 

1.  Instead  of  yielding  our  convictions,  it  is  time  to 
cleanse  them,  to  deepen  them,  to  give  them  more  power, 
to  make  them  more  earnest  and  more  religious.  There  is 
no  reason,  now,  why  we  should  compromise.  There  is 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  compromising.  And  it  is  time 
that  parents  should  talk   on  the  great  doctrine  of  human 


284  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

rights  in  the  family,  and  indoctrinate  their  children  with 
an  abhorrence  for  slavery,  and  a  love  for  liberty.  It  is 
time  for  schools  to  have  their  scholars  instructed  in  these 
matters.  It  is  time  for  ever)'-  church  to  make  its  pews 
flame  and  glow  with  enthusiasm  for  freedom,  and  with 
hatred  for  oppression.  While  the  air  of  the  South  is  full 
of  pestilent  doctrines  of  slavery,  accursed  be  our  com- 
munities if  we  will  not  be  as  zealous  and  enthusiastic  for 
liberty  as  they  are  against  it !  If  their  air  is  filled  with  the 
storm  and  madness  of  oppression,  let  ours  be  full  of  the 
sweet  peace  and  love  of  liberty  ! 

2.  We  must  draw  the  lines.  A  great  many  men  have 
been  on  both  sides.  A  great  many  men  have  been  thrown 
backward  and  forward,  like  a  shuttle,  from  one  side  to  the 
other.  It  is  now  time  for  every  man  to  choose  one  side  or 
the  other.  We  want  no  shufflers;  we  want  no  craven  cow- 
ards; we  want  men;  we  want  every  man  to  stand  forth, 
and  say,  "  I  am  for  liberty,  and  the  Constitution,  and  the 
country,  as  our  fathers  gave  them  to  us,"  or  else,  "  I  am 
against  them." 

Thousands,  thank  God,  of  great  men  have  spoken  to  us; 
but  I  think  that  the  war-voice  of  Sumter  has  done,  more  to 
bring  men  together,  and  to  produce  unity  of  feeling  among 
them  on  this  subject,  than  the  most  eloquent-tongued 
orator. 

We  must  say  in  this  matter,  my  friends,  as  Christ  said, 
"  He  that  is  not  for  us  is  against  us."  I  will  have  no  com- 
merce, I  will  not  cross  palms  with  a  man  that  disowns 
liberty  in  such  a  struggle  as  is  before  us  !  I  will  not  give 
him  shelter  or  house-room — except  as  a  convicted  sinner; 
then  I  will  take  him,  as  the  prodigal  was  taken,  in  his 
rags  and  nakedness  !  But  so  long  as  he  stands  up  with 
impudent  face  against  the  things  that  are  dearest  to  God's 
heart,  and  dearest  to  the  instincts  of  this  people,  I  shall 
treat  him  as  what  he  is, — a  traitor  !  There  ought  to  be  but 
one  feeling  in  the  North,  and  that  ought  to  be  a  feeling 
for  liberty,  which  should  sweep  through  the  land  like  a 
mighty  wind. 

3.  We  must  not  stop  to  measure  costs, — especially  the 


THE   BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  285 

costs  of  going  forward, — on  any  basis  so  mean  and  narrow 
as  that  of  pecuniary  prosperity.  We  must  put  our  honor 
and  religion  into  this  struggle.  God  is  helping  you;  for, 
no  matter  how  much  you  deplore  the  state  of  things,  you 
cannot  help  yourselves.  You  may  take  counsel  with  your 
Till  and  Safe  and  Bank,  you  may  look  at  your  accounts  on 
both  sides,  but  your  talking  and  looking  will  make  no 
difference  with  your  affairs.  The  time  is  past  in  which 
these  things  could  be  of  any  avail.  This  matter  must  now 
be  settled.  You  must  have  a  part  in  settling  it.  The  ques- 
tion is  whether  that  shall  be  a  manly  or  an  ignoble  part ! 

There  are  many  reasons  which  make  a  good  and  thorough 
battle  necessary.  The  Southern  men  are  infatuated. 
They  will  not  have  peace.  They  are  in  arms.  They  have 
fired  upon  the  American  flag  !  That  glorious  banner  has 
been  borne  through  every  climate,  all  over  the  globe,  and 
for  fifty  years  not  a  land  or  people  has  been  found  to  scorn 
it,  or  dishonor  it.  At  home,  among  the  degenerate  people 
of  our  own  land,  among  Southern  citizens,  for  the  first 
time,  has  this  glorious  national  flag  been  abased,  and 
trampled  to  the  ground  !  It  is  for  our  sons  reverently  to 
lift  it,  and  to  bear  it  full  high  again, to  victory  and  national 
supremacy  !  Our  arms,  in  this  peculiar  exigency,  can  lay 
the  foundation  of  future  union,  in  mutual  respect.  The 
South  firmly  believes  that  cowardice  is  the  universal  attri- 
bute of  Northern  men  !  Until  they  are  most  thoroughly 
convinced  to  the  contrary,  they  will  never  cease  arrogancy 
and  aggression.  But  if  now  it  please  God  to  crown  our 
arms  with  victory,  we  shall  have  gone  far  toward  impressing 
Southern  men  with  salutary  respect.  Good  soldiers,  brave 
men,  hard  fighting,  will  do  more  toward  quiet  than  all  the 
compromises  and  empty,  wagging  tongues  in  the  world. 
Our  reluctance  to  break  peace,  our  unwillingness  to  shed 
blood,  our  patience,  have  all  been  misinterpreted.  The  more 
we  have  been  generous  and  forbearing,  the  more  thoroughly 
were  they  sure  that  it  was  because  we  dared  not  fight ! 

With  the  North  is  the  strength,  the  population,  the 
courage.  There  is  not  elsewhere  on  this  continent  that 
breadth  of  courage — the  courage  of  a  man  in  distinction 


2  86  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

from  the  courage  of  a  brute  beast — which  there  is  in  the 
free  States  of  the  North.  It  was  General  Scott  who  said 
that  the  New  Englanders  were  the  hardest  to  get  into  a 
fight,  and  the  most  terrible  to  meet  in  a  conflict,  of  any 
men  on  the  globe. 

We  have  no  braggart  courage;  we  have  no  courage  that 
rushes  into  an  affray  for  the  love  of  fighting.  We  have 
that  courage  which  comes  from  calm  intelligence.  We 
have  that  courage  which  comes  from  broad  moral  senti- 
ment. We  have  no  anger,  but  we  have  indignation.  We 
have  no  irritable  passion,  but  we  have  fixed  will.  We  re- 
gard war  and  contest  as  terrible  evils;  but  when,  detesting 
them  as  we  do,  we  are  roused  to  enter  into  them,  our 
courage  will  be  of  the  measure  of  our  detestation.  You 
may  be  sure  that  the  cause  which  can  stir  up  the  feelings 
of  the  North  sufficiently  to  bring  them  into  such  a  conflict, 
will  develop  in  them  a  courage  that  will  be  terrific  to  the 
men  who  have  to  meet  it.  I  could  wish  no  worse  punish- 
ment to  those  that  decry  the  courage  of  the  North,  than 
that  they  shall  have  to  meet  her  when  she  is  once  brought 
out  and  fairly  in  the  field. 

4.  We  must  aim  at  a  peace  built  on  foundations  so  solid, 
of  God's  immutable  truth,  that  nothing  can  reach  to  un- 
settle it.  Let  this  conflict  between  liberty  and  slavery 
never  come  up  again.  Better  have  it  thoroughly  settled, 
though  it  take  a  score  of  years  to  settle  it,  than  to  have  an 
intermittent  fever  for  the  next  century,  breaking  out  at 
every  five  or  ten  years.  It  is  bad,  you  say.  That  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  point.  Your  house  is  on  fire,  and 
the  question  is,  What  will  you  do  ?  You  are  in  the  struggle, 
and  the  question  is,  Will  you  go  through  it  in  the  spirit  of 
your  ancestors,  in  the  spirit  of  Christians  and  patriots,  in 
the  spirit  that  belongs  to  the  age  of  the  world  in  which 
you  live,  and  settle  it  so  that  it  shall  not  be  in  the  power 
of  mischief  to  unsettle  it?  Or  will  you  dally  ?  Will  you 
delay?  I  know  which  you  will  do.  This  question  is  now 
going  forward  to  a  settlement. 

5.  Let  not  our  feelings  be  vengeful  nor  savage.  We  can 
go.  into  this  conflict  with  a  spirit  just  as  truly  Christian  as 


THE  BATTLE  SET  IN  ARRAY.  28 7 

any  that  ever  inspired  us  in  the  performance  of  a  Christian 
duty.  Indignation  is  very  different  from  anger;  con- 
science from  revenge.  Let  the  spirit  of  fury  be  far  from 
us;  but  a  spirit  of  earnestness,  of  willingness  to  do,  to 
suffer,  and  to  die,  if  need  be,  for  our  land  and  our  princi- 
ples,— that  may  be  a  religious  spirit.  We  may  consecrate 
it  with  prayer. 

All  through  the  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  men  there 
were  that  preached  on  the  Sabbath,  and  when  not  preach- 
ing went  from  tent  to  tent  and  performed  kind  offices  to 
those  that  were  sick  or  wounded,  cheered  those  that  were 
in  despondency,  encouraged  those  whose  trials  were  severe, 
and  led  or  accompanied  their  brethren  to  those  conflicts 
which  achieved  liberty. 

I  believe  that  the  old  spirit  will  be  found  yet  in  the 
Church;  and  that  in  that  patriotism  which  dares  to  do  as 
well  as  teach,  laymen  and  officers  and  pastors  will  be  found 
no  whit  behind  the  Revolutionary  day. 

It  is  trying  to  live  in  suspense,  to  be  in  the  tormenting 
whirl  of  rumor,  now  to  see  the  banner  up,  and  now  to  see 
it  trailing  in  the  dust.  Early  yesterday  things  seemed 
inauspicious.  Toward  evening  all  appeared  calm  and  fair. 
To-day  disastrous  and  depressing  rumors  were  current. 
This  evening  I  came  hither  sad  from  the  tidings  that  that 
stronghold  which  seemed  to  guard  the  precious  name 
and  lasting  fame  of  the  noble  and  gallant  Anderson  had 
been  given  up;  but  since  I  came  into  this  desk  I  have  received 
a  dispatch  from  one  of  our  most  illustrious  citizens,  saying 
that  Sumter  is  reinforced,  and  that  Moultrie  is  the  fort  that 
has  been  destroyed.  {Tremendous  and  prolonged  applause, 
expressed  by  enthusiastic  cheers,  clapping  of  hands,  and  waving 
of  handkerchiefs^  But  what  if  the  rising  sun  to-morrow 
should  reverse  the  message  ?  What  if  the  tidings  that 
greet  you  in  the  morning  should  be  but  the  echo  of  the  old 
tidings  of  disaster?  You  live  in  hours  in  which  )Tou  are  to 
suffer  suspense.  Now  lifted  up,  you  will  be  prematurely 
cheering,  and  now  cast  down,  you  will  be  prematurely 
desponding.  Look  forward,  then,  past  the  individual  steps, 
the  various  vicissitudes  of  experience,  to  the  glorious  end 


288  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

that  is  coming  !  Look  beyond  the  present  to  that  assured 
victory  which  awaits  us  in  the  future. 

Young  men,  you  will  live  to  see  more  auspicious  days. 
Later  sent,  delayed  in  your  voyage  into  life,  you  will  see 
the  bright  consummation,  in  part  at  least,  of  that  victory  of 
this  land,  by  which,  with  mortal  throes,  it  shall  cast  out 
from  itself  all  morbific  influences,  and  cleanse  itself  from 
slavery.  And  you  that  are  in  middle  life  shall  see  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  advancing  beyond  anything  that  you  have 
yet  known.  The  scepter  shall  not  depart.  The  govern- 
ment shall  not  be  shaken  from  its  foundations. 

Let  no  man,  then,  in  this  time  of  peril,  fail  to  associate 
himself  with  that  cause  which  is  to  be  so  entirely  glorious. 
Let  not  your  children,  as  they  carry  you  to  )rour  burial,  be 
ashamed  to  write  upon  your  tombstone  the  truth  of  your 
history.  Let  every  man  that  lives  and  owns  himself  an 
American,  take  the  side  of  true  American  principles; — 
liberty  for  one,  and  liberty  for  all;  liberty  now,  and  liberty 
forever;  liberty  as  the  foundation  of  government,  and 
liberty  as  the  basis  of  union;  liberty  as  against  revolution, 
liberty,  against  anarchy,  and  liberty,  against  slavery;  liberty 
here,  and  liberty  everywhere,  the  world  through  ! 

When  the  trumpet  of  God  has  sounded,  and  that  grand 
procession  is  forming;  as  Italy  has  risen,  and  is  wheeling 
into  the  ranks;  as  Hungary,  though  mute,  is  beginning  to 
beat  time,  and  make  ready  for  the  march;  as  Poland, 
having  long  slept,  has  dreamt  of  liberty  again,  and  is  wak- 
ing; as  the  thirty  million  serfs  are  hearing  the  roll  of  the 
drum,  and  are  going  forward  toward  citizenship, — let  it  not 
be  your  miserable  fate,  nor  mine,  to  live  in  a  nation  that 
shall  be  seen  reeling  and  staggering  and  wallowing  in  the 
orgies  of  despotism  ?  We,  too,  have  a  right  to  march  in 
this  grand  procession  of  liberty.  By  the  memory  of  the 
fathers;  by  the  sufferings  of  the  Puritan  ancestry;  by  the 
teaching  of  our  national  history;  by  our  faith  and  hope  of 
religion;  by  every  line  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  every  article  of  our  Constitution;  by  what  we  are  and 
what  our  progenitors  were, — we  have  a  right  to  walk  fore- 
most in  this  procession  of  nations  toward  the  bright  future 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.' 


"  Thou  hast  given  a  banner  to  them  that  fear  thee,  that  it  may  be  dis- 
played because  of  the  truth." — Psalms  Ix.  4. 


From  the  earliest  periods  nations  seem  to  have  gone 
forth  to  war  under  some  banner.  Sometimes  it  has  been 
merely  the  pennon  of  a  leader,  and  was  only  a  rallying 
signal.  So,  doubtless,  began  the  habit  of  carrying  banners, 
to  direct  men  in  the  confusion  of  conflict,  that  the  leader 
might  gather  his  followers  around  him  when  he  himself 
was  liable  to  be  lost  out  of  their  sight. 

Later  in  the  history  of  nations  the  banner  acquired  other 
uses  and  peculiar  significance  from  the  parties,  the  orders, 
the  houses,  or  governments,  that  adopted  it.  At  length, 
as  consolidated  governments  drank  up  into  themselves  all 
these  lesser  independent  authorities,  banners  became  sig- 
nificant chiefly  of  national  authority.  And  thus  in  our  day 
every  people  has  its  peculiar  flag.  There  is  no  civilized 
nation  without  its  banner. 

A  thoughtful  mind,  when  it  sees  a  nation's  flag,  sees  not 
the  flag,  but  the  nation  itself.  And  whatever  may  be  its 
symbols,  its  insignia,  he  reads  chiefly  in  the  flag  the  gov- 
ernment, the  principles,  the  truths,  the  history,  that  belong 
to  the  nation  that  sets  it  forth.  When  the  French  tricolor 
rolls  out  to  the  wind,  we  see  France.  When  the  new-found 
Italian  flag  is  unfurled,  we  see  resurrected  Italy.  When 
the  other  three-colored  Hungarian  flag  shall  be  lifted  to 
the  wind,  we  shall  see  in  it  the  long  buried,  but  never  dead, 
principles  of  Hungarian  liberty.  When  the  united  crosses 
of  St.  Andrew  and  St.  George,  on  a  fiery  ground,  set  forth 

*  Delivered  to  two  companies  of   the  "  Brooklyn  Fourteenth,"  many  of 
them  members  of   Plymouth  Church.      The  Church  on  that  day  contrib- 
uted $3,000  to  aid  in  the  equipment  of  this  Regiment. 
«9 


290  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  banner  of  Old  England,  we  see  not  the  cloth  merely: 
there  rises  up  before  the  mind  the  idea  of  that  great 
monarchy. 

This  nation  has  a  banner,  too ;  and  until  recently  wherever 
it  streamed  abroad  men  saw  day-break  bursting  on  their 
eyes.  For  until  lately  the  American  flag  has  been  a  sym- 
bol of  Liberty,  and  men  rejoiced  in  it.  Not  another  flag 
on  the  globe  had  such  an  errand,  or  went  forth  upon  the 
sea  carrying  everywhere,  the  world  around,  such  hope  to 
the  captive,  and  such  glorious  tidings.  The  stars  upon  it 
were  to  the  pining  nations  like  the  bright  morning  stars  of 
God,  and  the  stripes  upon  it  were  beams  of  morning  light. 
As  at  early  dawn  the  stars  shine  forth  even  while  it  grows 
light,  and  then  as  the  sun  advances  that  light  breaks  into 
banks  and  streaming  lines  of  color,  the  glowing  red  and 
intense  white  striving  together,  and  ribbing  the  horizon 
with  bars  effulgent,  so,  on  the  American  flag,  stars  and 
beams  of  many-colored  light  shine  out  together.  And 
wherever  this  flag  comes,  and  men  behold  it,  they  see  in 
its  sacred  emblazonry  no  ramping  lion,  and  no  fierce  eagle; 
no  embattled  castles,  or  insignia  of  imperial  authority; 
they  see  the  symbols  of  light.  It  is  the  banner  of  Dawn. 
It  means  Liberty;  and  the  galley-slave,  the  poor,  oppressed 
conscript,  the  trodden-down  creature  of  foreign  despotism, 
sees  in  the  American  flag  that  very  promise  and  prediction 
of  God, — "The  people  which  sat  in  darkness  saw  a  great 
light;  and  to  them  which  sat  in  the  region  and  shadow  of 
death  light  is  sprung  up." 

Is  this  a  mere  fancy  ?  On  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  the  Declara- 
tion of  American  Independence  was  confirmed  and  promul- 
gated. Already  for  more  than  a  year  the  Colonies  had 
been  at  war  with  the  mother  country.  But  until  this  time 
there  had  been  no  American  flag.  The  flag  of  the  mother 
country  covered  us  during  all  our  colonial  period;  and 
each  State  that  chose  had  a  separate  and  significant  State 
banner. 

In  1777,  within  a  few  days  of  one  year  after  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  two  years  and  more  after  the 
war  began,  upon   the  14th  of  June,  the  Congress  of  the 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.  291 

Colonies,  or  the  Confederated  States,  assembled,  and 
ordained  this  glorious  National  Flag  which  now  we  hold 
and  defend,  and  advanced  it  full  high  before  God  and  all 
men,  as  the  Flag  of  Liberty.  It  was  no  holiday  flag,  gor- 
geously emblazoned  for  gayety  or  vanity.  It  was  a  solemn 
national  signal.  When  that  banner  first  unrolled  to  the 
sun,  it  was  the  symbol  of  all  those  holy  truths  and  pur- 
poses which  brought  together  the  Colonial  American 
Congress  ! 

Consider  the  men  who  devised  and  set  forth  this  banner. 
The  Rutledges,  the  Pinckneys,  the  Jays,  the  Franklins,  the 
Hamiltons,  the  Jeffersons,  the  Adamses, — these  men  were 
all  either  officially  connected  with  it  or  consulted  concern- 
ing it.  They  were  men  that  had  taken  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  and  consecrated  all  their  worldly  possessions — for 
what?  For  the  doctrines,  and  for  the  personal  fact,  of 
liberty, — for  the  right  of  all  men  to  liberty.  They  had  just 
given  forth  to  the  world  a  Declaration  of  Facts  and  Faiths 
out  of  which  sprung  the  Constitution,  and  on  which  they 
now  planted  this  new-devised  flag  of  our  Union. 

If  one,  then,  asks  me  the  meaning  of  our  flag,  I  say  to 
him,  It  means  just  what  Concord  and  Lexington  meant, 
what  Bunker  Hill  meant;  it  means  the  whole  glorious  Rev- 
olutionary War,  which  was,  in  short,  the  rising  up  of  a 
valiant  young  people  against  an  old  tyranny,  to  establish 
the  most  momentous  doctrine  that  the  world  had  ever 
known,  or  has  since  known, — the  right  of  men  to  their  own 
selves  and  to  their  liberties. 

In  solemn  conclave  our  fathers  had  issued  to  the  world 
that  glorious  manifesto,  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
A  little  later,  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  liberty 
might  have  the  best  organization,  they  gave  to  this  land 
our  imperishable  Constitution.  Our  flag  means,  then,  all 
that  our  fathers  meant  in  the  Revolutionary  War;  it  means 
all  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  meant;  it  means 
all  that  the  Constitution  of  our  people,  organizing  for 
justice,  for  liberty,  and  for  happiness,  meant.  Our  flag 
carries  American  ideas,  American  history  and  American 
feelings.     Beginning  with  the  Colonies,  and  coming  down 


292  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  our  time,  in  its  sacred  heraldry,  in  its  glorious  insignia, 
it  has  gathered  and  stored  chiefly  this  supreme  idea: 
Divine  right  of  liberty  in  man.  Every  color  means  liberty; 
every  thread  means  liberty;  every  form  of  star  and  beam 
or  stripe  of  light  means  liberty:  not  lawlessness,  not  li- 
cense; but  organized,  institutional  liberty, — liberty  through 
law,  and  laws  for  liberty  ! 

This  American  flag  was  the  safeguard  of  liberty.  Not 
an  atom  of  crown  was  allowed  to  go  into  its  insignia.  Not 
a  symbol  of  authority  in  the  ruler  was  permitted  to  go 
into  it.  It  was  an  ordinance  of  liberty  by  the  people  for 
the  people.  That  it  meant,  that  it  means,  and,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  that  it  shall  mean  to  the  end  of  time  ! 

For  God  Almighty  be  thanked  !  that,  when  base  and  de- 
generate Southern  men  desired  to  set  up  a  nefarious  op- 
pression, at  war  with  every  legend  and  every  instinct  of 
old  American  history,  they  could  not  do  it  under  our 
bright  flag  !  Its  stars  smote  them  with  light  like  arrows 
shot  from  the  bow  of  God.  They  must  have  another  flag 
for  such  work;  and  they  forged  an  infamous  flag  to  do  an 
infamous  work,  and,  God  be  blessed  !  left  our  bright  and 
starry  banner  untainted  and  untouched  by  disfigurement 
and  disgrace  !  I  thank  them  that  they  took  another  flag 
to  do  the  Devil's  work,  and  left  our  flag  to  do  the  work  of 
God  !  [Applause.]  So  may  it  ever  be,  that  men  that 
would  forge  oppression  shall  be  obliged  to  do  it  under 
some  other  banner  than  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

If  ever  the  sentiment  of  our  text,  then,  was  fulfilled,  it 
has  been  in  our  glorious  American  banner: 

"  Thou  hast  given  a  banner  to  them  that  fear  thee." 

Our  fathers  were  God-fearing  men.  Into  their  hands 
God  committed  this  banner,  and  they  have  handed  it  down 
to  us.  And  I  thank  God  that  it  is  still  in  the  hands  of 
men  that  fear  him  and  love  righteousness. 

"  Thou  hast  given  a  banner  to  them  that  fear  thee,  that 
it  may  be  displayed." 

And  displayed  it  shall  be.  Advanced  full  against  the 
morning  light,  and  borne  with  the  growing  and  glowing 
day,  it  shall  take   the  last  ruddy  beams  of  the  night,  and 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.  293 

from  the  Atlantic  wave,  clear  across  with  eagle  flight  to 
the  Pacific,  that  banner  shall  float,  meaning  all  the  liberty 
which  it  has  ever  meant !  From  the  North,  where  snows 
and  mountain  ice  stand  solitary,  clear  to  the  glowing 
tropics  and  the  Gulf,  that  banner  that  has  hitherto  waved 
shall  wave  and  wave  forever, — every  star,  every  band, 
every  thread  and  fold  significant  of  Liberty  !  \Great  ap- 
plause.] 

[The  speaker  paused  to  check  the  too  demonstrative  enthusiasm 
of  the  audience,  and  continued:]  I  do  not  doubt  your  patriot- 
ism. I  know  it  is  hard  for  men  that  are  full  of  feeling  not 
to  give  expression  to  it;  yet  excuse  me  if  I  request  you  to 
refrain  from  demonstrations  of  applause  while  I  am  speak- 
ing. It  is  not  because  I  think  Sunday  too  good  a  day,  nor 
the  church  too  holy  a  place  for  patriotic  Christian  men  to 
express  their  feelings  at  such  a  time  as  this,  and  in  behalf 
of  such  sentiments,  but  because  by  too  frequent  repetition 
applause  becomes  stale  and  common,  that  I  make  this  re- 
quest. Besides,  outward  expression  is  not  our  way.  We 
are  rather  of  a  silent  stock.  We  let  our  feelings  work  in- 
wardly, so  that  they  may  have  deeper  channels  and  fuller 
floods. 

"  Thou  hast  given  a  banner  to  them  that  fear  thee,  that 
it  may  be  displayed  because  of  the  truth." 

Because  of  that  very  truth  we  will  display  it !  Not  in 
mere  national  pride,  not  in  any  wantonness  of  vanity,  not 
merely  because  we  have  been  reared  to  honor  it,  not  be- 
cause we  have  an  hereditary  reverence  for  it,  but  with  a 
full  intelligence  of  what  it  is  and  what  it  means,  and  be- 
cause we  love  the  truth  that  is  written  in  lines  of  living 
light  all  over  it,  we  will  advance  it  and  maintain  it  against 
all  comers  from  earth  and  hell. 

The  history  of  this  banner  is  all  on  the  side  of  rational 
liberty.  Under  it  rode  Washington  and  his  armies, — 
Washington,  much  beloved  and  much  abused  by  those  that 
are  his  eulogists,  who  have  described  all  that  he  was  ex- 
cept his  love  of  liberty,  which  has  been  forgotten.  But 
Washington  would  be  like  a  man  without  a  heart,  if  you 
left  out  of  him  that  high,  almost  imperial   chivalric  love  of 


294  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

liberty  for  every  human  being.  Under  this  banner  rode  he 
and  his  armies.  Before  it  Burgoyne  laid  down  his  arms. 
It  waved  on  the  highlands  at  West  Point.  It  floated  over 
old  Fort  Montgomery,  as  over  another  Montgomery*  it 
shall  float  !  When  Arnold  would  have  surrendered  these 
valuable  fortresses  and  precious  legacies,  his  night  was 
turned  into  day,  and  his  treachery  was  driven  away,  by 
the  beams  of  light  from  this  starry  banner.  It  cheered 
our  army,  driven  out  from  around  New  York,  and  in 
their  painful  pilgrimages  through  New  Jersey.  Sacred 
State  of  New  Jersey  !  small,  but  comely  and  rich  and  im- 
perishable in  the  drops  of  precious  blood  that  have  re- 
deemed her  sainted  soil  from  barrenness.  In  New  Jersey 
more  than  in  almost  every  other  State  grows  the  trail  ins- 
arbutus.  Methinks  it  is  sacred  drops  of  Pilgrim  blood  that 
come  forth  in  beauteous  flowers  on  this  sandiest  of  soils, 
for  this  sweet  blossom  that  lays  its  cheek  on  the  very  snow 
is  the  true  Pilgrim's  Mayflower  !  This  banner  streamed  in 
light  over  the  soldiers'  heads  at  Valley  Forge  and  at  Mor- 
ristown.  It  crossed  the  waters  rolling  with  ice  at  Trenton, 
and  when  its  stars  gleamed  in  the  cold  morning  with 
victory,  a  new  day  of  hope  dawned  on  the  despondency  of 
this  nation.  When  South  Carolina,  in  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  utterly  forgot  what  she  never  well  remembered, 
courage  and  personal  liberty,  and  yielded  herself, — the 
only  one,  ignominious  and  infamous,  of  all  the  Revolution- 
ary band  of  States,  that  gave  in  an  adhesion  again  to  the 
British  government, — when  she  forgot  courage  and  per- 
sonal liberty,  and  yielded  herself  up,  and  made  her  peace, 
solitary  and  alone,  with  British  generals,  then  it  was  this 
banner  that  led  on  the  Virginia  forces  who  conquered  both 
the  British  and  Carolinian  armies,  and  brought  the  State 
again  into  our  confederacy.  Alas  that  the  head  should 
become  the  tail  !  Alas  that  old  Virginia,  that  brought 
back  the  recreant  South  Carolina,  should  be  tied  to,  and 
be  dragged  about  the  rebel  camp  at  the  tail  of  that  same 
South  Carolina  ! 


*At  that  time  Montgomery,  Alabama,  was  the   capital  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  afterwards  removed  to  Richmond,  Virginia. 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.  295 

And  when  at  length  the  long  years  of  war  were  drawing 
to  a  close,  underneath  the  folds  of  this  immortal  banner 
sat  Washington,  while  Yorktown  surrendered  its  hosts, 
and  our  Revolutionary  struggle  ended  with  victory. 

It  waved  thus  over  that  whole  historic  period  of  struggle, 
and  over  the  period  in  which  sat  that  immortal  Conven- 
tion that  framed  our  Constitution.  It  cheered  the  hardy 
pioneers  who  then  began  to  go  forth  and  explore  the 
Western  wilds,  in  all  their  desperate  strifes  with  savage 
Indians.  It  was  to  them  a  memorial  and  symbol  of  com- 
fort. Our  States  grew  up  under  it.  And  when  our  ships 
began  to  swarm  upon  the  ocean,  to  carry  forth  our  com- 
merce, and,  inspired  by  the  genial  flame  of  liberty,  to  carry 
forth  our  ideas,  and  Great  Britain  arrogantly  demanded 
the  right  to  intrude  her  search-warrants  upon  American 
decks,  then  up  went  the  lightning  flag,  and  every  star 
meant  liberty  and  every  stripe  streamed  defiance. 

The  gallant  fleet  of  Lake  Erie, — have  you  forgotten  it? 
The  thunders  that  echoed  to  either  shore  were  over- 
shadowed by  this  broad  ensign  of  our  American  liberty. 
Those  glorious  men  that  went  forth  in  the  old  ship  Con- 
stitution carried  this  banner  to  battle  and  to  victory.  The 
old  ship  is  alive  yet.  The  new  traitors  of  the  South  could 
not  burn  her;  they  did  not  sink  her;  and  she  has  been 
hauled  out  of  the  reach  of  hostile  hands  and  traitorous 
bands.  Bless  the  name,  bless  the  ship,  bless  her  historic 
memory,  and  bless  the  old  flag  that  waves  over  her  yet  ! 

The  Perrys,  the  Lawrences,  the  Biddies,  the  McDon- 
oughs,  the  Porters,  and  a  host  of  others  whose  names 
cannot  die, — do  you  forget  that  they  fought  under  this 
national  banner,  and  fought  for  liberty  ? 

How  glorious,  then,  has  been  its  origin!  How  glorious 
has  been  its  history  ?  How  divine  is  its  meaning  !  In  all 
the  world  is  there  another  banner  that  carries  such  hope, 
such  grandeur  of  spirit,  such  soul-inspiring  truth,  as  our 
dear  old  American  flag?  made  by  liberty,  made  for  liberty, 
nourished  in  its  spirit,  carried  in  its  service,  and  never,  not 
once  in  all  the  earth,  made  to  stoop  to  despotism!  Never, 
— did  I  say  ?     Alas  !     Only  to  that  worst  despotism,  South- 


296  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ern  slavery,  has  it  bowed.  Remember,  every  one  of  you, 
that  the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  alone  of  all  the  world, 
have  put  their  feet  upon  the  American  flag ! 

And  now  this  banner  has  been  put  on  trial !  It  has  been 
condemned.  For  what?  Has  it  failed  of  duty?  Has 
liberty  lost  color  by  it  ?  Have  moths  of  oppression  eaten 
its  folds  ?  Has  it  refused  to  shine  on  freemen  and  given 
its  light  to  despots?  No.  It  has  been  true,  brave,  loyal. 
It  has  become  too  much  a  banner  of  liberty  for  men  who 
mean  and  plot  despotism.  Remember,  citizen  !  remember, 
Christian  soldier  !  the  American  flag  has  been  fired  upon 
by  Americans,  and  trodden  down  because  it  stood  in  the 
way  of  slavery  !  This  is  all  that  you  have  reaped  for  your 
long  patience,  for  your  many  compromises,  for  your  gen- 
erous trust  and  your  Christian  forbearance  !  You  may 
now  see  through  all  the  South  just  what  kind  of  patriotism 
slavery  breeds  !  East  of  the  mountains  I  suppose  you  might 
travel  through  all  Washington's  State  and  not  see  one  star 
nor  one  stripe.  Thank  God,  Washington  is  dead,  and  has 
no*t  lived  to  see  the  infamy  and  the  disgrace  that  have  fallen 
upon  that  recreant  State  !  In  all  North  Carolina  I  fear 
you  shall  find  not  one  American  flag.  In  Florida  you  shall 
not  find  one.  In  Georgia,  I  know  not,  except  in  the 
mountain  fastnesses,  if  there  be  one.  With  a  like  excep- 
tion, there  is  not  one  in  Alabama.  Neither  is  there  one  in 
repudiating  Mississippi,  nor  in  Louisiana,  nor  in  Texas, 
ungrateful,  nor  in  Arkansas.  In  all  this  waste  and  wilder- 
ness of  States  this  banner  has  gone  down,  and  a  miserable 
counterfeit,  a  poor  forgery,  has  been  run  up  upon  the  rec- 
reant pole,  to  stand  in  the  stead  of  the  glorious  old  Revolu- 
tionary, historic  American  flag  !  And  how  is  it  in  the  great 
middle  brood  of  States  ?  As  a  star  is  obscured  for  an  in- 
stant by  a  passing  cloud,  and  then  shines  forth  again,  so  in 
Maryland  the  flag  and  its  stars  were  hid  for  a  day,  but  they 
now  flame  out  once  more.  Maryland  is  safe.  All  honor  to 
Delaware;  she  has  never  flinched.  In  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee and  Missouri  the  banner  is  at  half-mast,  uncertain 
whether  it  will  go  up  or  down.  And  of  all  these  States  I 
can  say,  with  all  my  heart  and  soul,  in  the  language  of  the 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.  297 

Apocalypse:  "I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.  So  then  be- 
cause thou  art  lukewarm,  and  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  will 
spsw  thee  out  of  my  mouth."  God  hates  lukewarm  patriot- 
ism, as  much  as  lukewarm  religion;  and  we  hate  it  too. 
We  do  not  believe  in  hermaphrodite  patriots.  We  want 
men  to  be  men,  from  the  crown  of  their  head  to  the  sole  of 
their  foot,  and  to  say  No  to  oppression,  and  Yes  to  liberty, 
and  to  say  both  as  if  thunder  spoke  ! 

But  this  is  not  the  worst, — that  this  banner  should  have 
been  lowered  by  the  hands  of  recreants.  It  was  upon  these 
streaming  bars  and  upon  these  bright  stars  that  every  one  of 
that  immense  concentric  range  of  guns  was  aimed,  when 
Sumter  was  lifted  up  in  the  midst,  almost  like  another  wit- 
nessing Calvary;  and  that  flag  which  Russia  could  not 
daunt,  nor  France  intimidate,  nor  England  conquer,  has 
gone  down  beneath  the  fire  of  treacherous  States  within  our 
own  Union  !  And  do  you  know  that  when  it  was  fallen,  in 
the  streets  of  a  Southern  city,  it  was  trailed,  hooted  at, 
pierced  with  swords  ?  Men  that  have  sat  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  ran  out  to  trample  upon  it;  it  was  fired  on 
and  slashed  by  the  mob;  it  was  dragged  through  the  mud; 
it  was  hissed  at  and  spit  upon;  and  so  it  was  carried 
through  Southern  cities  !  That  our  flag,  which  has  found 
on  the  ocean,  in  the  Indian  Islands,  in  Sumatra,  in  Japan, 
in  China,  and  in  all  the  world,  no  enemies,  either  barbarian 
or  civilized,  that  dared  to  touch  it  with  foul  aspersion, — that 
this  flag  should,  in  our  own  nation,  and  by  our  own  peo- 
ple, be  spit  upon,  and  trampled  under  foot,  is  more  than 
the  heart  of  man  can  bear  ! 

And  what  is  its  crime  ?  If  it  had  forgotten  its  origin,  if 
it  had  gone  over  to  oppression,  if  it  had  set  these  stars 
like  so  many  blazing  jewels  in  the  tiara  of  imperial  despot- 
ism, I  should  not  have  wondered  at  its  going  down.  If  it 
had  been  recreant  to  its  trust  of  ideas  of  liberty,  I  should 
have  expected  to  see  it  go  down.  But  it  has  not  failed  to 
defend  liberty.  Have  there  been  quartered  on  its  armorial 
bearings  any  bastard  symbols  significant  of  oppression  ? 
None.  It  is  guilty  of  nothing  but  of  too  much  liberty. 
Its  stars  have  too  much  promise  in  them  for  those  that  are 


298  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

born  slaves;  and  its  stripes  stream  too  bright  a  light  to 
those  that  sit  in  darkness.  That  is  the  crime  of  our  national 
banner. 

And  now  God  speaks  by  the  voice  of  his  providence, 
saying,  "  Lift  again  that  banner !  Advance  it  full  and 
high  !  "  To  your  hand,  and  to  yours,  God  and  your 
country  commit  that  imperishable  trust.  You  go  forth 
self-called,  or  rather  called  by  the  trust  of  your  countrymen 
and  by  the  Spirit  of  your  God,  to  take  that  trailing  banner 
out  of  the  dust  and  out  of  the  mire,  and  lift  it  again  where 
God's  rains  can  cleanse  it,  and  where  God's  free  air  can 
cause  it  to  unfold  and  stream  as  it  has  always  floated  be- 
fore the  wind.  God  bless  the  men  that  go  forth  to  save 
from  disgrace  the  American  flag  ! 

Accept  it,  then,  in  all  its  fullness  of  meaning.  It  is  not  a 
painted  rag.  It  is  a  whole  national  history.  It  is  the  Con- 
stitution. It  is  the  government.  It  is  the  free  people  that 
stand  in  the  government  on  the  Constitution.  Forget  not 
what  it  means;  and  for  the  sake  of  its  ideas,  rather  than 
its  mere  emblazonry,  be  true  to  your  country's  flag.  By 
your  hands  lift  it;  but  let  your  lifting  it  be  no  holiday  dis- 
play.    It  must  be  advanced  "because  of  the  truth." 

That  flag  must  go  to  the  capital  of  this  nation;  and  it 
must  go  not  hidden,  not  secreted,  not  in  a  case  or  covering, 
but  streaming  abroad,  displayed,  bright  as  the  sun,  clear 
as  the  moon,  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  !  For  a 
single  week  that  disgraceful  crook,*  that  shameful  circuit, 
may  be  needful;  but  the  way  from  New  England,  the  way 
from  New  York,  the  way  from  New  Jersey  and  Pennsyl- 
vania to  Washington,  lies  rig  Jit  through  Baltimore  ;  and  that 
is  the  Way  the  flag  must  and  shall  go  !  [Enthusiastic  cheers.} 
But  that  flag,  borne  by  ten  thousand  and  thrice  ten  thou- 
sand hands,  from  Connecticut,  from  Massachusetts  (God 
bless  the  State  and  all  her  men  !),  from  shipbuilding  Maine, 
from  old  Granite  New  Hampshire,  from  the  Vermont  of 
Bennington  and  Green-Mountain-Boy  patriotism,  from 
Rhode  Island,  not  behind  any  in  zeal  and  patriotism,  from 

*  The  route  through  Baltimore  was  closed,  and  for  weeks   Washington 
was  reached  through  Annapolis. 


THE  NATIONAL   FLAG.  299 

New  York,  from  Ohio,  from  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey 
and  Delaware,  and  the  other  loyal  States, — that  flag  must 
be  carried,  bearing  every  one  of  its  insignia,  to  the  sound 
of  the  drum  and  the  fife,  into  our  national  capital,  until 
Washington  shall  seem  to  be  a  forest,  in  which  every  tree 
supports  the  American  banner  ! 

And  it  must  not  stop  there.  The  country  does  not  be- 
long to  us  from  the  Lakes  only  to  Washington,  but  from 
the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  flag  must  go  on. 
The  land  of  Washington  shall  see  Washington's  flag  again. 
The  land  that  sits  in  darkness,  and  in  which  the  people  see 
no  light,  shall  yet  see  light  dawn,  and  liberty  flash  from  the 
old  American  banner  !  It  must  see  Charleston  again,  and 
float  again  over  every  fort  in  Charleston  harbor.  It  must 
go  further,  to  the  Alligator  State,  and  stand  there  again. 
And  sweeping  up  through  all  plantations,  and  over  all 
fields  of  sugar  and  rice  and  tobacco,  and  every  other  thing, 
it  must  be  found  in  every  State  till  you  touch  the  Missis- 
sippi. And,  bathing  in  those  waters,  it  must  go  across  and 
fill  Texas  with  its  sacred  light.  Nor  must  it  stop  when  it 
floats  over  every  one  of  the  States.  That  flag  must  stand, 
bearing  its  whole  historic  spirit  and  original  meaning,  in 
every  Territory  of  this  nation  ! 

Have  you  not  had  enough  mischief  of  slavery  ?  Do  you 
not  see  what  men  it  breeds  ?  It  hatches  cockatrice's  eggs. 
Slavery  breeds  traitors  in  the  masters  and  miserable  slaves 
in  the  subjects.  Slavery  is  the  abominable  poison  that  has 
circulated  in  the  body  politic,  and  corrupted  this  whole 
nation  almost  past  healing.  Blessed  be  God  there  is  a 
medicine  found! 

Now,  having  had  experience,  and  having  seen  what 
slavery  does  to  the  slave  (and  what  it  does  to  the  slave  is 
the  least  part  of  the  evil.  The  slave  is  to  be  envied  in  the 
comparison.  I  would  to  God  that  the  white  man  were 
half  as  little  hurt  by  slavery);  seeing  how  it  blights  the 
heart's  core;  how  it  corrupts  the  most  sacred  sentiments; 
how  it  brings  down  natures  born  for  better  things  to  the 
degradation  of  despotism, — having  seen  these  things,  can 
you, — I  ask  every   man   that  has  conscience,  or  reason,  or 


3CO  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

hope,  or  fear,  or  love  in  his  soul, — can  you  meet  God  Al- 
mighty's judgment,  or  the  inquiring  eye  of  God,  if  while 
you  live  you  permit  that  evil  to  roll  unchecked  three  thou- 
sand miles  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  ?  Let,  then,  this  banner  go 
again  into  every  recreant  State,  and  float  over  every  inch  of 
territory,  saying,  "Defiance  to  slavery;  all  hail  to  liberty!" 
Nor  is  it  enough  that  our  flag  shall  stand  and  merely 
reassert  its  authority.  It  is  time  now  that  that  banner 
shall  do  as  much  for  each  man  in  our  own  country  as  it 
will  in  every  other  land  on  the  globe.  If  I  go  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  a  mob  threatens  me,  that  banner  shines 
like  lightning  out  of  heaven,  and  I  am  safe.  If  I  go  to 
Jerusalem,  or  among  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  I  have  but  to  show 
that  symbol,  and  I  am  safe.  If  I  go  to  Africa,  and  skirt  its 
coasts  among  the  natives,  and  exhibit  the  colors  of  my  coun- 
try, I  am  safe.  I  can  go  around  the  globe  under  the  protec- 
tion of  this  flag.  But  it  is  denied  me  to  go  to  Washington. 
I  cannot  go  from  my  door  to  the  capital  of  this  nation,  be- 
cause the  American  flag  does  not  defend  Americans  on  their 
own  soil.  I  cannot  go  to  Virginia  nor  North  Carolina,  nor 
South  Carolina,  nor  Florida,  nor  Georgia,  nor  Alabama, 
nor  Mississippi,  nor  Louisiana,  nor  Texas,  nor  Arkansas, 
nor  to  most  of  Kentucky  and  of  Tennessee.  We  have  not 
had  a  government  for  fifty  years  that  dared  to  do  a  thing 
that  slavery  did  not  wish  to  have  done.  I  suppose  that 
within  the  last  twenty  years  uncounted  multitudes  of  men 
have  been  mulcted  in  property,  mobbed,  hung,  murdered, 
for  whose  wrongs  and  blood  no  government  has  ever  made 
any  inquisition.  It  is  permitted,  to  this  hour,  to  one  man 
to  maltreat,  to  murder,  to  rob,  to  strip,  to  destroy  another 
man,  in  Nashville,  in  Memphis,  in  New  Orleans,  in  Mobile, 
in  Charleston,  and  even  in  Richmond,  close  up  under  the 
eye  of  government.  There  has  never  been  an  hour  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  when  government  would  lift  a  voice 
or  stretch  out  a  hand  to  protect  Northern  men  against  the 
outrages  committed  upon  them  by  men  at  the  South. 
Now  I  demand  that,  when  the  American  flag  is  next  un- 
furled in  South  Carolina,  it  shall  protect  me  there,  as  it  pro- 
tects a  South  Carolinian  in    New  York.     I  demand  that  it 


THE  NATIONAL   FLAG.  301 

shall  protect  me  in  Mobile,  as  it  protects  a  Mobilian  here. 
I  demand  that  this  shall  be  a  common  country,  and  that 
all  men  shall  enjoy  the  imperishable  rights  which  the  Con- 
stitution guarantees  to  every  American  citizen.  I  demand 
that  there  shall  be  such  a  victory  of  this  flag  as  shall  make 
the  whole  and  undivided  land  the  common  possession  of 
all  and  every  one  of  its  citizens  ! 

If  any  man  asks  me  whether  I  will  consent  to  a  com- 
promise, I  reply,  Yes.  I  love  compromises;  they  are  dear 
to  me — if  I  may  make  them.  Give  me  a  compromise  that 
shall  bring  peace.  Let  me  say,  "  Hang  the  ringleading 
traitors;  suppress  their  armies;  give  peace  to  their  fields; 
lift  up  the  banner,  and  make  a  highway  in  which  every 
true  American  citizen,  minding  his  own  business,  can  walk 
unmolested;  free  the  Territories,  and  keep  them  free," — 
that  is  our  compromise.  Give  to  us  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers,  renew  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  refill  the 
Constitution  with  the  original  blood  of  liberty,  destroy 
traitors  and  treason,  make  the  doctrine  of  secession  a  by- 
word and  a  hissing;  make  laws  equal;  let  that  justice  for 
which  they  were  ordained  be  the  same  in  Maine  or  Caro- 
lina, to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor,  the  bond  and  the  free, — 
and  thus  we  will  compromise. 

But  as  long  as  compromise  means  yokes  on  us  and 
license  to  them,  silence  for  liberty  and  open-mouthed  free- 
dom to  despotism,  so  long  compromise  is  a  Devil's  juggle; 
no  man  that  is  a  freeman  and  a  Christian  should  be  caught 
in  any  such  snare  as  that.  I  ask  for  nothing  except  that 
which  the  fathers  meant.  I  ask  for  the  fulfillment  of  Wash- 
ington's prayer.  I  ask  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  designs 
of  those  sacred  men  that  sat  in  conclave  at  Independence 
Hall  in  Philadelphia,  and  framed  our  immortal  Constitu- 
tion. I  ask  for  liberty  in  New  York,  in  Carolina,  in  Ala- 
bama, in  every  State  and  in  every  Territory.  I  ask  for  it 
throughout  the  whole  land.  I  ask  no  Northern  advantage. 
It  is  a  mere  geographical  accident  that  liberty  is  in  the 
North.  It  is  not  because  it  is  the  North,  but  because 
the  North  is  free,  that  I  ask  for  the  ascendency  of  North- 
ern principles. 


302  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Ah  !  that  Daniel  Webster  had  lived  to  see  what  we  do, — 
that  strong  man  whose  faith  failed  him  in  a  fatal  hour  of 
ambition  !  I  will  read  from  a  speech  of  his  better  days  one 
of  the  noblest  passages  that  ever  issued  from  the  uninspired 
pen  of  man.     It  is  appropriate  for  this  hour: — 

"  When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold,  for  the  last  time, 
the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and 
dishonored  fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union;  on  States  dis- 
severed, discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or 
drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood  !  Let  their  last  feeble  and 
lingering  glance,  rather,  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Repub- 
lic, now  known  and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high 
advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original  luster, 
not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured, — bear- 
ing for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory  as  What  is  all 
this  worth?  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion  and  folly,  Liberty 
first,  and  Union  afterwards, — but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in 
characters  of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as  they 
float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the 
whole  heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true  American 
heart, — Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  insepara- 
ble !  " 

God  grant  it !     God  grant  it! 

You  live  in  a  civilized  age.  You  go  on  a  sacred  mission. 
The  prayers  and  sympathies  of  Christendom  are  with  you. 
You  go  to  open  again  the  shut-up  fountains  of  liberty,  and 
to  restore  this  disgraced  banner  to  its  honor.  You  go  to 
serve  your  country  in  the  cause  of  liberty;  and  if  God 
brings  you  into  conflict  ere  long  with  those  misguided  men 
of  the  South,  when  you  see  their  miserable,  new-vamped 
banner,  remember  what  that  flag  means, — Treason,  Slavery, 
Despotism;  then  look  up  and  see  the  bright  stars  and  the 
glorious  stripes  over  your  own  head,  and  read  in  them 
Liberty,  Liberty,  Liberty  ! 

And  if  you  fall  in  that  struggle,  may  some  kind  hand 
wrap  around  about  you  the  flag  of  your  country,  and  may 
you  die  with  its  sacred  touch  upon  you.  It  shall  be  sweet 
to  go  to  rest  lying  in  the  folds  of  your  country's  banner, 
meaning,  as  it  shall  mean,  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and 
forever." 


Qj&u£-  rfh^r&t" 


THE   NATIONAL  FLAG.  303 

We  will  not  forget  you.  You  go  forth  from  us  not  to  be 
easily  and  lightly  passed  over.  The  waves  shall  not  close 
over  the  places  which  you  have  held;  but  when  you  return, 
— not  as  you  go,  many  of  you  inexperienced,  and  many  of 
you  unknown, — you  shall  return  from  the  conquests  of 
liberty  with  a  reputation  and  a  character  established  for- 
ever to  your  children  and  your  children's  children.  It 
shall  be  an  honor,  it  shall  be  a  legend,  it  shall  be  a  historic 
truth;  and  your  posterity  shall  say:  "  Our  fathers  stood 
up  in  the  day  of  peril,  and  laid  again  the  foundations  of 
liberty  that  were  shaken;  and  in  their  hands  the  banner  of 
our  country  streamed  forth  like  the  morning  star  upon  the 
night." 

God  bless  you  ! 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.* 


"  For  the  Lord  thy  God  walketh  in  the  midst  of  thy  camp,  to  deliver 
thee,  and  to  give  up  thine  enemies  before  thee;  therefore  shall  thy  camp 
be  holy;  that  he  see  no  unclean  thing  in  thee,  and  turn  away  from  thee." 
— Deut.  xxiii.  14. 

That  Christian  people  should  learn  to  dread  the  camp 
is  not  strange.  The  evils  which  have  gone  along  with 
armies,  the  dangers  of  moral  infection  in  military  camps, 
are  not  imaginary,  and  are  perhaps  not  less  than  our 
greatest  fears  would  lead  us  to  believe  them  to  be.  And 
yet  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  these  evils  are  vinci- 
ble, and  that,  though  real,  they  may  be  overcome.  There 
are  no  circumstances  where  Christian  courage  may  not 
gain  a  victory  over  the  sharpest  temptations.  It  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  world  is  indebted  to  camp  life 
for  institutions  which  have  done  more  to  infuse  order  and 
civilization  among  men  than  any  legislation.  God's  peo- 
ple lived  in  military  camps  for  full  half  a  century.  In 
camps  Moses  promulgated  the  Hebrew  code.  In  the  camp 
they  began  to  practice  the  matchless  elements  of  the  He- 
brew Commonwealth.  In  the  camp  the  slavish  habits 
which  they  had  contracted  were  gradually  worn  off,  their 
idolatrous  tendencies  were  at  last  repressed,  and  their  na- 
tional education  began.  Perhaps  the  purest,  most  orderly 
and  well-regulated  period  of  the  Hebrew  history  was  that 
of  their  early  camp  life.  More  brilliant  periods  there  were, 
under  David  and  Solomon;  but  I  doubt  if  ever  there  was, 
on  the  whole,  a  more  moral  period.  Nor  will  a  study  of 
the  rules  and  regulations  of  that  life  be  unprofitable  even 
now.  For  while  Moses  has  nothing  to  teach  us  in  strictly 
military  matters,  he  has  anticipated  almost  every  effort  of 

*  Preached  in  May,  1861. 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  3°5 

science  for  health,  cleanliness,  order,  and  good  civic 
economy,  striving,  with  imperfect  means,  to  be  sure,  to  do 
that  which,  with  more  perfect  instrumentalities,  science  is 
now  accomplishing. 

Our  text  shows  the  influences  upon  which  this  effort  was 
based.  Religion  was  brought  to  bear,  with  its  appropriate 
influences,  upon  camp  life. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  camp  morals,  subsequently 
to  this  epoch,  and  in  other  nations,  have  deserved  all  the 
ill  repute  which  they  have  acquired.  Nor  can  we  suppose 
camp  life  ever,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  to 
be  as  conducive  to  virtue  as  is  the  family  state  in  civic 
communities. 

But  we  must  not  look  upon  it  as  always  and  necessarily 
so  great  an  evil  as  it  was  in  the  past  ages  of  European 
military  history.  Camps  do  not  need  to  continue  to  be 
what  they  have  hitherto  been.  For  the  world  has  ad- 
vanced. Every  method  of  living  has  advanced.  We  know 
better  what  to  do,  we  know  how  to  do  better,  and  we 
are  doing  better,  in  every  element  of  life,  than  did  ages 
past.  The  morals  of  the  common  people,  and  of  soldiers, 
who  spring  from  them,  are  eminently  better  than  they 
used  to  be.  The  circumstances  under  which  war  is  con- 
ducted are  much  changed,  and  changed  much  for  the  bet- 
ter. Experience,  and  the  facilities  for  organizing  and 
supplying  armies,  have  removed  many  of  the  temptations 
to  evil.  At  least,  they  have  made  it  unnecessary  for  men 
to  be  wicked. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  this  nation  to  discourage  stand- 
ing armies.  It  is  a  wise  policy,  and  it  never  appeared  so 
wise  as  now.  Standing  armies  are  always  dangerous;  and 
I  can  hardly  doubt  that,  had  there  been  a  hundred  thou- 
sand soldiers  subject  to  the  control  of  those  wicked  men 
just  ejected  from  this  government,  our  liberties  would  have 
been  in  peril.  They  would  have  been  suppressed,  to  be 
acquired  again  only  by  crossing  a  Red  Sea  of  blood.  We 
owe  much  of  our  salvation  to  the  fact  that  there  was  not  a 
military  power  in  the  hands  of  an  Administration  imbecile 
in  all  but  corruption.     Everything  else  had  been  got  ready 


306  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  overthrow  the  government  but  this  infernal  enginery  of 
a  standing  army. 

The  theory  of  our  people  has  been,  that,  as  the  common 
people  framed  their  government,  administer  their  govern- 
ment, and  are  the  sources  of  power  and  of  political  influ- 
ence in  that  government,  so  and  in  like  manner  the  com- 
mon people  shall  be  their  own  soldiers,  and  do  their  own 
fighting,  when  it  is  necessary.  War  will  not  be  unneces- 
sarily provoked  when  the  men  that  provoke  the  war  are 
obliged  themselves  to  wage  it. 

But  with  great  wisdom  two  provisions  have  been  made. 
First,  the  common  people  have  been  enrolled  as  a  militia, 
and  made  to  have  some  little  idea  of  combination  and  drill. 
It  has  not  been  much,  it  has  been  just  enough  to  subject 
them  to  the  ridicule  of  professional  blatterers;  nevertheless, 
it  has  been  sufficient.  And  whenever  the  common  people 
of  this  land  have  been  called  upon  for  the  defense  of 
things  that  were  worth  fighting  for,  they  have  brought  the 
conflict  to  a  successful  issue. 

Next,  public  military  academies  have  given  the  most 
rigid  and  thorough  education  to  men  selected  from  every 
State.  And  thus  we  have  an  intelligent  and  hardy  com- 
mon people,  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  rudiments  of 
army  formations,  and  of  the  duties  of  soldiers,  for  a  foun- 
dation; and  for  leaders,  men  of  scientific  military  educa- 
tion. 

And  now,  when  war  breaks  out  with  us,  the  camp  is  both 
better  and  worse  than  European  camps  and  camps  of  other 
countries.  It  is  better,  or  may  be,  because  it  is  made  up, 
not  of  professional  soldiers  without  civil  sympathies,  cut 
off  from  pursuits  of  ordinary  life,  but  of  citizens,  pervaded 
with  the  sympathies  of  citizens;  of  men  who  go  to  war  as 
one  of  life's  duties,  alternative  duties,  and  not  as  their  vo- 
cation. And  such  men  ought  to  make  better  soldiers 
than  others,  more  moral  and  more  manly. 

It  is  worse,  because  in  regular  armies,  and  among  sol- 
diers trained  for  years,  there  is  an  education  toward  neat- 
ness and  order  and  economy  of  living  which  a  body  of 
volunteers  suddenly  gathered   together  are   not  likely   to 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  307 

have.  In  the  Mexican  war,  if  I  remember  correctly,  the 
deaths  by  sickness  in  the  volunteer  regiments  were  more 
than  one  hundred  per  cent,  greater  than  in  the  regular 
army;  showing  the  difference  beween  practiced  skill  in 
living  and  the  inexperience  of  the  volunteers. 

Such,  with  its  faults,  and  with  possible  excellences,  is  the 
American  military  system.  It  is  not  our  business  now  so 
much  to  subject  it  to  criticism,  as  to  accept  it  with  its  duties 
and  responsibilities.  For,  in  the  providence  of  God,  war  is 
upon  us.  It  is  quite  immaterial  whether  we  wish  it  or  not, 
whether  we  think  it  might  have  been  avoided,  or  whether 
every  step  on  either  side  has  been  the  wisest.  The  past  is 
past.  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.  War,  I  repeat,  is 
upon  us.  The  army  is  collecting.  Various  camps  are 
forming.  The  question  for  the  whole  Christian  community 
is  this:  What  is  the  duty  of  this  country  toward  its  camps  ? 

It  is  not  enough,  then,  that  we  should  simply  encourage 
men  to  volunteer  in  their  country's  cause,  clothe  them, 
equip  them,  get  them  off,  and  then  consider  them  as  no 
longer  on  our  hands.  It  is  a  part  of  our  duty  to  equip 
them,  and  see  that  they  are  well  fitted  out,  and  to  send 
them  off  under  good  auspices;  but  we  must  also  consider 
ourselves  responsible  for  the  continued  well-being  of  that 
army  which  we  send  forth  to  do,  not  their  work,  but  our 
work.  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  do  some  things.  That 
great  army  that  is  gathering  around  the  government  of  this 
nation,  to  maintain  its  sacred  laws  and  principles,  must  be 
adopted  by  all  Christian  men  at  home,  and  must  be  pro- 
vided for,  not  simply  in  clothes  and  food,  but  in  education 
and  in  morals.  We  must  see  to  it  that  physically  they  are 
well  equipped,  and  we  must  see  to  it  that  that  moral  care 
which  comes  from  material  sources  (and  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  it)  is  provided;  but  when  we  have  provisioned  and 
clothed  and  equipped  the  men,  and  put  them  beyond  the 
reach  of  physical  want,  we  have  but  just  begun  to  dis- 
charge our  duties  toward  them. 

The  army  must  feel  that  it  is  not  a  thing  separated  from 
society,  and  different  from  it.  It  is  only  the  arm  of  society 
stretched  out,  not  cut  off,  but  joined  to  the  body,  receiving 


308  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

circulation  from  it  yet,  and  in  vital  sympathy  with  it. 
That  we  may  better  understand  our  duties,  I  will  point  out 
some  of  the  dangers  to  which  our  men  are  liable,  and  some 
of  the  measures  by  which  these  dangers  may  be  averted. 

i.  As  armies  are  formed,  it  must  necessarily  be  the  case 
that  they  shall  come  together  in  an  ill-assorted  and  socially 
unfit  manner.  But  a  young  man  ought  to  learn  how  to  live 
with  men  differing  in  every  respect  from  himself.  A  young 
man  must  learn  to  live  with  men;  with  men  mixed  and 
various,  good  and  bad,  of  all  dispositions  and  habits;  and 
surely,  if  a  man  does  not  learn  it  in  the  army,  it  is  because 
he  is  not  apt  to  learn.  One  can  scarcely  conceive  of  men 
brought  together  with  less  principle  of  assortment  than  in 
volunteer  regiments.  Many  are  ruined  in  learning  this  les- 
son; and  many  are  ruined  that  need  not  have  been,  had 
some  one  taught  them,  warned  them,  and  encouraged  them 
to  maintain  their  own  individuality.  Old  and  young  are 
huddled  together  Some  of  strong  will  and  others  of  an 
impressible  disposition  are  brought  in  contact  with  each 
other,  and  you  know  which  will  receive  the  dent.  The 
hard  and  the  soft  are  side  by  side.  Among  them  are  the 
proud  man,  that  receives  no  impressions  from  others,  and 
the  approbative  man,  that  stands  on  his  own  root  by  a 
slender  stem,  and  nods  and  bobs  in  the  wind  like  a  rush 
or  daisy.  It  is  a  good  school,  if  it  did  not  spoil  so  many 
for  the  sake  of  making  a  few.  But  so  it  is.  The  army  is 
so  formed  that  the  first  lesson,  and  the  first  danger,  is  that 
of  living  with  men  who  are  entirely  unlike  themselves. 

2.  There  is  a  sudden  change  of  all  the  habits  of  life. 
Men  become  their  own  cooks,  their  own  chambermaids, 
their  own  seamstresses,  and  their  own  washerwomen. 
Tables,  linen,  china  cups,  and  delf  plates  disappear.  Men 
go  down  to  camp  life  to  become  almost  savage  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  domestic  economies.  No  beds  receive  them  such 
as  they  have  been  accustomed  to.  No  such  relations  of 
table  and  social  intercourse  as  they  have  previously  enjoyed 
are  enjoyed  by  them  now.  They  seem  to  have  been 
stripped  bare  of  the  refinements  of  civilized  society.  All 
influences  calculated  to  promote  the  exterior  and  physical 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  309 

proprieties  of  life  seem  to  be  removed  from  them.  These 
things  are  apt  to  beget  great  carelessness  and  rudeness,  and 
even  a  positive  barbarism,  unless  they  are  resisted  and 
counteracted. 

It  seems  as  though  there  were  very  little  religious  influ- 
ence in  a  clean  face,  a  clean  skin,  and  a  comely  garb;  but 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  simple  moral  influence  in  these 
things.  When  a  man  does  not  care  for  the  neatness  of  his 
person,  nor  for  the  ordinary  proprieties  and  economies  of 
life,  he  is  verging  toward  the  barbarous  state.  It  is  so  even 
with  men  of  moral  stamina  and  settled  characters;  but  how 
much  more,  if  character  is  unfashioned  and  habits  un- 
formed ! 

3.  The  restraints,  the  affections,  the  softening  influences 
of  the  household,  are  taken  away  from  the  soldier  in  the 
camp.  No  man  can  imagine  the  difference  which  this 
makes  till  he  has  seen  it  and  felt  it.  Men  that  at  home  are 
not  only  moral  and  decorous,  but  who  are  without  tempta- 
tion or  desire  to  be  anything  else,  when  away  from  home 
do  things  so  utterly  out  of  character  that  they  seem  not  to  be 
the  same  persons.  There  is,  it  may  be  said,  a  sort  of  mania 
or  insanity  that  falls  on  men  away  from  home.  Men  that 
at  home  not  only  do  not  drink,  but  do  not  want  to,  when 
they  go  away  from  home  and  the  restraints  of  the  family 
to  reside  for  weeks,  do  drink  and  become  intoxicated.  Men 
that  at  home  are  never  subject  to  vagrant  thoughts,  almost 
lose  the  power  of  regulated  thought  away  from  home.  No 
one  imagines  how  much  he  is  upheld  by  the  moral  influ- 
ences of  those  about  him,  and  how  little  by  his  own 
will  and  character,  till  he  goes  abroad  alone.  When  a  man 
goes  to  England,  he  says,  "  There  is  not  a  man  in  this 
whole  kingdom  who  will  know  what  I  do,"  and  he  has  a 
morbid  curiosity  to  know  how  he  will  feel  under  such  and 
such  circumstances,  and  he  does  things  that  he  never  did 
before,  to  satisfy  that  curiosity.  A  man  in  Paris  who 
knows  there  is  not  another  man  in  Paris  that  knows  him,  is 
not  the  same  man  that  he  was  in  New  York.  That  is  to 
say,  he  is  subject  to  temptations  and  influences  that  he 
never  would  have  been  subject  to  at  home.     When  men 


310  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

that  are  patterns  of  morality  in  the  village  come  to  New 
York  in  spring  and  fall,  to  do  business,  they  are  not  always 
patterns  of  morality.  They  seem  to  slough  moral  habits 
for  the  time  being.  Those  that  deal  with  them  know  it. 
It  would  not  do  for  them  to  treat  this  or  that  man  at  home 
as  they  treated  him  the  last  time  they  were  in  New  York. 
It  would  produce  an  uproar  in  the  church,  or  an  explosion 
in  the  family  !  It  is  not  because  they  are  hypocrites  that 
they  deport  themselves  in  one  way  at  home  and  in  another 
way  abroad;  it  is  not  because  they  are  insincere;  it  is  be- 
cause men  are  stronger  at  home  surrounded  with  friends, 
responsible  to  a  public  sentiment,  sustained  by  example 
and  social  sympathies,  than  when  they  are  left  standing 
alone.  It  is  so  good  to  the  soul  and  to  the  morals  to  be 
surrounded  by  those  who  bear  sweet  affinities  and  relation- 
ships, that  when  a  man  has  them  he  is  well,  and  when  he 
has  not  he  is  sick  or  feeble.  It  is  not  surprising  that  young 
men  should  feel  as  older  men  have  felt,  since  the  world 
began,  when  removed  from  social  restraints  and  domestic 
influences. 

To  this  must  be  added  the  almost  necessary  rudeness  of 
a  womanless  state.  If  God  were  to  take  the  sun  and  moon 
and  stars  out  of  the  heavens,  the  chances  for  husbandry 
would  be  what,  if  God  were  to  take  woman  out  of  life, 
would  be  the  chances  for  refinement  and  civilization. 
Woman  carries  civilization  in  her  heart.  It  springs  from 
her.  Her  power  and  influence  mark  the  civilization  of  any 
country.  A  man  that  lives  in  a  community  where  he  has' 
the  privileges  of  woman's  society,  and  is  subject  to  woman's 
influence,  is  almost  of  necessity  refined,  more  than  he  is  aware 
of;  and  when  men  are  removed  from  the  genial  influence 
of  virtuous  womanhood,  the  very  best  degenerate,  or  feel 
the  deprivation. 

There  is  something  wanting  in  the  air  when  you  get 
west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  on  a  sultry  day  of  sum- 
mer. The  air  east  of  the  mountains  is  supplied  with  a 
sort  of  pabulum  from  the  salt  water  of  the  ocean,  by  which 
one  is  sustained  in  the  sultriest  days  of  midsummer.  Now 
what  this  salt  is  to  the  air,  that  is  woman's  influence  to  the 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  311 

virtue  of  a  community.  You  breathe  it  without  knowing 
it.  All  you  know  is  that  you  are  made  stronger  and  bet- 
ter. And  a  man  is  not  half  a  man  unless  a  woman  helps 
him  to  be  ! 

One  of  the  mischiefs  of  camp  life  is  that  women  are  re- 
moved from  it.  The  men  may  not  know  what  it  is  that 
lets  them  down  to  a  lower  state  of  feeling,  or  what  that 
subtle  influence  was  that  kept  them  up  to  a  higher  state  of 
refinement,  but  it  is  the  absence  of  woman  in  the  one  case, 
as  it  was  the  presence  of  woman  in  the  other.  Woman  is 
a  light  which  God  has  set  before  man  to  show  him  which 
way  to  go,  and  blessed  is  he  who  has  sense  enough  to  fol- 
low it ! 

4.  To  this  must  be  added  the  evils  which  are  liable  to 
spring  out  of  the  interplay  and  alternation  of  idleness  and 
excessive  exertion  in  camp  life.  Men  whose  habits  are  reg- 
ular are  half  saved  to  begin  with.  A  man  who  has  an 
order  of  business  which  brings  something  to  be  done 
every  hour,  which  fills  every  hour  with  occupation,  is  a 
match  for  the  Devil.  Satan  finds  plenty  of  mischief  for 
idle  hands  to  do,  and  very  little  for  busy  hands.  But  men 
whose  calling  is  spasmodic,  who  use  up  their  strength  in  a 
few  hours,  and  then  fall  back  upon  indolence  and  self- 
indulgence,  are  peculiarly  in  danger.  You  shall  find  that 
those  workmen  who  are  excessively  taxed, — glass-blowers, 
foundrymen,  the  boat  hands  on  our  Western  rivers,  ex- 
pressmen, and  the  like, — who  have,  during  one  or  two 
hours,  to  do  work  enough  for  eight  or  ten  men  to  each  man, 
and  who  are  obliged  to  concentrate  the  whole  energy  of 
their  life  and  power  for  this  brief  period,  and  then  fall  back 
upon  five  or  six  indolent  hours,  are  the  men  that  are  most 
in  danger,  and  that  are  most  apt  to  be  reckless,  wild,  dar- 
ing, and  physically  self-indulgent.  Experience  will  show 
that  while  regular  and  successive  industries,  which  furnish 
employment  for  every  hour,  conduce  to  morals,  excessive 
labor  for  a  few  hours,  followed  by  long  intervals  of  indo- 
lence, is  demoralizing.  No  man  can  go  through  the  ex- 
perience of  such  labor  and  alternate  indolence  and  come 
out  sound  and  well. 


312  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Now  this  is  peculiarly  the  experience  of  the  camp.  The 
drill  goes  for  nothing:  that  is  mere  play.  But  with  camp 
life  comes  the  long  march  to-day,  and  the  lying  still  for 
three  or  four  days;  the  desperate  conflict,  with  all  its  ex- 
citement for  a  few  hours,  and  the  rest  for  the  ensuing 
week;  long  periods  of  inactivity,  interspersed  with  occa- 
sional intensifications  of  activity.  These  things  shake  the 
habits  of  the  whole  moral  fabric  of  a  man.  Morbid  ap- 
petites spring  up  from  such  irregularities.  The  body 
ceases  to  perform  its  normal  functions,  the  tendencies  of 
life  are  different,  and  the  whole  character  is  changed. 

5.  We  must  remember  that  the  aim  and  end  of  war  is 
physical  violence.  Now  men  cannot  be  associated  with 
objects  of  violence  and  not  receive  collateral  moral  im- 
pressions from  them.  If  men  are  educated,  and  if  they 
bear  with  them  a  stern  will,  and  look  upon  war  as  a  terri- 
ble but  necessary  evil,  they  may  go  through  it  and  escape 
unharmed.  Such  a  man  as  Anderson  can  go  through  the 
most  dreadful  experiences  of  war  and  come  out  a  Chris- 
tian, a  humane,  a  gentle  man.  Where  a  man  brings  a 
heart  and  a  faith  into  experiences  like  these  he  may  avoid 
harm,  as  they  did  who  went  through  the  fire  without  even 
the  smell  of  fire  upon  their  garments;  but  raw,  unenlight- 
ened, untrained  natures  cannot  but  be  hardened  and  de- 
praved by  them.  A  man,  however,  cannot  tell  what  effect 
they  will  have  upon  him  till  he  is  brought  into  the  midst 
of  them.  Some  are  cured  of  cruelty  by  the  sight  of  blood. 
They  revolt  from  it  with  the  whole  force  of  their  being. 
Some  have  a  natural  tendency  to  it;  and  when  they  come 
into  the  exercise  of  it  they  speedily  sink  into  degeneracy, 
and  drag  others  down  with  them.  At  any  rate,  this  living 
for  an  end  of  violence  must  affect  the  whole  moral  nature. 
A  life  supremely  devoted  to  resistance,  to  contention,  to 
destruction,  must  be  full  of  dangers. 

6.  We  must  consider  the  peculiar  danger  of  camps  in 
producing  intemperance.  So  great  is  this  danger  that  we 
might  almost  compromise,  and  say,  "  Give  us  release  from 
that,  and  we  will  run  the  risk  of  every  other  one."  The 
desire  of  excitement,  for  various   reasons,  is   nowhere  else, 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  313 

perhaps,  so  great  as  in  the  camp.  Where,  for  instance, 
men  are  to  prepare  themselves  for  hard  and  successive 
work,  it  is  not  unnatural  that  they  should  seek  to  rouse  up 
their  energies  with  strong  drink.  And  where  men  have 
gone  through  severe  and  long  continued  labor,  where  they 
have  been  deprived  of  their  appropriate  food,  where  they 
have  been  exposed  to  extremes  of  heat  or  cold,  where  they 
have  been  taxed  with  a  harassing  watch  or  a  desper- 
ate fight,  where  all  their  habits  have  been  irregular,  then 
nothing  is  more  natural  than  that  they  should  seek  to  re- 
pair their  wasted  strength  by  intoxicating  drinks.  But  the 
indulgence  in  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  for  such  purposes  is 
a  fatal  indulgence.  I  think  the  distinction  between  the 
right  and  wrong  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants  lies  simply  in 
this:  The  man  that  uses  them  for  producing  digestion,  or 
so  as  to  promote  prompt  and  efficient  action  of  the  natural 
functions  of  the  system,  is  using  them  medicinally;  but 
the  man  that  uses  them  either  for  the  purpose  of  unnatu- 
rally exciting  the  physical  energies,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
repairing  the  waste  of  those  energies  by  excessive  exertion, 
is  using  them  fatally.  If  you  use  them  for  the  sake  of  fit- 
ting yourself  to  make  a  brilliant  speech,  you  use  them 
fatally.  If  you  use  them  in  order  that  you  may  supply  the 
strength  you  want  for  an  emergency,  you  use  them  fatally. 
And  if  you  use  them  for  the  purpose  of  making  up  for  the 
strength  that  you  have  lost  in  any  severe  undertaking, 
you  use  them  fatally.  If  you  use  them  either  to  create 
power,  or  to  compensate  for  the  exhaustion  of  power,  of 
mind  or  body,  you  violate  the  laws  of  nature,  and  so  use 
them  fatally.  When  Paul  said  to  Timothy,  "  Use  a  little 
wine  for  thy  stomach's  sake  and  thine  often  infirmities," 
he  doubtless  referred  to  the  fact  that  Timothy  had  the 
dyspepsia,  and  that  a  little  wine  might  help  his  digestion, 
and  that  it  was  through  good  digestion  that  he  was  to  have 
good  blood,  good  nerves,  and  good  muscles  !  But  if  a 
man  keeps  a  fiery  stream  of  stimulus  pouring  upon  his 
brain  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  its  activity,  he  is  a 
marked  man,  and  his  name  is  already  written  down  in  the 
book   of  death.     When   men   are   severely   taxed,  there   is 


314  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

nothing  more  natural  than  that  they  should  clutch  at  any- 
thing that  will  afford  them  momentary  relief.  And  any 
indulgence  in  this  practice  is  apt  to  be  fatal,  because  when 
spirituous  liquors  have  been  taken  for  one  thing,  they  will 
naturally  be  taken  for  others. 

The  dullness,  the  weariness,  the  ennui  of  camp  life  is 
greatly  alleviated  by  the  social  festive  glass. 

The  pernicious  influence  of  example  in  the  matter  of 
drinking  will  also  be  felt  in  the  camp.  The  young  man  who 
is  not  wont  to  drink  may  be  led  to  do  it  because  he  has 
not  the  moral  courage  to  resist  the  temptation  under  which 
he  is  brought.  A  young  man  in  the  ranks  naturally  wants 
to  stand  well  with  the  officers,  a  young  officer  naturally 
wants  to  stand  well  with  his  superior  officers,  one  that  is 
weak  naturally  wants  to  stand  well  with  those  that  are 
stronger  than  himself,  and  there  is  danger  that  many 
will  fall  into  the  habit  of  drinking  for  the  sake  of  gaining 
favor.  A  man  that  is  superior  in  any  respect  to  his  fellows 
has  great  power  of  persuasion  over  them,  and  can,  if  he  be 
intemperate,  do  much  toward  drawing  them  into  intem- 
perance. 

Could  intoxicating  drinks  be  kept  away  from  camps,  one- 
half  of  their  dangers  would  be  obviated.  And  for  anyone 
that  is  going  forth  to  meet  the  temptations  of  camp  life,  I  had 
almost  said  I  would  sum  up  in  one  simple  word  of  re- 
membrance a  talisman  of  safety, —  Temperance,  absolute 
temperance.  There  are  other  dangers  of  the  camp,  but 
there  are  so  many  connected  with  this  that  we  almost  for- 
get the  rest,  and  say  that  you  will  be  safe  if  you  are  strictly 
temperate. 

Why,  I  think  war  kills  more  after  it  is  over  than  during 
its  continuance.  It  is  not  the  man  who  comes  home  limp- 
ing on  one  usable  leg  that  is  most  damaged:  it  is  the  man 
that  comes  home  with  two  legs  and  two  arms,  and  with  no 
use  for  them.  It  is  not  the  man  who  comes  home  pierced 
through  so  as  to  be  all  his  life  an  invalid,  that  war  most 
damages;  it  is  the  man  that,  pierced  through  with  the 
liquid  shot,  comes  reeling  and  staggering  home  to  be  worse 
than  useless.     And  I  say  to  every  one  that  has  anything 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  315 

to  do  with  the  camp,  for  the  love  of  God,  for  the  love  of 
man,  for  the  sake  of  patriotism,  and  for  the  salvation  of 
those  that  are  imperiled,  take  care  of  the  young  men,  that 
they  do  not  become  drunkards  ! 

7.  There  is  an  evil  to  be  dreaded  from  the  contagion  of 
bad  men  in  camp  life.  I  am  not  referring  to  gross  and 
shamelessly  bad  men.  When  a  man  becomes  shamelessly 
bad,  he  becomes  comparatively  harmless.  It  is  not  the 
thing  with  poison  scattered  all  over  the  outside  that 
endangers  anybody;  it  is  the  cake  that  is  poison,  but  is 
sweetened  and  not  seen  to  be  poison;  it  is  the  liquor  that 
is  poisoned  at  the  bottom,  and  is  not  suspected  of  being 
poisoned.  I  do  not  know,  so  far  as  my  personal  inspection 
is  concerned,  but  certain  companies  that  have  been  raised 
in  New  York  are  saints  prepared  for  glory,  but  the  papers 
do  represent  them  as  being  made  up  of  quite  another  class 
of  men,  and  that  they  will  leave  New  York  wonderfully 
purified  when  they  go  forth  to  do  a  patriot's  duty  in  a 
distant  State  !  But  if  there  should  be  found  in  the  volun- 
teer force  a  burglar,  a  thief,  a  scoundrel,  a  culprit,  he  is  not 
the  man  to  be  very  dangerous  to  young  men.  Do  you 
suppose  a  virtuous  young  man  is  going  to  learn  pocket- 
picking  in  the  camp?  Do  you  suppose  a  young  man  is  go- 
ing to  learn  stealing  there?  These  things  do  not  come  by 
contagion.  They  are  the  final  results  of  insidious  causes. 
They  are  the  desperate  ends  of  fair  beginnings.  They  are 
the  holes  through  which  men  go  out  of  our  sight  into  perdi- 
tion. It  is  not  the  endings,  but  the  beginnings,  that  are  to 
be  guarded  against. 

The  men  that  are  dangerous  in  camps  are  not  bloated 
drunkards,  shameless  gamblers,  and  such  as  they.  But  an 
accomplished  officer,  a  brilliant  fellow,  who  knows  the 
world,  who  is  gentle  in  language,  who  understands  all  the 
etiquettes  of  society,  who  is  fearless  of  God,  who  believes 
nothing  in  religion,  who  does  not  hesitate  with  wit  and 
humor  to  jeer  at  sacred  things,  who  takes  an  infernal  pleas- 
ure in  winding  around  his  finger  the  young  about  him, 
who  is  polished  and  wicked,  and  walks  as  an  angel  of  light 
to  tempt  his  fellow-men,  as  Satan  did  to  tempt  our  first 


316  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

parents, — if  there  be  in  the  camp  such  a  one,  he  is  the  dan- 
gerous man  !  And  the  camp  is  full  of  such  ones.  The 
worst  of  it  is  that  the  young  do  not  suspect  them  till  it  is 
too  late  to  avoid  them.  There  is  a  sort  of  dynamic  influ- 
ence that  superior  natures  exert  upon  inferior  ones.  It  is 
said  that  a  cat  can  fascinate  a  bird,  and  that  a  snake  fas- 
cinates its  own  victims.  There  is  no  doubt  that  one  hu- 
man being  can  fascinate  another.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
one  man  built  in  a  certain  way  has  almost  complete  ascend- 
ency over  another  man  built  in  a  different  way.  This  fact 
is  fearfully  illustrated  in  the  camp  by  the  contamination 
of  the  young  and  inexperienced  under  the  influence  of  bad 
men  with  whom  they  come  in  contact. 

I  shall  not  mention  the  petty  vices  of  lawlessness  that 
grow  up  in  war.  When  men  are  assaulting  an  enemy  and 
overrunning  an  enemy's  territory,  when  a  town  having  re- 
sisted them,  they  have  by  the  strength  of  their  right  hand 
broken  through  all  obstacles  and  taken  possession  of  it, 
they  are  not  apt  to  be  too  respectful  of  the  rights  of  those 
that  are  at  their  mercy.  Rapine  and  thefts  and  various 
violence  grow  up  under  such  circumstances. 

I  shall  mention  but  one  other  danger,  and  that  only  in- 
directly has  a  moral  bearing  upon  this  subject, — I  mean 
the  danger  of  neglecting  to  observe  the  laws  of  health. 
I  have  been  very  much  affected  in  seeing  how  men  that  are 
gathered  into  our  regiments  live.  You  and  I  that  live  in 
ceiled  houses,  and  have  changes  of  apparel  for  all  the  seasons, 
— spring,  summer,  autumn,  and  winter, — and  many  of  them 
for  each  season,  can  scarcely  form  a  conception  of  the  pov- 
erty and  destitution  of  many  laboring  men,  but  particu- 
larly foreigners,  who  enlist  in  the  army.  When  their  shoes 
give  out,  they  have  to  make  a  special  campaign  to  get  an- 
other pair.  When  their  hat  gives  out,  they  wear  it  still. 
When  their  coat  gives  out,  they  get  another  if  they  can. 
How  little  these  men  know  of  the  laws  of  health  !  How 
little  they  know  of  the  economies  of  life  !  Now  hurry  a 
thousand,  or  ten  thousand  of  these  men,  by  land  and  water 
away  from  home,  oblige  them  to  be  irregular  in  their 
habits,  give  them   poor  food    miserably  cooked,  let  them 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  317 

after  a  long,  fagging  day's  journey  go  to  camp  so  tired 
that  they  can  hardly  see,  and  throw  themselves  down  under 
the  first  bush  or  tree,  no  matter  whether  the  ground  is  wet 
or  dry,  so  that  when  they  wake  up  they  feel  as  though  a 
ramrod  had  been  run  through  their  arms  and  their  legs, — 
and  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  multitudes  of  them  sicken 
and  die  ?  The  hospitals  that  receive  the  sick  from  armies 
are  a  commentary  on  the  knowledge  that  prevails  among 
men  respecting  the  laws  of  health.  In  ninety-nine  cases 
out  of  a  hundred  the  sickness  of  camp  life  is  owing  to 
the  fact  that  men  do  not  know  how  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. Were  I  a  chaplain  in  the  army,  while  I  would 
preach  and  distribute  books  and  tracts,  and  do  special 
ministerial  work,  I  would,  in  the  main,  see  to  it  that  the 
health  of  the  soldiers  was  not  neglected.  I  would  explain 
to  them  health-laws,  and  urge  them  to  observe  them,  and 
watch  over  them  as  tenderly  as  a  mother  watches  over  her 
child.  And  to  any  man  that  is  going  as  chaplain  I  would 
say,  Take  care  of  your  men's  health.  For  although  health 
is  not  religion,  religion  is  very  much  dependent  on  health. 
A  candle  is  not  a  candlestick,  but  a  candle  without  a  candle- 
stick is  of  little  account.  If  a  man  is  going  to  keep  his 
soul  alight,  he  must  have  a  good  body  to  hold  it  in.  And 
one  important  duty  of  the  sanctuary  is  to  teach  the  igno- 
rant and  unknowing  of  these  matters  which  are  so  vital  to 
their  prosperity. 

Thus  much  on  that  side.  Allow  me  a  few  words  now  to 
those  who  go. 

There  are  going  out  in  all  our  companies  not  a  few  who, 
thank  God,  have  been  religiously  trained,  and  are  them- 
selves professors  of  religion,  and  yet  more  who,  though 
they  may  not  be  professors  of  religion,  are  really  moral  and 
virtuous  men.  I  exhort  all  such  that  they  should  see 
eye  to  eye;  that  they  should  find  each  other  out;  that  they 
should  band  together  for  the  right.  Where  two  men  come 
together  on  the  ground  of  moral  principle,  there  is  a 
church.  Where  two  men  associate  themselves  together  for 
the  purpose  of  promoting  a  moral  cause,  there  is  a  church. 
An  ocean  is  nothing  but  an  aggregate  of  drops;  and  every 


3 1 8  PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

drop  is  a  factor  of  that  ocean.  And  large  churches  are 
nothing  but  collections  of  multitudinous  drops.  But 
where  there  are  two  men  united  in  a  Christian  work  there 
is  a  church;  and  there  ought  to  be  in  every  regiment  and 
company  and  platoon  a  little  church.  If  in  any  regiment 
or  company  or  platoon  there  are  two  men  that  are  moral 
and  good,  they  ought  to  stand  out  at  once  and  take  ground 
for  goodness  and  morality.  It  is  a  shame  to  see  how  fear- 
lessly bad  men  take  ground  for  iniquity,  and  how  shy  good 
men  are  of  avowing  religion.  There  ought  to  be  a  bold 
stand  taken  in  favor  of  virtue  by  the  good  in  each  one  of 
the  various  companies.  If  there  is  not  such  a  stand  taken 
in  Company  C  of  the  Fourteenth  Regiment,  I  shall  be 
ashamed  of  my  preaching.  We  have  sent  out  fifteen  or 
twenty  young  men  that  are  distributed  through  the  com- 
panies of  another  regiment;  but  we  have  sent  more  in  this 
particular  regiment,  because  they  have  remained  later  upon 
our  hands.  And  I  expect  that  there  will  be  a  real  moral  in- 
fluence exerted  through  the  regiment  by  the  young  men 
that  are  in  it  who  have  gone  out  of  this  church. 

There  ought  to  be  in  the  camp  a  provision  made  to  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  the  men  in  the  intervals  of  drill  and  cpn- 
flict.  I  have  spoken  of  the  temptations  of  indolence.  We 
shall  be  utterly  delinquent  in  duty  if  we  make  no  provision 
of  reading  for  them.  They  have  nothing  to  do;  their 
camp-fire  is  burning;  the  sun  has  just  sunk  below  the 
horizon;  they  sit  in  groups  here  and  there;  the  story-teller 
is  in  vogue;  the  man  who  has  the  most  fluent  tongue,  and 
who  is  the  most  amusing,  is  the  man  that  is  popular, — not 
the  man  that  retires  to  his  tent,  or  at  a  little  distance,  to 
commune  with  God;  but  the  entertaining  man,  the  man 
that  knows  how  to  lessen  the  tedium  of  the  hour.  This 
gives  ascendency  to  dangerous  men.  But  if  every  day 
there  was  something  to  read,  this  evil  would  be  in  a  great 
measure  overcome.  A  daily  newspaper  has  become  almost 
as  necessary  to  us  at  home  as  our  daily  food  !  The  want 
will  be  felt  in  camp.  We  cannot  eat  our  breakfast  without 
a  morning  paper;  nor  our  supper  without  an  evening 
paper;     and    I     should    not    be    surprised    if    before    long 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  319 

we  should  think  we  could  not  get  our  dinner  without 
a  noon  paper.  Of  course  Bibles  and  Testaments  will  go 
with  the  men,  but  there  ought  to  be  other  reading  for  them. 
We  have  at  least  two  Tract  Societies;  and  it  seems  to  me 
that,  while  they  send  some  tracts,  and  a  few  books,  they 
could  not  put  the  greater  proportion  of  their  funds  to  so 
good  a  use  as  that  of  subscribing  for  good  sound  papers, 
to  be  read  by  the  soldiers  during  leisure  hours,  or  while 
sitting  in  the  doors  of  their  tents.  There  is  a  moral  influ- 
ence in  such  reading.  Not  only  does  it  occupy  their  leisure 
hours,  but  it  takes  them  out  of  the  dangers  of  camp  life, 
and  carries  them  back  to  their  homes,  and  leads  them  to 
think  of  father  and  mother,  and  sisters  and  brothers,  and 
childhood.  It  abolishes  distance.  It  annihilates  separa- 
tion. It  quickens  their  memory  and  awakens  their  imagi- 
nation. It  prevents  them  from  losing  their  identity.  See 
that  the  men  have  books  and  papers  enough.  And  if  the 
great  publishing  houses  feel  as  if  it  is  not  in  their  line  to 
give  secular  reading-matter,  there  ought  to  be  organiza- 
tions formed  by  which  the  camp  shall  be  filled  with  news- 
papers. The  most  efficacious  secular  book  that  ever  was 
published  in  America  is  the  newspaper  ! 

In  other  ways  there  should  be  kept  alive  sympathy  be- 
tween the  camp  and  the  community;  between  the  camp 
and  home.  Ah !  the  chaplain  may  go  round  and  talk 
to  the  men  as  much  as  he  pleases,  but  I  tell  you,  the 
things  that  work  most  powerfully  on  them  are  the  thoughts 
of  home  and  friends  that  pass  through  their  minds  when 
they  sit  with  their  elbows  on  their  knees,  and  with 
their  eyes  shut,  and  say  to  themselves,  "  My  mother  is 
singing,"  or,  "  My  father  is  praying."  Those  golden 
threads  that  go  forth  out  of  the  much-weaving  mother's 
heart;  those  threads  of  love  and  domesticity  that  never 
break  by  long  stretching,  that  go  around  and  around  the 
globe  itself  and  yet  keep  fast  hold, — these,  after  all,  are  the 
things  that  work  most  powerfully  on  men  ! 

Now,  let  them  be  supplied  with  tokens,  mementos,  re- 
membrancers, from  those  that  are  left  behind.  When  the 
soldier  looks  upon  the  little  things  that  have  been  sent  him 


320  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

by  dear  ones  at  home,  he  cannot  suppress  his  tears.  But 
do  you  suppose  it  is  because  he  has  a  few  luxuries?  It  is 
not  the  things  themselves  that  he  cares  for.  As  likely  as 
not  he  gives  these  away  to  his  comrades.  But  loving  hearts 
were  prompted  to  send  them  to  him,  and  kind  hands 
placed  them  in  the  box  !  They  are  evidences  of  affection- 
ate regard  cherished  for  him.  All  these  things  work 
wonders  in  the  camp. 

Let  us  take  care  of  those  that  go  out  from  among  us.  It 
would  be  a  shame  if  this  Christian  community,  having  sent 
forth  young  men  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  country,  should 
forget  them.  You  have  but  just  begun  your  duty  toward 
them.  The  most  serious  part  of  that  duty  is  to  take  care 
of  the  camp  ! 

My  Christian  friends,  I  have  the  utmost  confidence,  I 
need  not  tell  you,  in  the  American  principle  of  self-gov- 
ernment. Anything  on  God's  earth  can  be  done  by  an  in- 
telligent, virtuous,  self-governing  people;  and  though 
monarchies  cannot  have  camps  without  mischief,  the 
American  people  can  civilize  and  Christianize  the  camp. 
I  roll  the  responsibility  of  doing  this  upon  our  churches, 
and  assume  my  part  of  the  responsibility.  It  will  be  a  shame 
to  our  civilization  and  Christianity  if  we  are  not  able  to 
take  these  camps  in  the  arms  of  a  sanctifying  faith,  and 
lift  them  above  those  corrupting  tendencies  which  are  in- 
separable from  war.  I  hope  to  see  those  who  go  from  this 
church  come  back,  not  only  as  good  as  they  go,  but  better, 
more  manly,  more  fearless  for  the  right.  I  do  not  expect 
that  there  will  be  any  castaways  among  them.  I  do  not 
believe  that  one  of  them  will  be  a  deserter  from  the  faith. 
I  feel  assured  that  they  will  all  be  more  confirmed  soldiers 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, — and  they  will  be  better  soldiers 
of  him  by  as  much  as  they  are  good  soldiers  of  their 
country. 

Now  let  us  acknowledge  our  obligations  in  this  matter, 
and  take  hold  of  hands  and  discharge  those  obligations. 
While  you  thank  God  that  he  has  raised  up  so  many  that 
are  willing  and  eager  to  defend  our  country,  and  although 
you  have  contributed  liberally  of  your  means  to  prepare 


THE  CAMP,  ITS  DANGERS  AND  DUTIES.  321 

them  to  go,  you  must  remember  that  your  duty  toward 
them  has  but  just  begun  to  be  performed.  You  must  fol- 
low them  with  your  prayers,  morning,  noon,  and  night. 
Not  only  that,  you  must  see  that  their  wants  are  provided 
for,  and,  more  than  all  other  things,  that  their  moral  wants 
are  provided  for.  The  church  and  camp  must  work  to- 
gether in  this  great  emergency. 

May  God  speed  them  that  go  forth  !  Every  morning, 
when  I  have  arisen,  for  a  week  or  ten  days  past,  I  have 
rushed  down  expecting  to  hear  the  tocsin  of  the  battle. 
But  as  some  lurid  days  that  have  thunders  in  them  will 
not  storm,  but  hold  themselves  aloof,  and  gather  copper 
color  in  the  sky,  because  the  bolt  is  to  fall  with  more  ter- 
rific violence;  so  it  seems  to  me  that  in  the  impressive 
silence  which  prevails  the  storm  of  battle  is  only  collect- 
ing, and  collecting,  because  the  great  conflict  is  coming 
ere  long  like  God's  thunder-crack  !  When  it  does  come  I 
have  not  the  least  doubt  as  to  where  victory  will  issue; 
I  have  not  the  least  doubt  as  to  which  side  will  triumph. 
I  foresee  the  victory.  I  rejoice  in  it,  in  anticipation;  not 
because  it  is  to  be  on  our  side,  but  because  it  has  pleased 
God,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  to  make  liberty  our  side;  not 
because  we  are  North  and  they  are  South,  but  because 
we  have  civilization  and  they  have  barbarism,  because  we 
stand  on  the  principle  of  equity  and  liberty,  and  they  stand 
on  the  principle  of  slavery  and  injustice.  It  will  be  a  moral 
victory  more  than  a  military  victory. 

May  God  speed  the  day,  give  the  victory,  crown  it  with 
peace,  restore  unity,  and  make  it  more  compact  and  endur- 
ing because  freed  from  this  contamination,  this  poison,  in 
our  system  ! 


MODES   AND   DUTIES   OF   EMANCI- 
PATION/ 


"And  after  a  time  he  returned  to  take  her,  and  he  turned  aside  to  see  the 
carcass  of  the  lion ;  and,  behold,  there  was  a  swarm  of  bees  and  honey  in 
the  carcass  of  the  lion." — Judges  xiv.  8. 


Samson  was  on  an  errand  of  love.  He  was  interrupted 
by  a  lion,  which  he  slew;  for  love  is  stronger  than  any  lion. 
He  gained  his  suit;  but,  alas  !  everything  went  by  con- 
traries thereafter.  The  woman  whose  love  was  at  first 
sweeter  to  him  than  honey,  betrayed  him.  She  was  his  lion. 
Whereas,  on  his  way  to  her  he  found  that  bees  had  pos- 
session of  the  real  lion's  carcass,  and  had  filled  it  with 
honey.  And  so,  in  the  end,  the  lion  was  better  to  him 
than  his  wife. 

But  how  full  of  suggestions  is  this  incident.  Who  would 
have  looked  for  honey  behind  a  lion's  paws  ?  While  he 
was  yet  roaring  and  striking  at  Samson,  there  seemed  very 
little  likelihood  of  his  finding  a  honeyed  meal  in  him.  But 
if  lions  bravely  slain  yield  such  food,  let  them  become  em- 
blems !  The  bee  signifies  industry,  among  all  nations; 
and  honey  is  the  very  ideal  of  sweetness. 

To-day  war  is  upon  us.  A  lion  is  on  our  path.  But, 
being  bravely  met,  in  its  track  shall  industry  settle,  and 
we  shall  yet  fetch  honey  from  the  carcass  of  war.  You 
will  not  object,  then,  if,  to-day,  I  bring  you  honey  from 
this  lion's  body. 

At  first,  and  to  unhopeful  souls,  it  would  seem  as  if  no 
day  of  Thanksgiving  ever  were  so  sadly  planted.  Nor  will 
I  undertake  to  persuade  you  that  there  are  no  evils  to  be- 
moan:  there  are  many.     But  the  evils  are  transient,  super- 

*  Thanksgiving  Day,  November  26,  1861. 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  323 

ficial,  and  vincible;  the  benefits  are  permanent,  radical, 
and  multiplying. 

Not  long  ago  we  were  a  united  nation.  Our  industry- 
was  bringing  in  riches  as  the  tides  of  the  ocean;  and  no 
man  could  imagine  the  manhood  of  a  continent  whose 
youth  was  so  august. 

Now,  a  line  of  fire  runs  through  from  east  to  west,  and 
more  than  half  a  million  men  confront  each  other  with 
hostile  arms.  Villages  are  burned;  farms  are  deserted; 
neighbors  are  at  bloody  variance;  industry  stands  still 
through  fifteen  States,  or  only  forges  implements  of  war. 
The  sky  at  night  is  red  with  camp-fires;  by  day  the  ground 
trembles  with  the  tramp  of  armies.  Yet,  amid  many  great 
and  undeniable  evils,  which  every  Christian  patriot  must 
bitterly  lament,  there  are  eminent  reasons  for  thankfulness, 
several  of  which  I  shall  point  out  to  you. 

I.  Since  we  must  accept  this  war,  with  all  its  undeniable 
evils,  it  is  a  matter  for  thanksgiving  that  the  citizens  and 
their  lawful  government  of  these  United  States  can  appeal 
to  the  Judge  of  the  universe  and  to  all  right-minded  men, 
to  bear  witness  that  it  is  not  a  war  waged  in  the  interest 
of  any  base  passion,  but,  truly  and  religiously,  in  the  de- 
fense of  the  highest  interests  ever  committed  to  national 
keeping.  It  is  not,  on  our  side,  a  war  of  passion;  nor  of 
avarice;  nor  of  anger;  nor  of  revenge;  nor  of  fear  and 
jealousy. 

We  hold  that  the  territory  of  these  United  States  is  com- 
mon to  all  its  inhabitants;  and  is,  not  simply  a  possession, 
but  a  trust.  Unless  by  the  deliberate  decision  of  the  law- 
fully assembled  people  of  these  United  States,  constitu- 
tionally expressed,  that  territory  may  neither  be  aban- 
doned, alienated,  nor  partitioned.  We  hold  it  in  trust  for 
the  Future.  Is  it  the  duty  of  New  York  to  defend  its  ter- 
ritory against  foes  without,  and  evil  men  within,  from  the 
Lake  to  Montauk  Point  ?  Is  it  the  duty  of  each  New  En- 
gland State  to  defend  every  foot  within  its  jurisdiction  ?  In 
like  manner,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  but  in  greater  force, 
it  is  the  duty  of  all  the  States  collectively  to  maintain  the 
integrity  of  the   national   domain.     It   is  not  a  question  of 


324  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

whether  we  will  or  will  not.  By  the  appointed  and  appro- 
priate methods  of  the  Constitution  that  question  has  been 
taken  from  our  hands.  It  is  not  subject  to  our  volition. 
But  we  are  bound,  by  that  silent  oath  which  every  man  as- 
sumes who  comes  to  years  of  maturity  as  a  citizen,  to 
maintain  inviolate  the  territory  of  these  United  States. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  citizens,  also,  to  stand  up  for  their 
government;  to.  protect  its  just  authority;  to  maintain  all 
its  attributes;  and  to  see  to  it  that  its  jurisdiction  is  not 
restricted  except  by  those  methods  which  have  been  pre- 
determined and  agreed  upon  in  that  Constitution  on  which 
it  stands. 

But  in  our  particular  case,  the  reasons  for  maintaining 
the  government  in  all  its  ample  jurisdiction  are  intensified 
beyond  all  measuring  by  the  fact  that  the  dangers  which 
are  threatening  it  arise,  confessedly  and  undeniably,  not 
from  a  perversion  of  the  principles  of  our  Constitution  in 
our  hands,  nor  from  an  oppressive  administration  of  our 
government  under  these  principles,  but  because  a  large 
body  of  men,  gradually  infected  with  new  political  doc- 
trines, in  their  nature  irreconcilable  with  the  root  principle 
of  our  government,  have  determined  to  overthrow  it,  that 
they  may  change  its  fundamental  principles.  We  are  not 
left  to  infer  this.  There  is  this  merit  in  Southern  politi- 
cians, that  they  are  frank  and  open  in  the  declaration  of 
their  political  doctrines.  The  best  head  among  them  is 
that  of  Mr.  Stephens;  and  he  declares  in  the  most  un- 
equivocal manner  that  the  object  of  this  rebellion  is  to  in- 
troduce new  principles  in  government.  I  shall  read  from 
him. 

"  The  new  Constitution  has  put  at  rest  forever  all  the  agitating 
questions  relating  to  our  peculiar  institutions, — African  slavery 
as  it  exists  among  us, — the  proper  status  of  the  negro  in  our  form 
of  civilization." 

We  shall  see  whether  it  has  put  them  at  rest  "  forever  " 
or  not. 

"  This  was  tlic  immediate  cause  of  the  late  rupture  and  present 
revolution.  Jefferson,  in  his  forecast,  had  anticipated  this,  as 
the  'rock  upon  which  the  old  Union  would  split.'     He  was  right. 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OE  EMANCIPATION.  325 

What  was  conjecture  with  him,  is  now  a  realized  fact.  But 
whether  he  fully  comprehended  the  great  truth  upon  which  that 
rock  stood  and  stands,  may  be  doubted,  The  prevailing  ideas  en- 
tertained by  him,  and  most  of  the  leading  statesmen  at  the  time  of  the 
formation  of  the  old  Constitution,  were,  that  the  enslavement  of  the 
African  was  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature;  that  it  was  wrong 
in  principle,  socially,  morally,  and  politically." 

I  thank  him  for  that  testimony. 

"  It  was  an  evil  they  knew  not  well  how  to  deal  with ;  but  the 
general  opinion  of  the  men  of  that  day  was,  that,  somehow  or 
other,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  the  institution  would  be  evanes- 
cent and  pass  away.  This  idea,  though  not  incorporated  in  the 
Constitution,  was  the  prevailing  idea  at  the  time." 

This,  you  understand,  is  from  the  Vice-President  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  Alexander  H.  Stephens. 

"The  Constitution,  it  is  true,  secured  every  essential  guaranty 
to  the  institution  while  it  should  last,  and  hence  no  argument  can 
be  justly  used  against  the  constitutional  guaranties  thus  secured, 
because  of  the  common  sentiment  of  the  day.  Those  ideas,  how- 
ever, were  fundamentally  wrong.  They  rested  upon  the  assumption 
of  the  eqicality  of  races.  This  was  an  error.  It  was  a  sandy  foun- 
dation, and  the  idea  of  a  government  built  upon  it, — when  the 
'storm  came  and  the  wind  blew,  it  fell.'  Our  new  government  is 
founded  upon  exactly  the  opposite  ideas." 

I  thank  him  for  his  candor. 

"  Its  foundations  are  laid,  its  corner-stone  rests,  upon  the  great 
truth  that  the  negro  is  not  equal  to  the  white  man  ;  that  slavery, 
subordination  to  the  superior  race,  is  his  natural  and  normal 
condition." 

What  a  corner-stone  that  is  for  a  government  ! 

"  This,  our  new  government,  is  the  first  in  the  history  of  the 
world  based  upon  this  great  physical,  philosophical,  and  moral 
truth." 

And  I  will  take  the  leave  so  far  to  interpolate  his  speech 
as  to  say  that  it  will  be  the  last  !  Further  on  he  says  (it  is 
such  excellent  reading  that  I  cannot  deny  myself  the 
pleasure  of  edifying  you): — 

"May  we  not  therefore  look  with  confidence  to  the  ultimate 
universal   acknowledgment  of  the  truths  upon  which  our  system 


326  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

rests  ?  It  is  the  first  government  ever  instituted  upon  principles 
in  strict  conformity  to  nature,  and  the  ordination  of  Providence, 
in  furnishing  the  materials  of  human  society.  Many  governments 
have  been  founded  upon  the  principles  of  certain  classes;  but  the 
classes  thus  enslaved  were  of  the  same  race,  and  in  violation  of 
the  laws  of  nature.  Our  system  commits  no  such  violation  of 
nature's  laws.  The  negro  by  nature,  or  by  the  curse  against 
Canaan,  is  fitted  for  that  condition  which  he  occupies  in  our  sys- 
tem. The  architect,  in  the  construction  of  buildings,  lays  the 
foundation  with  the  proper  material, — the  granite, — then  comes 
the  brick  or  the  marble.  The  substratum  of  our  society  is  made 
of  the  material  fitted  by  nature  for  it,  and  by  experience  we  know 
that  it  is  the  best,  not  only  for  the  superior,  but  for  the  inferior 
race,  that  it  should  be  so.  It  is,  indeed,  in  conformity  with  the 
Creator.  It  is  not  for  us  to  inquire  into  the  wisdom  of  his  ordi- 
nances, or  to  question  them.  For  his  own  purposes  he  has  made 
one  race  to  differ  from  another,  as  he  has  made  '  one  star  to  differ 
from  another  in  glory.'  The  great  objects  of  humanity  are  best 
attained  when  conformed  to  his  laws  and  decrees,  in  the  forma- 
tion of  governments  as  well  as  in  all  things  else.  Our  Confed- 
eracy is  founded  upon  principles  in  strict  conformity  with  these 
laws.  This  stone  which  was  rejected  by  the  first  builders  '  is  be- 
come the  chief  stone  of  the  corner'  in  our  new  edifice." 

These  words,  you  will  remember,  were  spoken  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  he  was  set  at  naught  and  rejected 
by  the  Jews,  his  countrymen;  and  this  Vice-President  of 
the  so-called  Confederate  States  of  America  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  declare  that  slavery  stands,  in  their  new  system,  in 
the  place  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  holds  in  the  Christian 
system!  It  is  the  soul  and  center  of  it.  It  is  the  founda- 
tion and  corner-stone. 

Dr.  Smyth,  of  South  Carolina,  says: — 

"What  is  the  difficulty,  and  what  the  remedy?  Not  in  the 
election  of  Republican  Presidents.  No.  Not  in  the  non-execu- 
tion of  the  Fugitive  Bill.  No.  But  it  lies  back  of  all  these.  It 
is  found  in  that  Atheistic  Red  Republican  doctrine  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  /  Until  that  is  trampled  under  foot,  there 
can  be  no  peace." 

Until  either  that  or  its  antagonist  is  trampled  under 
foot,  truly  there  can  be  no  peace  !  Which  is  to  go  under 
time  will  show. 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  327 

This  is,  then,  mark  you,  a  rebellion,  not  against  an  op- 
pressive administration,  but  against  the  fundamental  right 
of  liberty  in  every  man  who  has  not  forfeited  it  by  crime. 
And  it  is  declared,  without  equivocation  or  disguise,  that 
the  rebellion  and  the  war  are  brought  upon  us  because  our 
Constitution  contains  and  our  government  will  enforce 
great  principles  of  equity.  The  people  of  this  nation  are 
aroused  to  defend  their  Constitution  and  their  govern- 
ment, not  simply  because  they  are  assailed;  but — as  if 
Providence  meant  to  make  this  conflict  illustrious  in  the 
annals  of  the  world — because  they  are  assailed  in  those 
very  respects  in  which  they  embody  the  latest  fruits  of 
Christianity  and  the  latest  attainments  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. The  very  things  that  belong  to  our  age,  in  distinc- 
tion from  every  age  before  it,  are  the  things  that  are 
singled  out  and- made  the  objects  of  attack.  We  would 
defend  our  Constitution  at  any  rate;  but  when  it  is 
charged  with  the  noblest  principles  as  if  they  were  crimes, 
it  appeals  for  its  defense  to  every  conscience  and  to  every 
heart  in  this  land  with  a  solemnity  as  of  the  day  of 
judgment. 

We  are  contending,  not  for  that  part  of  the  Constitution 
which  came  in  any  way  from  Roman  law,  and  expressed 
justice  as  it  had  been  developed  in  the  iron-hearted  realm; 
but  for  that  part  which  Christianity  gave  us,  and  which 
has  been  working  forth  into  laws  and  customs  for  eighteen 
hundred  years.  The  principle  now  in  conflict  is  that  very 
one  which  gives  unity  to  history:  it  is  that  golden  thread 
that  leads  us  through  the  dark  maze  of  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years,  and  connects  us  with  the  immortal  Head  of 
the  Church, — the  principle  of  man's  rights  based  upon  the 
divinity  of  his  origin.  Man  from  God,  God  a  Father,  and 
the  race  brothers,  all  alike  standing  on  one  great  platform 
of  justice  and  love, — the  principle  herein  expressed  has 
been  the  foundation  of  the  struggle  of  eighteen  hundred 
years;  and  it  has  been  embodied  (thanks  to  Puritan  influ- 
ence) in  our  Constitution.  And  this  the  exponent  of 
Southern  views  plainly  declares  to  be  the  point  of  offense 
in  our  government.     He  says,  in  unmeasured  terms,  and 


328  r A  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

with  impious  boldness,  that  it  is  to  put  down  that  principle 
that  the  South  are  up  in  arms  to-day. 

Is  it  no  cause  for  thanksgiving,  then,  that  since  we  must 
war,  God  has  called  us  to  battle  on  ground  so  high,  for 
ends  so  noble,  in  a  cause  so  pure,  and  for  results  so  univer- 
sal ?  For  this  is  not  a  battle  for  ourselves  alone.  Every 
great  deed  nobly  done  is  done  for  all  mankind.  A  battle 
on  the  Potomac  for  our  Constitution,  as  a  document  of  lib- 
erty, is  the  world's  battle.  We  are  fighting,  not  merely 
for  our  liberty,  but  for  those  ideas  that  are  the  seeds  and 
strength  of  liberty  throughout  the  earth.  There  is  not  a 
man  that  feels  the  chain,  there  is  not  a  man  whose  neck  is 
stiff  under  the  yoke,  whether  that  man  be  serf,  yeoman,  or 
slave,  who  has  not  an  interest  in  the  conflict  that  we  are 
set,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  wage  against  this  mon- 
strous doctrine  of  iniquity.     There  is  honey  in  that  lion  ! 

II.  It  is  matter  of  thanksgiving  that  we  have  not  sought 
this  war,  but,  by  a  long  and  magnanimous  course,  have 
endured  shame,  and  political  loss,  and  disturbance  the 
most  serious,  rather  than  peril  the  Union.  Indeed,  I 
am  bound  to  say  that,  so  strong  was  the  national  feeling 
with  us,  and  so  weak  with  Southern  men,  that  we  made  an 
idol  of  that  which  they  trod  under  foot  with  contempt; 
and  like  idolaters  we  threw  ourselves  down  at  the  expense 
of  our  very  self-respect  before  our  idol  of  the  Union.  I  do 
not  mean  that  it  would  have  been  wrong  to  have  taken  the 
initiative  in  a  cause  so  sacred  as  that  which  impels  this 
conflict;  but  if,  where  the  end  is  right  and  the  cause  is 
sacred,  it  can  also  be  shown  that  there  has  been  patience, 
honest  and  long-continued  effort  to  preserve  the  right  by 
peaceful  methods, — by  reasoning  and  by  moral  appeal, — 
and  that  that  most  desperate  of  all  remedies,  war,  has  been 
forced  upon  us  (not  sought,  nor  wished,  but  accepted  re- 
luctantly) by  the  overt  act  of  the  rebellious  States,  then  this 
patience  and  forbearance  will  give  an  added  luster  to  our 
cause. 

I  make  these  remarks  out  of  respect  to  the  Christian 
Public  Sentiment  of  Nations.  Contiguity  is  raising  up  a 
new  element  of  power  on  the  globe;  and  we  do  not  hesitate 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  329 

to  pay  a  just  respect  to  the  opinions  and  expectations 
which  Christian  men  and  philanthropists  of  other  lands 
have  entertained.  We  stand  up  boldly  before  the  earnest 
peace  men,  the  kind  advisers,  the  yearning  mediators,  yea, 
and  before  the  body  of  Christ, — his  Church  on  earth, — and 
declare  that  this  war,  which  we  could  not  avert  without 
giving  up  all  that  Christian  civilization  has  set  us  to  guard 
and  transmit,  cannot  be  abandoned  without  betraying  every 
principle  of  justice,  rectitude,  and  liberty.  We  do  not 
fear  search  and  trial  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Christian 
world  !  In  the  end,  those  who  should  have  given  sym- 
pathy, but  have  given,  instead,  chilling  advice  and  ignorant 
rebuke,  shall  confess  their  mistake,  and  own  our  fealty  to 
God,  to  government,  and  to  mankind.  When  it  would 
have  swelled  our  sails,  there  was  no  breath  of  applause  or 
sympathy.  When  the  gale  is  no  longer  needed,  and  our 
victorious  voyage  is  ended,  we  shall  have  incense  and  ad- 
miration enough  !  But,  meanwhile,  God  has  called  us  to 
war  upon  a  plane  higher  than  feet  ever  trod  before. 
Though  we  did  not  seek  it,  but  prayed  against  it,  and  with 
long  endurance  sought  to  avoid  and  avert  it,  and  reluc- 
tantly accepted  it;  now  that  it  has  come,  it  is  infinite  satis- 
faction to  know  that  we  can  stand  acquitted  before  the 
Christianity  of  the  globe  in  such  a  conflict  as  this.  There 
is  honey  in  that  lion  ! 

III.  It  is  a  matter  of  thanksgiving  that  this  war  promises 
to  solve  those  difficult  problems  which  have  baffled  the 
wisdom  of  our  wisest  counselors. 

There  stands  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome  a  marble  prophecy 
of  America, — a  noble  and  heroic  man,  on  either  side  a 
lovely  son,  but  all,  father  and  sons,  grasped  in  the  coils  of 
a  many-times-enfolding  serpent,  whose  tightening  hold 
not  their  utmost  strength  can  resist;  and,  with  agonizing 
face,  Laocoon  looks  up,  as  if  his  anguish  said,  "  Only  the 
gods  can  save,  whose  hate  we  have  offended  !  " 

So  sat  America.  Around  this  government,  and  around 
the  clustered  States,  twined  the  gigantic  serpent  of  slavery. 
But  here  let  the  emblem  stop.  Let  us  hope  another  history 
than  that  of  the  fabled  Greek. 


33°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Secret  and  open  reasons  many  have  made  slavery  a  mat- 
ter most  unmanageable  in  our  national  councils.  Had  it 
been  desired  to  test  to  the  uttermost  the  power  of  republi- 
can institutions  to  sustain  good  government,  no  other  con- 
ceivable trial  can  be  imagined  that  would  do  it  as  this  has 
done,  and  as  it  will  do  it.  It  gathered  up  into  its  coils 
almost  every  one  of  those  unmanageable  elements,  each 
one  of  which,  alone,  in  other  lands  is  counted  a  match  for 
human  wisdom.  An  inferior  race,  separated  from  us  by 
physiological  badges  the  most  marked,  and  upon  whom 
rested  the  added  stigma  of  servitude;  a  people  who  com- 
ing from  a  tropical  land  brought  in  the  element  of  climate; 
whose  existence,  in  the  relations  of  society  and  govern- 
ment, fed  every  one  of  the  fiercer  passions,  touched  but  few 
of  the  moral  sentiments,  and  these  feebly,  and  educated 
men  to  idleness,  avarice,  lust,  and  pride  of  dominion, — 
these  poor  African  bondmen,  in  all  their  helplessness  and 
weakness,  were  yet  able  to  plunge  this  nation  into  troubles 
and  difficulties,  of  caste,  of  race,  of  condition,  of  climate, 
and  of  ambitious  wealth,  which  the  strongest  and  the  wisest 
knew  not  how  to  heal  or  to  endure.  War  seems  likely  to 
clear  up  the  questions  that  Politics  could  not  manage. 

By  our  organic  law  we  were  forbidden  to  meddle  with 
local  institutions,  though  they  were  injecting  the  national 
veins  with  poison.  Though  we  saw  that  from  these  local 
institutions  general  and  national  influences  were  going 
forth,  yet  our  organic  principle  of  government  would  not 
permit  us  to  lay  our  hand  upon  them.  Neither  could  we 
bring  to  bear,  for  their  suppression,  in  any  ample  degree, 
the  moral  forces  by  which  other  evils  were  met.  No  pub- 
lic sentiment  in  the  North  could  make  itself  felt  upon 
slavery:  partly  because  no  public  sentiment  can  ever  be 
transported  from  one  section  to  another, — for  ideas  may 
travel,  but  influences  must  be  developed  among  the  people 
on  whom  they  are  to  act, — and  partly  because  of  the  igno- 
rance that  prevailed,  and  must  always  prevail,  among  the 
common  people  where  slave  institutions  exist.  There  was 
also  a  sectional  pride,  a  sensitive  jealousy,  that  must  have 
prevented  access  to  the  South  of  any  moral   influence,  un- 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  331 

less  it  had  been  high,  pure,  and  commanding.  But  the 
North  had  no  such  moral  sentiment.  The  anti-slavery 
feeling  of  the  North  has  always  lacked  unity.  The  whole 
North,  by  the  insidious  influences  of  commerce,  of  politics, 
and  of  sectarian  religion,  has  been  divided  into  three 
principal  sections:  the  lowest,  composed  of  those  that 
were  either  indifferent  to  slavery  or  who  favored  it;  the 
next,  and  most  numerous,  composed  of  those  who,  believ- 
ing it  to  be  an  evil,  deemed  themselves  bound  by  political 
considerations,  and  by  commercial  interests,  to  forbear 
meddling  with  it;  and  the  last,  composed  of  the  anti-slavery 
men  of  the  North.  These  have  been  so  divided  among 
themselves,  and  so  intolerant  of  each  other's  doctrines,  that 
they  may  be  said  to  have  expended  as  much  strength 
against  each  other  as  they  have  unitedly  exerted  against 
slavery  itself.  What  public  sentiment  could  be  hoped  from 
such  a  condition  of  the  community,  that  would  have  au- 
thority, or  even  influence,  in  the  South  ? 

And  so  we  were  drifting  every  year;  the  North,  partly 
from  the  force  of  moral  considerations,  but  even  more 
from  the  amazing  folly  and  arrogance  of  Southern  political 
management,  growing  more  and  more  consolidated  for 
liberty;  and  the  South,  changing  all  its  original  political 
doctrines,  and  carrying  down,  with  fatal  gravitation,  the 
conscience  of  the  Church  and  the  convictions  of  a  feeble 
ministry,  was  becoming  every  year  more  determined  for 
slavery.  Thus  each  was  having  less  and  less  influence 
with  the  other. 

It  has  pleased  God,  by  the  very  infatuation  of  this  gigan- 
tic evil,  rudely  to  dash  these  two  sections  together.  That 
out  of  this  conflict  liberty  will  come  triumphant  we  do  not 
for  one  moment  doubt.  That  we  see  the  beginning  of 
national  emancipation  we  firmly  believe.  And  we  would 
have  you  firmly  to  believe  it,  lest,  fearing  the  loss  of  such 
an  opportunity,  you  should  over-eagerly  grasp  at  accidental 
advantages,  and  seek  to  press  forward  the  consummation 
by  methods  and  measures  which,  freeing  you  from  one  evil, 
shall  open  the  door  for  innumerable  others,  and  fill  our 
future  with  conflicts  and  immedicable  trouble. 


332  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Good  men  in  Great  Britain  expect  us  to  make  a  Decree 
of  Universal  Emancipation.  Had  England,  either  by  her 
government,  or  by  the  unmistakable  language  of  the  Chris- 
tian public,  given  the  South  to  understand  that  there  could 
be  no  possible  sympathy  or  help  for  them  from  slave-hating 
England  in  their  nefarious  rebellion,  we  do  not  believe  that 
this  conspiracy  against  human  rights  would  ever  have 
taken  its  present  terrible  proportions.  Whether  England 
meant  it  or  not,  she  has  influenced  the  South  powerfully  in 
its  attack  against  the  Federal  Government,  and  in  its  de- 
termination to  establish  republican  institutions  upon  the 
principle  of  slavery.  And  this  misfortune  is  not  remedied 
by  the  condition  upon  which  good  men  in  England  have 
been  pleased  to  promise  their  sympathy, — namely,  that  our 
government,  assuming  and  usurping  the  proper  power  of 
the  States,  should  pronounce  a  decree  of  universal  eman- 
cipation, and  convert  this  struggle  into  a  war  only  for  lib- 
erty to  the  African.  It  was  not  by  England's  sympathy 
that  we  became  independent;  it  was  not  by  her  advice  that 
we  have  grown  to  be  her  equal  among  the  nations  of  the 
world;  and  we  shall  be  able  to  settle  our  present  troubles 
without  her  sympathy  or  succor.  I  am  not  so  ungenerous 
as  to  cherish  unkind  feelings  against  the  stock  from  which 
I  am  proud  to  have  come.  I  am  not  surprised  that  the 
English  nation,  seldom  able  to  understand  foreign  ideas 
and  institutions,  should  be  ignorant  of  the  structure  and 
nature  of  our  government.  We  have  been  prepared,  unfort- 
unately, for  such  a  course  by  her  past  conduct.  The  liter- 
ature of  England  has  been  a  fountain  of  liberty  to  Europe 
and  the  world;  but  the  government  of  England,  more  than 
any  other  on  the  globe,  has  frowned  upon  nations  strug- 
gling for  liberty,  and  subsidized  the  despots  that  were 
seeking  to  crush  them.  It  is  a  matter  of  thanksgiving  to 
God,  that  we  are  not  placed  in  a  condition  where  our  suc- 
cess depends  upon  her  succor.  Let  England  abide  at  home 
and  twirl  her  million  spindles,  and  web  the  globe  with  her 
fabrics.  She  will  not  be  a  helper,  but  she  shall  be  a  specta- 
tor. In  the  quick-coming  end,  when  all  our  troubles  are 
settled,  she  will  not  then  ungenerously  withhold  from  us 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OE  EMANCIPATION.  333 

her  admiration.  When  by  actions  and  results  we  have 
proved  ourselves  worthy  of  those  doctrines  of  human  rights 
which  God  has  intrusted  to  our  advocacy  and  defense,  in 
common  with  her,  she  shall  give  us,  not,  as  now,  ignorant 
advice,  but,  though  late,  a  full  measure  of  praise.  Mean- 
while, we  shall  trust  in  God  and  do  without  England. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  recommendation  of  imme- 
diate universal  emancipation  falls  in  with  the  Northern 
popular  impulse.  The  evils  of  slavery  have  augmented 
to  such  a  degree,  the  perils  which  it  brings  around  our 
government  have  been  now  so  strikingly  revealed,  that  it  is 
not  surprising  that  men  should  desire  at  one  blow  to  end 
the  matter.  If  the  Constitution  of  these  United  States, 
fairly  interpreted,  gives  us  the  power  to  bring  slavery  to  an 
end,  God  forbid  that  we  should  neglect  such  an  opportu- 
nity for  its  exercise.  But  if  that  power  is  withheld,  or  can 
be  exercised  only  with  the  most  doubtful  construction, — 
by  a  construction  which  shall  not  only  weaken  that  instru- 
ment, but  essentially  change  its  nature,  withdrawing  from 
the  States  local  sovereignty,  and  conferring  upon  Congress 
those  rights  of  government  which  have  thus  been  with- 
drawn from  States, — then  will  not  only  slavery  be  destroyed, 
but  with  it  our  very  government.  How  far  our  government, 
by  a  just  use  of  its  legitimate  powers  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, can  avail  itself  of  this  war  to  limit  or  even  to  bring 
slavery  to  an  end,  is  matter  for  the  wisest  deliberation  of 
the  wisest  men.  If  there  be  in  the  hand  of  the  war-power, 
as  John  Quincy  Adams  thought  there  was,  aright  of  eman- 
cipation, then  let  that  be  shown,  and,  in  God's  name,  be 
employed  !  But  if  there  be  given  to  us  no  right  by  our 
Constitution  to  enter  upon  the  States  with  a  legislation 
subversive  of  their  whole  interior  economy,  not  all  the  mis- 
chiefs of  slavery,  and  certainly  not  our  own  impatience  un- 
der its  burdens  and  vexations,  should  tempt  us  to  usurp  it. 
This  conflict  must  be  carried  on  through  our  institutions, 
not  over  them.  Revolution  is  not  the  remedy  for  rebellion. 
The  exercise  on  the  part  of  our  government  of  unlawful 
powers  cannot  be  justified,  except  to  save  the  nation  from 
absolute  destruction. 


334  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

The  South,  like  an  immense  field  of  nettles,  has  been 
overrun  with  the  pestilent  heresies  of  State  rights.  Be- 
cause our  hands  are  stinging  with  these  poisonous  weeds, 
we  shall  be  tempted  inconsiderately  to  go  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  to  gather  up  the  diffused  powers  of  the  State 
and  consolidate  and  centralize  them  in  the  National  Gov- 
ernment. We  must  not  forget  that,  while  a  government  of 
confederated  States  sprang  up,  as  it  were,  accidentally,  it 
was  yet  one  of  those  divine  accidents  which  revealed  the 
strongest  form  of  government  yet  known  to  the  world. 
No  central  government  can  ever  take  the  place  of  State 
governments.  No  central  heart  could  ever  drive  life-blood 
to  the  extremities  of  this  vast  empire.  If  all  the  myriad 
necessities  and  ever-growing  interests  of  this  continent  are 
to  be  cared  for;  if  the  extremest  State  along  the  Russian 
frontier  of  the  Northwest,  or  the  southernmost  one  that 
neighbors  Mexico,  or  the  lacustrine  States  of  the  North, 
are  all  equally  and  alike  to  experience  the  benefits  of  good 
government,  it  must  be  by  maintaining  unimpaired  in  all 
its  beneficence  the  American  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty 
of  local  government,  except  in  those  elements  which  have 
been  clearly  and  undeniably  transferred  to  the  Federal 
Government. 

Slavery  is  our  present  evil  and  danger,  but  it  is  not  the 
only  danger;  and  we  firmly  believe  that  it  has  passed  its 
crisis,  and  is  running  to  its  end.  We  are  not  to  forget  that 
Future  which  rises  before  the  prophetic  vision,  with  prom- 
ises of  millennial  glory.  And  yet  every  promise  has  its 
shadow.  With  every  benefit  there  is  a  corresponding  dan- 
ger. When  slavery  shall  have  wasted  away,  we  shall  not 
then  be  a  nation  without  dangers.  Foes  lie  concealed  from 
us,  but  ready  to  spring  from  unsuspected  ambush.  The 
human  heart  is  the  great  human  enemy.  Lawless  passions 
are  the  State's  perpetual  danger.  Destroy  slavery,  and  you 
have  not  destroyed  depravity.  What  is  slavery  but 
one  way  in  which  lust  and  avarice  and  ambition  and 
indolence  have  sought  to  enthrone  themselves?  Destroy 
this  throne,  and  will  you  have  destroyed  the  occupants? 
In  the  vast  increase  of  States  along  the  Pacific  bounds,  in 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  335 

the  numerous  brood  of  States  born  in  that  continental  in- 
tervale which  the  Mississippi  drains,  in  the  older  States 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  are  there  to  be  no  more  gigantic 
strides  of  ambition,  no  factions,  no  infuriated  military 
struggles,  no  overgrown  people  drunk  with  prosperity  ? 
The  ocean  will  sooner  cease  to  be  swept  by  storms,  than 
this  nation  to  be  agitated  by  the  passions  of  men.  And 
while  we  array  against  these,  in  private,  the  influences  of 
religion,  the  forces  of  education,  and  all  the  ameliorating 
influences  of  civilization,  the  nation  itself  will  still  need 
some  armor  of  defense.  That  armor  is  the  Constitution. 
Take  that  away,  and  this  nation  goes  down  into  the  field  of 
its  conflicts  like  a  warrior  without  armor. 

This  is  not  a  plea  against  immediate  emancipation;  it  is 
but  a  solemn  caution,  lest,  smarting  from  wrong,  we  seize 
the  opportunity  inconsiderately  to  destroy  one  evil  by  a 
process  that  shall  leave  us  at  the  mercy  of  all  others  that 
time  may  bring. 

Does  any  one  ask  me  whether  a  law  or  a  constitution  is 
superior  to  the  original  principle  of  justice  and  of  liberty  ? 
No;  when  law  and  constitution  necessarily  violate  them, 
let  them  be  changed;  but  when  morality  and  justice  and 
liberty  may  be  wrought  out  by  the  Constitution,  be  that 
method  chosen.  Besides,  plighted  faith  is  itself  in  the 
nature  of  a  sacred  moral  principle.  The  Constitution  of 
these  United  States  stands  upon  the  plighted  faith  of  all 
the  several  States  over  which  it  has  authority.  When  we 
cannot  abide  by  our  promises,  then  in  methods  expressly 
provided  we  must  withdraw  the  pledge  and  agreements, 
and  stand  apart,  not  only  as  separate  peoples,  but  under 
new  governments. 

These  reasonings  are  all  the  more  imperative  because  we 
are  not  shut  up  to  doubtful  constructions  or  violent  methods 
for  the  suppression  of  slavery.  We  have  seen  its  worst 
periods.  The  strength  of  its  evil  manhood  is  gone.  Hence- 
forth it  is  a  decrepit  giant,  growing  daily  more  infirm. 
That  it  has  been  stricken  with  infatuation  is  shown  by  that 
war  which  it  has  provoked,  and  which  will  carry  emanci- 
pation where  slavery  meant  to  secure  new  strength.     What 


336  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  pen  of  the  legislator  could  not  do,  that  the  sword  shall 
do.  The  South  have  brought  upon  themselves  what  we 
never  could  have  thrust  upon  them.  There  never  was  a 
more  memorable  instance  of  condign  punishment  follow- 
ing at  the  heels  of  trangression.  The  torch  which  they 
kindled  for  our  destruction  shall  light  the  slaves  to  liberty. 
The  true  policy  for  slavery  was  to  have  retired  their  system 
from  public  view;  but  they  have  obtruded  it,  rather,  with 
singular  impertinence.  They  should  have  hidden  it;  but 
they  have  cast  it  before  them  as  a  very  bulwark.  They 
should  have  shielded  it;  but  they  have  made  it,  rather,  a 
shield  for  themselves,  and  compelled  the  armies  of  the 
United  States,  in  striking  at  rebellion,  to  strike  through 
the  shield  of  slavery.  Less  than  any  other  system  would 
it  bear  disturbance;  and  yet  they  have  brought  an  earth- 
quake upon  it.  We  have  not  destroyed  the  government 
that  we  might  strike  slavery;  they  have  sought  to  destroy 
the  government  that  they  might  establish  slavery;  and  if 
in  re-establishing  again  the  government,  the  sword  shall 
strike  off  the  shackle,  it  will  be  but  one  more  illustration 
of  that  overruling  Providence  by  which  the  wrath  of  man 
is  made  to  praise  God.  Once  more  the  stars  on  our  im- 
mortal flag  are  stars  of  liberty.  Wherever  our  armies  go, 
emancipation  goes.  Confiscation  is  the  punishment  of  re- 
bellion, and  when  applied  to  men,  confiscation  means  lib- 
erty. 

What  do  we  behold?  Men,  not  in  scores,  but  in  hun- 
dreds and  thousands,  set  free  by  no  act  of  their  masters, 
and  by  no  rescript  of  mere  political  authority,  are  held  by 
our  government.  Only  six  months  ago  these  men,  women, 
and  children  were  under  the  local  law  in  the  South;  but 
now  they  have  gone  out  of  the  hands  of  their  local  mas- 
ters, and  our  government  holds  them.  And  how  does  it 
hold  them?  Are  they  men  or  chattels?  Where  will  you 
find  a  law  or  a  constitutional  clause  that  gives  the  United 
States  a  right  to  look  upon  its  subjects — human  beings, 
endowed  with  intelligence,  and  with  immortality  behind 
that  intelligence — as  anything  else  than  men  ?  You  may 
call    them    "contraband,"  —  you    may   with  dexterity  call 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  337 

them  ingenious  or  evasive  names,  but  the  Southern  law 
that  said  "Slave"  is  broken!  Slaves  in  the  possession 
of  the  government  of  these  United  States  can  be  nothing 
else  than  men.  They  are  emancipated.  There  are  to-day 
thousands  and  thousands  of  emancipated  men  in  the  pos- 
session of  this  government,  and  it  is  bound  to  treat  them 
in  some  sort,  if  not  as  citizens,  yet  as  men. 

And  consider  what  will  be  the  effect  of  the  disturbance 
as  our  armies  advance; — what  swarms  will  rise  up  so  soon 
as  liberty  is  given  them.  In  so  vast  a  system  as  that  of 
slavery,  so  loosely  compacted,  and  so  subject  to  fevers 
and  inflammations,  the  reasons  of  the  very  disturbances  of 
it,  of  the  interruption  of  the  occupations  of  the  slaves,  must 
break  into  their  own  darkened  minds.  The  drilling  of 
them  for  service,  the  putting  them  to  the  erection  of  forti- 
fications, the  inuring  them  to  work  for  purposes  of  man- 
hood,— all  these  things  are  preparing  them  for  freedom. 

But  that  is  not  all:  the  South  has  consented  to  pay  a 
premium  of  about  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for  the 
encouragement  of  free-labor  cotton  !  Never  was  there  such 
liberality  since  the  world  began  !  They  have  said  to  the 
world,  "  If  you  will  only  outbid  us  in  the  market,  we  will 
give  you  the  opportunity.  We  have  made  our  profits  out 
of  cotton,  but  we  will  agree  to  tie  up  our  hands  for  two 
years,  and  let  others  take  the  two  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  raise  the  cotton."  So  the  West  Indies  have 
planted  cotton;  India  is  raising  it;  China  is  raising  it;  they 
are  planting  cotton  on  the  shores  of  Africa;  and  all  the  world 
has  become  a  cotton-field,  because  there  is  a  premium 
offered  upon  cotton  that  industry  cannot  but  be  interested 
in.  And  the  thunder  that  rocks  us  is  the  calm  that  raises 
cotton  in  other  lands.  There  seems  a  peculiar  beauty  in 
that  justice  by  which,  since  cotton  on  these  shores  invoked 
the  African  from  Africa,  cotton  on  the  African  shores  shall 
reach  out  its  soft  white  hand  and  strike  off  the  shackle  on 
these  shores.  As  cotton  has  made  slavery,  so  cotton  shall 
cure  it. 

Let  me,  then,  present,  as  another  cause  for  the  most  pro- 
found  thanksgiving,  the   fact   that,  although   all    the  steps 


338  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  details  of  the  process  by  which  emancipation  is  to  be 
accomplished  are  not  yet  apparent,  we  see  the  direction  in 
which  it  is  coming,  and  towards  which  it  is  traveling. 
War  will  do  what  peace  could  not;  and  what  war  leaves 
unaccomplished  must  soon  come  to  pass  from  commercial 
reasons.  For  the  first  time  since  our  Revolution,  good  men 
see  the  end  of  slavery  near  at  hand  ! 

Once  more.  When  this  great  struggle  is  passed,  it  will 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  peace  firmer  than  we  have  ever 
had  before.  First,  because  it  must  extinguish  that  pesti- 
lent heresy  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  individual  States. 
We  are  not  thirty  crowned  sovereigns  sitting  in  council  to- 
gether; we  are  thirty  united  States  whose  general  union 
and  whose  local  independence  are  both  alike  distinct  and 
immutable.  The  government  cannot  take  away  the  local 
authority  of  the  States,  and  the  States  may  not  usurp  or 
resist  the  Federal  Government  in  its  proper  sphere. 
Slavery  is  the  burglar,  but  absolute  State  Sovereignty  is 
the  crevice  into  which  the  powder  was  sifted  that  was  ex- 
pected to  explode  this  government.  The  government  must 
be  made  burglar-proof  by  stopping  up  all  such  seams. 

In  the  next  place,  this  conflict,  when  ended,  will  bring 
the  North  and  the  South  into  a  better  mutual  knowledge 
and  respect.  They  have  hitherto  met  chiefly  in  two  places; 
at  the  watering-place,  and  in  Congress.  The  South  have 
come  hither  to  such  places  as  Saratoga  and  Newport.  The 
people  who  congregate  at  our  fashionable  watering-places 
are  not  always  the  best  exponents  of  Northern  society. 
The  other  place  where  the  North  and  the  South  met  was 
in  the  halls  of  Congress;  and  Heaven  forbid  that  it  should 
be  thought  that  the  men  hitherto  there  have  fairly  repre- 
sented Northern  virtue  or  courage  !  But  now  we  have  sent  a 
representative  body  that  we  are  quite  willing  should  march 
through  the  South  to  tell  them  what  Northern  men  are, 
and  what  Northern  men  can  do.  By  the  time  our  army 
has  gone  through  the  Southern  States,  there  will  be  a 
change  in  public  opinion  there,  with  respect  to  the  man- 
hood, the  courage,  the  power,  and  the  resources  of  the 
North.     They  have  not  respected  us.     They  have  not  un- 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OE  EMANCIPATION.  339 

derstood  our  civilization.  Such  is  the  inevitable  condition 
of  the  men  that  slavery  breeds,  that  they  cannot  under- 
stand the  patience  and  forbearance  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion; and  the  thing  that  will  best  inoculate  them  with  a 
proper  appreciation  of  these  matters  is  the  armed  hand. 
And  when  they  find  that  we  are  courageous,  a  match,  and 
more  than  a  match,  for  them  in  arms,  from  that  moment 
they  will  respect  us.  And  when  there  is  more  respect  in 
the  South  for  the  North,  there  will  be  a  better  chance  for 
peace. 

There  are  likewise  causes  of  rejoicing  for  the  providen- 
tial events  that  have  accompanied  this  struggle  thus  far. 
There  have  been  years  when,  if  this  war  had  broken  out,  I 
know  not  how  we  should  have  maintained  it.  I  shudder 
when  I  look  back  upon  the  condition  in  which  the  North 
has  been.  If  ten  years  ago  this  struggle  had  been  forced 
upon  us,  our  foes  would  have  been  of  our  own  household. 
But  what  a  journey  have  we  made  in  ten  years  !  Not  the 
distance  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  promised  land  was  half 
so  long  as  that  over  which  we  have  passed.  A  great 
change  has  within  that  period  taken  place  in  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  North,  and  in  the  unity  of  good  men. 
Since  1850  we  have  been  going  through  a  wonderful  trans- 
formation. And  not  until  we  were  in  some  sense  prepared 
for  it  did  God  permit  the  evolution  of  the  causes  that 
brought  to  pass  this  crisis.  And  now  it  is  a  matter  of 
thanksgiving  that  we  are  an  undivided  North.  I  do  not 
mean  that  there  are  no  reptiles  that  lurk  and  hiss;  but  I 
mean  that  they  no  sooner  put  their  head  above  the  earth 
than  they  are  scotched  !  The  North  stands  like  the  old 
Apostle  who,  when  he  threw  fuel  on  the  fire,  found  a  viper 
fastened  on  his  hand.  When  the  spectators  saw  it,  they 
thought  that  he  was  only  an  escaped  criminal,  and  that 
he  would  die;  but  when  he  shook  the  serpent  off,  and  suf- 
fered no  harm,  they  thought  he  was  a  god.  And  so  the 
North,  standing  by  its  fiery  war,  and  casting  on  fuel,  finds 
upon  its  hand  vipers;  but  it  shakes  them  off  and  suffers  no 
harm.  We  are  a  united,  infrangible,  indivisible  North;  and 
just  as  sure  as  the  sun  rises  and  sets,  we  shall  be  victorious. 


34°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Nor  are  we  to  forget  that  as  "the  stars  in  their  courses 
fought  against  Sisera,"  as  it  were  prefiguring  the  working 
of  natural  laws  for  God's  purposes  among  men,  so  great 
agencies  of  nature  have  been,  in  this  conflict,  co-operating 
with  us.  Who  of  us  that  mourned  and  shuddered  in  the 
commercial  crisis  of  '57  knew  that  God  was  saying,  "Take 
in  sail;  put  your  ship  in  order:  a  great  hurricane  is 
about  to  fall  upon  you?"  Nevertheless,  we  did  put  the 
ship  in  good  condition;  and  now  that  the  storm  has  fallen 
we  understand  the  warning.  And  never  was  the  North  so 
well  able  to  bear  the  pressure  of  war  as  now.  Although 
individual  men  are  failing,  yet  never  was  the  North  so  rich, 
and  so  competent  to  carry  on  this  conflict  as  now. 

Nor  was  that  all:  it  pleased  God  to  say  to  the  winds,  that 
did  not  know  the  reason;  and  to  the  rains,  that  knew  not 
why;  and  to  the  sun,  that,  traveling  far  and  near,  fulfills 
God's  purposes  unknowingly,  "Make  the  earth  teem  !  breed 
corn  in  every  clod  !  "  And  he  that  made  the  seven  years 
of  plenty  to  stand  against  the  seven  years  of  famine  in 
Egypt,  made  two  years  of  superabundance  in  our  land, — 
for  what  ?  To  take  the  crown  from  the  head  of  Cotton,  and 
put  it  on  the  head  of  Corn.  And  why?  Because  this  has 
been  the  peculiar  boast  of  the  South:  "Cotton  is  king,  and 
by  its  power  we  will  bring  France,  with  her  haughty  Em- 
peror, and  England,  with  her  needy  mechanics,  to  our 
terms;  and  then  we  will  crush  the  North."  We  do  not 
know  what  God  is  saying  to  us.  I  went  through  the  corn- 
field,— ignorant  soul  that  I  was, — and  heard  the  rustling  of 
the  leaves.  I  thought  it  was  only  the  wind  blowing  through 
the  corn,  and  I  did  not  hear  the  messages.  It  was  God 
speaking  in  a  literature  that  was  uninterpreted  tome  then, 
but  which  now  I  understand.  Every  field  in  the  North 
lifted  up  its  long  sword-blades  and  prefigured  victorious 
arms;  and  every  wind  that  came  said,  "Liberty  is  coming; 
Emancipation  is  coming;  Corn  shall  dethrone  Cotton  ! " 
For  now,  just  when  manufacturing  England  would  have 
required  our  ports  to  be  opened,  she  happens  to  need  our 
corn  more  than  the  cotton  of  the  Southern  States.  She 
must  feed   her  men  before  she  gives  their  hands  anything 


MODES  AND  DUTIES  OF  EMANCIPATION.  341 

to  do.  We  come  nearer  to  keeping  them  from  starving 
than  the  South  does  to  clothing  them.  And  what  do  we 
see  in  France?  The  Emperor  sits  on  his  precarious  seat, 
and  finds  it  at  present  expedient  to  lay  aside  his  preroga- 
tive of  opening  fresh  budgets  of  expenses;  and  offers 
to  restrict  himself,  and  to  economize,  and  to  save  money 
in  various  ways;  while,  if  France  had  been  in  a  con- 
dition of  boundless  prosperity,  she  might  have  wished 
to  have  a  finger  in  matters  here.  Thus  France  is  obliged 
to  cut  down  her  army.  So  we  have  guaranties  for  peace 
there,  and  guaranties  for  peace  in  England;  and  they 
will  not  stir  to  interfere  with  our  affairs.  This  fight  is 
to  be  fought  out  by  ourselves.  While  preparations  for 
this  conflict  have  been  going  on,  God  has  poured  money 
into  our  coffers,  and  taken  it  away  from  those  that  might 
use  it  to  our  harm.  He  is  holding  back  France  and  En- 
gland, and  saying  to  all  men  and  nations,  "Appoint  the 
bounds  !  Let  none  enter  the  lists  to  interfere,  while  those 
gigantic  warriors  battle  for  victory !  Liberty  and  God, 
and  Slavery  and  the  Devil,  stand  over  against  each  other, 
and  let  no  man  put  hand  or  foot  into  the  ring  till  they  have 
done  battle  unto  death  !  "  Amen.  Even  so,  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty. It  is  thy  decree  !  And  it  shall  stand  !  And  when 
the  victory  shall  come,  not  unto  us,  not  unto  us,  but — in 
the  voice  of  thrice  ten  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands of  ransomed  ones,  mingling  with  thine  earthly  chil- 
dren's gladness — unto  thee  shall  be  the  praise  and  the 
glory,  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 


THE   SUCCESS   OF   AMERICAN 
DEMOCRACY/ 


"  So  the  king  of  the  South  shall  come  into  his  kingdom,  and  shall  return 
into  his  own  land.  But  his  sons  shall  be  stirred  up,  and  shall  assemble  a 
multitude  of  great  forces:  and  one  shall  certainly  come,  and  overflow,  and 
pass  through:  then  shall  he  return,  and  be  stirred  up  even  to  his  fortress. 
And  the  king  of  the  South  shall  be  moved  with  choler,  and  shall  come 
forth  and  fight  with  him,  even  with  the  king  of  the  North  :  and  he  shall 
set  forth  a  great  multitude  ;  but  the  multitude  shall  be  given  into  his  hand. 
And  when  he  hath  taken  away  the  multitude,  his  heart  shall  be  lifted  up  ; 
and  he  shall  cast  down  many  ten  thousands  ;  but  he  shall  not  be  strength- 
ened by  it.  For  the  king  of  the  North  shall  return,  and  shall  set  forth  a 
multitude  greater  than  the  former,  and  shall  certainly  come  after  certain 
years  with  a  great  army  and  with  much  riches.  And  in  those  times  there 
shall  many  stand  up  against  the  king  of  the  South  ;  also  the  robbers  of  thy 
people  shall  exalt  themselves  to  establish  the  vision  :  but  they  shall  fall. 
So  the  king  of  the  North  shall  come,  and  cast  up  a  mount,  and  take  the 
most  fenced  cities  :  and  the  arms  of  the  South  shall  not  withstand,  neither 
his  chosen  people,  neither  shall  there  be  any  strength  to  withstand.  But 
he  that  cometh  against  him  shall  do  according  to  his  own  will,  and  none 
shall  stand  before  him  ;  and  he  shall  stand  in  the  glorious  land,  which  by 
his  hand  shall  be  consumed.  He  shall  also  set  his  face  to  enter  with  the 
strength  of  his  whole  kingdom.  And  equality" — or  conditions  of  equality 
— "shall  be  with  him  ;  thus  shall  he  do." — Dan.  xi.  9-17. 


I  do  not  use  these  words  in  any  close  historical  sense. 
They  are  a  very  poetic  and  glowing  description  of  a  con- 
flict in  which,  with  a  singular  fitness  to  our  times,  both  the 
terms  North  and  South,  and  the  events  which  were  predicted, 
are  strikingly  suggestive.  And  although  a  sharp  exegesis 
might  destroy  some  parts  of  the  seeming  analogy,  I  shall 
consider  them  as  a  splendid  poetic  imagery.  As  such,  I 
think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it  is  a  remarkable  pas- 
sage, and  that  it  not  only  describes  the  past  with  great  ac- 


1  April  13,  1862,  the  anniversary  Sunday  of  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter. 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  343 

curacy,  but  throws  a  blazing  light  upon  the  times  that  are 
to  come.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  times  the  most  exciting; 
times  that  demand  faith;  times  in  which  the  teachings  and 
prophecies  of  Scripture  come  with  peculiar  emphasis. 

You  will  remember  the  scenes  of  one  year  ago.  It  was 
just  such  a  bright  and  beautiful  day  as  this  has  been.  The 
air  was  full  of  news.  These  great  cities  boiled  like  cal- 
drons. The  people  had  learned  that  the  guns  had  opened 
upon  Fort  Sumter.  Treason  was  consummated  !  Our 
hearts  yearned  toward  the  brave  garrison.  We  hoped  that 
the  leaders  and  their  companions  in  arms  would  sustain 
the  stronghold.  Our  hearts  felt  the  cold  breath  of  horror, 
when  at  last  it  was  known  that  the  flag  of  the  Union  had 
been  assaulted.  The  forts  that  had  belched  their  fire  upon 
that  flag  had  been  built  underneath  its  protection.  They 
had  carried  it  for  years  upon  their  flag-staff.  The  very 
guns  that  were  flaming  upon  it  had  been  founded  and 
forged  under  its  flowing  folds.  The  men  that  aimed  them 
had  been  born  and  reared  under  its  protection.  That  flag 
had  been  the  honored  ensign  of  our  people  in  their  memo- 
rable struggle  for  independence.  It  had  seen  the  British 
arms  laid  down  before  it.  It  had  been  honored  in  every 
land.  Our  men-of-war  had  borne  it,  without  disgrace,  to 
every  part  of  the  world.  Nor  was  there  a  port  upon  the 
globe  where  men  chose  or  dared  to  insult  that  national 
emblem.  That  inglorious  wickedness  was  reserved  to  our 
own  people  !  It  was  by  American  hands  that  it  was  dis- 
honored, slit  with  balls,  and  trailed  in  the  dust  ! 

That  a  crime  so  unnatural  and  monstrous  was  then  going 
on,  makes  the  anniversary  of  this  day  memorable  above  all 
Sabbaths  of  our  history.  It  was  an  infernal  insurrection 
against  liberty,  good  government,  and  civilization,  on  the 
most  sacred  day  of  the  week  !  We  shall  not  soon  experi- 
ence a  like  excitement  again.  Although  but  a  year  ago, 
it  seems  ten  years.  And,  in  ordinary  history,  ten  years  are 
not  so  full  of  matter  as  has  been  this  single  year.  It  is  full 
of  events  visible,  but  yet  more  full  of  those  things  that  do 
not  come  under  corporeal  observation. 

Such  has  been  the  intensity  of  public  feeling,  that  it  has 


344  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

seemed  as  if  nothing  was  doing.  We  have  chidden  those 
in  authority,  and  felt  that  due  speed  had  not  been  made. 
But  within  one  twelvemonth  a  gigantic  army  has  been 
raised  and  drilled;  all  its  equipments  created;  all  the  ma- 
terial of  war  produced  and  collected  together.  The  can- 
non that  now  reverberate  across  the  continent,  a  twelve- 
month ago  were  sleeping  ore  in  the  mountains.  The  cloth- 
ing of  thousands  was  fleece  upon  the  backs  of  sheep.  As 
we  look  back,  we  can  scarcely  believe  our  own  senses,  that 
so  much  has  been  done;  although,  at  every  single  hour  of 
it,  it  seemed  as  if  little  was  being  done, — for  all  the  speed 
and  all  the  power  of  this  great  government  were  not  so 
fast  and  eager  as  our  thoughts  and  desires  were. 

A  navy  has  sprung  forth,  almost  at  a  word;  and,  stran- 
ger still,  by  the  skill  of  our  inventors  and  naval  construct- 
ors, a  new  era  has  been  inaugurated  in  naval  warfare.  It 
is  probable  that  forts  and  ships  have  come  to  the  end  of 
one  dispensation,  and  that  the  old  is  to  give  place  here- 
after to  the  new. 

The  history  of  this  year  is  the  history  of  the  common 
people  of  America.  It  is  memorable  on  account  of  the 
light  that  it  throws  upon  them.  We  are  fond  of  talking  of 
American  ideas.  There  are  such  things  as  American  ideas, 
distinctive,  peculiar,  national.  Not  that  they  were  first 
discovered  here,  or  that  they  are  only  entertained  here; 
but  because  more  than  anywhere  else  they  lie  at  the  root 
of  the  institutions,  and  are  working  out  the  laws  and  the 
policies,  of  this  people. 

The  root  idea  is  this:  that  man  is  the  most  sacred  trust 
of  God  to  the  world;  that  his  value  is  derived  from  his 
moral  relations,  from  his  divinity.  Looked  at  in  his  rela- 
tions to  God  and  the  eternal  world,  every  man  is  so  valu- 
able that  you  cannot  make  distinction  between  one  and  an- 
other. If  you  measure  a  man  by  the  skill  that  he  can  ex- 
hibit, and  the  fruit  of  it,  there  is  great  distinction  between 
one  and  another.  Men  are  not  each  worth  the  same  thing 
to  society.  All  men  cannot  think  with  a  like  value,  nor 
work  with  a  like  product.  And  if  you  measure  man  as  a 
producing  creature — that  is,  in  his  secular  relations — men 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  345 

are  not  alike  valuable.  But  when  you  measure  men  on 
their  spiritual  side,  and  in  their  affectional  relations  to  God 
and  the  eternal  world,  the  lowest  man  is  so  immeasurable 
in  value  that  you  cannot  make  any  practical  difference  be- 
tween one  man  and  another.  Although,  doubtless,  some 
are  vastly  above  others,  the  lowest  and  least  goes  beyond 
your  power  of  conceiving,  and  your  power  of  measuring. 
This  is  the  root  idea,  which,  if  not  recognized,  is  yet  opera- 
tive. It  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  our  American  scheme, 
that  is,  Man  is  above  nature.  Man,  by  virtue  of  his  origi- 
nal endowment  and  affiliation  to  the  Eternal  Father,  is 
superior  to  every  other  created  thing.  There  is  nothing  to 
be  compared  with  man.  All  governments  are  from  him 
and  for  him,  and  not  over  him  and  upon  him.  All  institu- 
tions are  not  his  masters,  but  his  servants.  All  days,  all 
ordinances,  all  usages,  come  to  minister  to  the  chief  and 
the  king,  God's  son,  man,  of  whom  God  only  is  master. 
Therefore  he  is  to  be  thoroughly  enlarged,  thoroughly  em- 
powered by  development,  and  then  thoroughly  trusted. 
This  is  the  American  idea, — for  we  stand  in  contrast  with 
the  world  in  holding  and  teaching  it;  that  men,  having  been 
once  thoroughly  educated,  are  to  be  absolutely  trusted. 

The  education  of  the  common  people  follows,  then,  as  a 
necessity.  They  are  to  be  fitted  to  govern.  Since  all 
things  are  from  them  and  for  them,  they  must  be  educated 
to  their  function,  to  their  destiny.  No  pains  are  spared, 
we  know,  in  Europe,  to  educate  princes  and  nobles  who 
are  to  govern.  No  expense  is  counted  too  great,  in  Europe, 
to  prepare  the  governing  classes  for  their  function. 
America  has  her  governing  class,  too;  and  that  governing 
class  is  the  whole  people.  It  is  a  slower  work,  because  it 
is  so  much  larger.  It  is  never  carried  so  high,  because 
there  is  so  much  more  of  it.  It  is  easy  to  lift  up  a  crowned 
class.  It  is  not  easy  to  lift  up  society  from  the  very  foun- 
dation. That  is  the  work  of  centuries.  And  therefore, 
though  we  have  not  an  education  so  deep  nor  so  high  as  it 
is  in  some  other  places,  we  have  it  broader  than  it  is  any- 
where else  in  the  world;  and  we  have  learned  that  for 
ordinary  affairs  intelligence  among  the  common  people   is 


346  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

better  than  treasures  of  knowledge  among  particular 
classes  of  the  people.  School  books  do  more  for  the  coun- 
try than  encyclopaedias. 

And  so  there  comes  up  the  American  conception  of  a 
common  people  as  an  order  of  nobility,  or  as  standing  in 
the  same  place  to  us  that  orders  of  nobility  stand  to  other 
peoples.  Not  that,  after  our  educated  men  and  men  of 
genius  are  counted  out,  we  call  all  that  remain  the  common 
people.  The  whole  community,  top  and  bottom  and  inter- 
mediate, the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  leaders  and  the  followers,  constitute  with  us  the  com- 
monwealth; in  which  laws  spring  from  the  people,  admin- 
istration conforms  to  their  wishes,  and  they  are  made  the 
final  judges  of  every  interest  of  the  State. 

In  America  there  is  not  one  single  element  of  civilization 
that  is  not  made  to  depend,  in  the  end,  upon  public  opinion. 
Art,  law,  administration,  policy,  reformations  of  morals, 
religious  teaching,  all  derive,  in  our  form  of  society,  the 
most  potent  influence  from  the  common  people.  For  al- 
though the  common  people  are  educated  in  preconceived 
notions  of  religion,  the  great  intuitions  and  instincts  of  the 
heart  of  man  rise  up  afterwards,  and  in  their  turn  influence 
back.     So  there  is  action  and  reaction. 

It  is  this  very  thing  that  has  led  men  that  are  educated, 
in  Europe,  to  doubt  the  stability  of  our  nation.  Owing  to 
a  strange  ignorance  on  their  part,  our  glory  has  seemed  to 
them  our  shame,  and  our  strength  has  seemed  to  them  our 
weakness,  and  our  invincibility  has  seemed  to  them  our 
disaster  and  defeat.  This  impression  of  Europeans  has 
been  expressed  in  England  in  language  that  has  surprised 
us,  and  that  one  day  will  surprise  them.  We  know  more 
of  it  in  England  because  the  English  language  is  our 
mother  tongue,  and  we  are  more  concerned  to  know  what 
England  thinks  of  us  than  any  other  nation. 

But  it  is  impossible  that  nations  educated  into  sympathy 
with  strong  governments,  and  with  the  side  of  those  that 
govern,  should  sympathize  with  the  governed.  In  this 
country  the  sympathy  goes  with  the  governed,  and  not 
with  the  governing,  as  much  as   in   the  other  countries  it 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  347 

goes  with  the  governing,  and  not  with  the  governed.  And 
abroad  they  are  measuring  by  a  false  rule,  and  by  a  home- 
bred and  one-sided  sympathy. 

It  is  impossible  for  men  who  have  not  seen  it  to  under- 
stand that  there  is  no  society  possible  that  will  bear  such 
expansion  and  contraction,  such  strains  and  burdens,  as  a 
society  made  up  of  free  educated  common  people,  with 
democratic  institutions.  It  has  been  supposed  that  such  a 
society  was  the  most  unsafe,  and  the  least  capable  of  control 
of  any.  But  whether  tested  by  external  pressure,  or,  as  now, 
by  the  most  wondrous  internal  evils,  an  educated  demo- 
cratic people  are  the  strongest  government  that  can  be  made 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  In  no  other  form  of  society  is  it  so 
safe  to  set  discussion  at  large.  Nowhere  else  is  there  such 
safety  in  the  midst  of  apparent  conflagration.  Nowhere 
else  is  there  such  entire  rule,  when  there  seems  to  be  such 
entire  anarchy.  A  foreigner  would  think,  pending  a  presi- 
dential election,  that  the  end  of  the  world  had  come.  The 
people  roar  and  dash  like  an  ocean.  "  No  government," 
he  would  say,  "  was  ever  strong  enough  to  hold  such  wild 
and  tumultuous  enthusiasm,  and  zeal,  and  rage."  True. 
There  is  not  a  government  strong  enough  to  hold  them. 
Nothing  but  ^//"-government  will  do  it:  that  will.  Edu- 
cate men  to  take  care  of  themselves,  individually  and  in 
masses,  and  then  let  the  winds  blow;  then  let  the  storms 
fall;  then  let  excitements  burn,  and  men  will  learn  to  move 
freely  upon  each  other,  as  do  drops  of  water  in  the  ocean. 
Our  experience  from  generation  to  generation  has  shown 
that,  though  we  may  have  fantastic  excitements;  though 
the  whole  land  may  seem  to  have  swung  from  its  moorings 
on  a  sea  of  the  wildest  agitation,  we  have  only  to  let  the 
silent-dropping  paper  go  into  the  box,  and  that  is  the  end 
of  the  commotion.  To-day,  the  flames  mount  to  heaven; 
and  on  every  side  you  hear  the  most  extravagant  prophe- 
cies and  the  fiercest  objurgations;  and  both  sides  know 
that,  if  they  do  not  succeed,  the  end  of  the  world  will  have 
come.  But  to-morrow  the  vote  is  declared,  and  each  side 
go  home  laughing,  to  take  hold  of  the  plough  and  the  spade; 
and  they  are  satisfied  that  the  nation  is  safe  after  all. 


348  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

And  we  have  come  to  ridicule  the  idea  of  danger  from 
excitements.  Where  else  was  there  ever  a  nation  that 
could  bear  to  have  every  question,  no  matter  how  fiery  or 
how  fierce,  let  loose  to  go  up  and  down,  over  hill  and 
through  valley,  without  police  or  government  restraint 
upon  the  absolute  liberty  of  the  common  people?  Where 
else  was  ever  a  government  that  could  bear  to  allow  entire 
free  discussion  ?  We  grow  strong  under  it.  Voting  is  the 
cure  of  evil  with  us.  Liberty,  that  is  dangerous  abroad,  is 
our  very  safety.  And  since  our  whole  future  depends  upon 
our  rightly  understanding  this  matter, — the  liberty  of  the 
common  people,  and  the  glory  of  the  common  people, — 
and  since  this  government  of  our  educated  common  people 
is  to  be  the  death  of  slavery,  and  to  spread  over  this  con- 
tinent an  order  of  things  for  which  in  past  experience  there 
is  no  parallel,  and  for  which  men's  ideas  are  not  prepared, 
— we  do  well  to  take  heed  of  this  memorable  year  of  the 
common  people.  For  histories  will  register  this  year  of 
1861-62  as  the  year  of  the  common  people  of  America. 

I.  One  year  ago  there  fell  a  storm  upon  the  great  heart 
of  the  common  people,  which  swayed  it  as  the  ocean  is 
swayed.  It  has  not  calmed  itself  yet.  It  was  that  shot  at 
the  American  flag  that  touched  the  national  heart.  No 
one  knew  before  what  a  depth  of  feeling  was  there.  We 
did  not  know  how  our  people  had  clustered  about  that 
banner  all  their  ideas  of  honor  and  patriotism  and  glory. 
We  did  not  know  how  the  past  and  future  met  and  stood 
together  upon  that  flag  in  the  imagination  of  every  Amer- 
ican. In  an  hour  all  this  was  disclosed.  And  what  was 
the  manifestation  of  that  hour?  All  things  that  separated 
the  common  people  of  America  were  at  once  forgotten. 
There  rose  up,  with  appalling  majesty,  the  multitude  of 
the  common  people.  The  schemes  of  treachery,  the  polit- 
ical webs  that  had  been  framed,  went  down  in  a  moment; 
and  the  voice  of  the  common  people  it  was  that  called  the 
government  to  be  energetic,  to  take  courage,  and  to  rescue 
the  land. 

But  I  would  not  have  you  suppose  that  the  common  peo- 
ple gave  forth  merely  an  unreasoning  zeal, — a  furious  burst 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  349 

of  patriotic  emotion.  The  common  people  of  the  North 
had,  and  they  still  have,  a  clear,  comprehensive,  and  true 
idea  of  American  nationality,  such  as  we  looked  for  in  vain 
in  many  of  the  leaders  of  past  times.  They  had  taken  in 
the  right  view  of  national  unity.  They  had  a  right  view 
of  the  trust  of  territory  held  in  common  by  all,  for  all,  on 
this  continent.  They  felt,  more  than  any  others,  that  Di- 
vine Providence  had  given  to  this  people,  not  a  northern 
part,  not  a  middle  ridge,  not  a  southern  section,  but  an  un- 
divided continent.  They  held  it,  not  for  pride,  not  for 
national  vanity,  not  to  be  cut  and  split  into  warring  sec- 
tions, but  as  a  sacred  trust,  held  for  sublimest  ends  of 
human  happiness,  in  human  liberty.  And  the  instincts  and 
intuitions  of  the  common  people  it  was  that  made  this, 
not  a  struggle  for  sectional  precedency,  but  a  struggle  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  great  national  trust,  and  for  Jhe 
establishment  of  American  ideas  over  the  whole  American 
continent.  And  our  government  felt  that  they  could  lean 
back  on  the  brave  heart  of  the  great  intelligent  people. 

While,  then,  men  of  our  own  blood  are  ignorant  and 
blind;  while  even  to  this  hour  the  ablest  statesmen  in  the 
British  Parliament  are  declaring,  though  in  a  friendly 
spirit  in  most  respects,  that  it  were  better  that  an  amicable 
settlement  and  separation  should  take  place,  and  that  they 
should  live  apart  who  cannot  live  peaceably  together,  our 
common  people  are  greater  than  parliaments  or  than  min- 
isters; and  they  see,  and  feel,  and  know,  that  God  has 
rolled  upon  them  a  duty,  not  of  present  peace,  but  of 
future  stability,  national  grandeur,  and  continental  liberty. 
This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  common  people,  and  it  will  stand. 

For  that  idea  our  common  people  are  giving  their  sons, 
their  blood,  and  their  treasure,  and  they  will  continue  to 
the  uttermost  to  give  them. 

For  this  sake  see  what  a  common  people  can  do.  One 
of  the  most  difficult  things  for  any  people  to  do,  for  any 
reason,  is  to  lay  aside  their  animosities  and  malignant  feel- 
ings. But  this  great  common  people  have  laid  aside  every 
animosity,  every  party  feeling,  and  all  political  disagree- 
ments; and  for  one  year  they  have   maintained  an   honest 


35°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

unity.  I  am  more  proud  of  the  substantial  unity  that  has 
been  wrought  out  in  the  North,  than  of  any  battle  that  has 
been  fought.  It  is  the  noblest  evidence  of  the  strength  of 
our  form  of  government. 

The  common  people  have  given  without  stint  their  sons, 
their  substance,  and  their  ingenuity:  and  they  are  not 
weary  of  giving.  They  have  consented  patiently  to  the 
interruption  of  their  industries,  and  to  all  the  burdens 
which  taxes  bring.  Taxes  touch  men  in  a  very  tender 
place;  for  human  nature  resides  very  strongly  in  the  par- 
ticular neighborhood  where  taxes  anchor.  And  if  any- 
thing takes  hold  of  men  and  brings  them  to  their  bearings, 
it  is  the  imposition  of  burdens  that  are  felt  in  the  pocket. 
I  sometimes  think  that  men  can  carry  burdens  on  their 
hearts  more  easily  than  on  their  exchequer.  But  they  have 
taken  both  the  burdens  of  taxation  and  bereavements,  they 
have  given  both  blood  and  money;  and  they  are  willing  to 
bear  the  load  as  long  as  it  is  necessary  to  secure  this  con- 
tinent to  liberty. 

They  have  demanded  of  this  Administration  which  they 
themselves  ordained,  that  it  should  not  spare  them.  The 
only  thing  that  the  people  have  ever  been  disposed  to 
blame  the  government  for  has  been  that  it  has  not  moved 
fast  enough;  that  it  has  not  done  enough.  "Take  more; 
call  for  more;  do  more  !  "  is  the  demand  of  the  people 
upon  the  government. 

They  have  accepted  the  most  unwonted  and  dangerous 
violations  of  the  fundamental  usages  of  this  land  with  im- 
plicit submission.  They  are  a  proud  people,  jealous  of 
their  rights;  a  proud  people,  the  flash  of  whose  eye  is  like 
blood  when  they  are  wronged  in  their  fundamental  rights; 
and  yet,  the  precious  writ  of  habeas  corpus  has  been  sus- 
pended, and  they  have  consented.  They  have  been  re- 
stricted in  their  intercourse  to  a  degree  altogether  unprece- 
dented, and  they  have  judged  it  expedient  to  submit. 

They  have  submitted  to  the  limitation  of  speech  and 
discussion, — a  thing  most  foreign  to  American  ideas.  The 
arrest  of  men  without  legal  process  or  accusation,  and  their 
imprisonment   and   long  duress   without   trial, — these   are 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  35  I 

new  in  our  times  and  in  this  land.  And  yet,  under  all 
these  interruptions  of  our  most  grave  and  important  prin- 
ciples and  rights,  the  people  have  been  calm;  they  have 
trusted  their  government;  and  they  have  been  willing  to 
wait. 

These  are  dangerous  things,  even  in  extremity;  but  for 
their  sakes  who  control  the  affairs  of  this  nation,  and  that 
they  might  have  the  most  unlimited  power  to  crush  the 
rebellion,  and  establish  liberty,  the  common  people,  with 
magnanimous  generosity,  have  yielded  up  these  imperish- 
able rights. 

When  the  whole  national  heart  beat  with  gratification  at 
the  arrest  of  men  who  had  been  at  the  root  of  this  grand 
treachery,  mark,  I  beseech  of  you,  the  bearing  of  the  com- 
mon people  of  America.  If  there  was  one  thing  about 
which  they  were  expected  to  rage  like  wolves,  it  was  this. 
Nothing  in  external  circumstances  could  be  more  irritating 
and  aggravating  than  those  exhibitions  of  foreign  feeling 
which  came  to  our  knowledge.  I  know  that  the  diplomatic 
language  of  the  two  governments  was  very  smooth  and  un- 
exceptionable; and  I  am  informed  that  the  tone  of  many 
of  the  local  papers  of  England  was  kind;  but  all  the  En- 
glish papers  that  I  saw,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  were 
of  such  a  spirit  that  I  will  characterize  them  only  by  say- 
ing that  good  breeding  was  not  common  where  the  editors  of 
them  lived.  If  there  was  one  single  missile  more  offensive 
than  another,  it  was  eagerly  sought  out.  Tried  on  the  side 
of  revenge;  tried  on  the  side  of  national  animosities;  tried 
by  foreign  impertinence  and  unkindness;  tried  at  home  in 
the  midst  of  treachery,  in  the  midst  of  war,  in  the  midst  of 
troubles  and  burdens,  and  in  the  midst  of  an  interrupted 
commerce, — mark  the  heroic  conduct  of  this  great  Ameri- 
can people. 

Government  pronounced  its  judgment  against  the  feel- 
ings and  expectations  of  the  common  people.  Slidell  and 
Mason  were  to  be  given  up.  There  was  silence  instantly, 
and  thoughtfulness,  throughout  this  land.  Then  came  ac- 
quiescence, full,  cheerful,  uncomplaining.  I  have  yet  to  see 
a  single  paper  that  seriously,  after  the  appearance  of  the 


35 2  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

letter  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  made  one  complaint  or  ill- 
natured  remark.  Such  a  thing  was  never  before  seen  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  Mason  and  Slidell  might  have 
been  taken  from  Washington  to  Boston  Harbor  under  the 
care  of  a  single  officer,  without  molestation  from  the  com- 
mon people  of  America.  These  are  the  common  people 
that  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  mob  of  America;  but  not 
among  the  crowned  heads  and  privileged  classes,  not 
among  any  other  people  on  the  earth,  is  there  such  stabil- 
ity, such  order,  such  self-restraint,  such  dignity,  and  such  sub- 
lime nobility,  as  there  is  among  the  educated  common  people 
of  America.  God  bless  them  !  Under  the  terrible  inflic- 
tions of  battle,  under  griefs  innumerable,  in  the  midst  of 
desolations  that  go  to  the  very  heart  of  families,  there  is 
the  same  noble,  patient,  uncomplaining  cheerfulness  and 
devotion  to  this  great  cause. 

II.  The  history  of  this  year  has  silently  developed  many 
convictions  based  upon  great  truths.  It  has,  in  the  first 
place,  revolutionized  the  whole  opinion  of  men  as  to  the 
relative  military  power  of  the  Free  States  and  Slave  States 
of  America.  It  was  an  almost  undisputed  judgment,  that 
the  habits  of  the  South  bred  prowess;  that  they  werechiv- 
alric;  that  their  educated  men  were  better  officers  than 
ours;  and  that  their  common  people,  in  the  hour  of  battle, 
would  be  better  soldiers  than  the  laboring  classes  of  the 
North.  It  never  was  our  faith,  it  never  was  our  belief,  but 
that  the  laboring  and  educated  common  people  were  just 
as  much  better  for  military  development,  when  the  time 
came,  as  for  ordinary  industrial  purposes.  Events  have 
justified  our  impressions  in  this  regard. 

Let  us  look,  for  a  moment,  at  the  line  of  battle.  Passing 
by  the  earlier  conflicts  prematurely  brought  on,  in  which 
the  advantage  was,  without  good  conduct  on  either  side, 
in  favor  of  Southern  men,  what  is  the  general  conclusion 
from  that  line  of  conflicts  that  subsequently  followed  each 
other  almost  without  interruption,  from  Hilton  Head, 
Beaufort,  Roanoke,  New-Berne,  Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donel- 
son,  Somerset,  Nashville,  Island  Number  Ten,  Pittsburg 
Landing? 


/1(g££c^<^~  //^^Us-u^oC 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.   .        353 

Without  further  particularizing,  what  have  been  the 
general  results  of  this  series  of  conflicts  ?  The  rebels  are 
swept  out  of  the  upper  and  eastern  parts  of  Virginia.  They 
have  lost-one  portion  of  North  Carolina.  Their  seaboard 
is  almost  taken  from  them.  They  have  been  driven  from 
Kentucky  and  Missouri,  and  in  Tennessee  they  are  close 
pressed  on  Memphis  itself.  They  are  on  the  eve,  appar- 
ently, of  losing  the  great  metropolis  of  the  Southwest. 
And  has  there  been  one  single  field  in  which  Northern  en- 
durance and  courage  have  not  been  made  to  appear  emi- 
nent over  Southern  ?  In  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing 
what  a  disparity  there  was  in  generalship  between  the 
North  and  the  South  !  That  battle  was  won  by  the  soldiers. 
The  Southwestern  men  had  every  advantage  in  military 
skill,  and  on  our  side  the  only  advantage  was  that  we  had 
men  who  would  not  be  beaten.  Our  soldiers  had  little  help 
of  generalship.  It  was  hands,  and  not  brains,  that  con- 
quered there. 

This  matter,  then,  will,  from  this  time  forth,  stand  on 
different  ground.  It  is  not  for  the  sake  of  vainglorying 
that  I  make  these  allusions.  If  it  were  not  that  I  have  a 
moral  end  in  view,  I  should  think  them  unseasonable;  but  we 
shall  never  have  peace  until  we  have  respect,  we  shall  never 
have  respect  so  long  as  a  boasting  Southern  effete  popula- 
tion think  that  they  can  overmaster  Northern  sturdy  yeo- 
men. When  they  know  what  Northern  muscle  and  blows 
mean,  they  will  respect  them;  and  when  they  respect  them, 
we  shall  be  able  to  live  in  harmony  with  them:  and  not 
till  then. 

But  there  are  many  other  things  that  have  been  evolved 
in  the  history  of  the  year.  There  have  been  convictions 
wrought  in  the  minds  of  the  thinking  common  people  that 
will  not  be  easily  worn  out.  There  is  coming  to  be  a  gen- 
eral conviction,  that  men  brought  up  under  the  influence 
of  slavery  are  contaminated  to  the  very  root,  and  they  can- 
not make  good  citizens  of  a  republic.  The  radical  nature 
of  slavery  is  such  as  to  destroy  the  possibility  of  good  citi- 
zenship   in    the   masses  of   men.       Exceptions    there    are, 

because  even  in  the  Slave  States  there  are  large  neighbor- 
23 


354  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

hoods  where  slavery  does  not  exist,  and  where  many  men 
are  superior  to  their  circumstances.  But  the  average  ten- 
dency of  slave  influences  is  to  narrow  men;  to  make  them 
selfish;  to  unfit  them  for  public  spirit;  to  destroy  that 
large  patriotism  from  which  comes  the  feeling  of  nation- 
ality. 

I  think  there  is  a  widening  conviction,  that  slavery  and 
its  laws,  and  liberty  and  its  institutions,  cannot  exist  un- 
der one  government.  And  I  think  that,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  impediment  of  supposed  constitutional  restrictions 
there  would  be  an  almost  universal  disposition  to  sweep, 
as  with  a  deluge,  this  gigantic  evil  out  of  our  land.  The 
feeling  of  the  people  in  this  matter  is  unmistakable.  The 
recommendation  of  the  President  of  these  United  States, 
which  has  been  corroborated  by  the  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, is  one  of  the  most  memorable  events  of  our  history. 
The  fact  that  a  policy  of  emancipation  has  been  recom- 
mended by  the  Chief  Magistrate,  and  indorsed  by  Con- 
gress, cannot  be  overestimated  in  importance.  Old  John 
Quincy  Adams  lifted  his  head  in  the  grave,  methinks, 
when  that  resolution  was  carried, — he  that  was  almost 
condemned  for  treason  because  he  dared  to  introduce  in 
Congress  a  subject  that  looked  towards  emancipation. 
Last  Friday — a  day  not  henceforth  to  be  counted  inauspi- 
cious— was  passed  the  memorable  bill  giving  liberty  to  the 
slave  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  One  might  almost  say, 
if  the  President  had  signed  it,  "  Lord,  now  let  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace,  according  to  thy  word;  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  thy  salvation."  It  is  worth  living  for  a  lifetime 
to  see  the  capital  of  our  government  redeemed  from  the 
stigma  and  shame  of  being  a  slave  mart.  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  will  sign  that  bill. 
It  shall  not  shake  my  confidence  in  him,  but  it  certainly 
will  not  change  my  judgment  that  it  should  be  signed,  if 
he  does  not  sign  it.  It  would  have  been  better  if  it  had 
been  signed  the  moment  that  it  was  received;  but  we 
have  found  out  by  experience  that  though  Abraham  Lin- 
coln is  sure,  he  is  slow;  and  that  though  he  is  slow,  he  is 
sure  ! 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  355 

I  think  that  it  is  beginning  to  be  seen  that  the  North, 
for  its  own  sake,  must  exert  every  proper  constitutional  in- 
fluence, and  every  moral  influence,  to  cleanse  the  South 
from  the  contamination  of  slavery.  What  gambling- 
houses  and  drinking-saloons  are  to  the  young  men  of  a 
neighborhood,  taking  hold  of  their  animal  passions,  and 
corrupting  them  where  human  nature  is  most  temptable, 
undermining  their  character,  and  wasting  their  stamina, 
that  Southern  marts  are  to  our  common  people.  The  ani- 
mal parts  of  our  nature  come  naturally  into  sympathy 
with  the  South.  The  Southern  institution  is  an  academy 
of  corruption  to  the  animal  feelings  of  the  whole  people, 
and  it  will  continue  to  be  throwing  back  into  our  system 
elements  of  inflammation  and  trouble  as  long  as  it  exists. 
I  dread  such  a  settlement  of  this  controversy  as  will  fol- 
low whenever  all  malignant  passions  and  political  machi- 
nations shall  have  swept  the  bad  men  of  the  North  and  of 
the  South  together  again  for  future  legislation. 

We  have  begun,  also,  to  suspect  another  thing,  which 
we  shall  learn  more  and  more  thoroughly;  and  that  is, 
that  hereafter,  in  this  nation,  the  North  must  prevail.  For 
the  North  is  the  nation,  and  the  South  is  but  the  fringe. 
The  heart  is  here;  the  trunk  is  here;  the  brain  is  here. 
The  most  exquisite  compliment  ever  paid  to  New  England 
was  in  the  secret  scheme  and  machination  of  the  leaders 
of  the  rebellion,  which  it  was  supposed  would  be  success- 
ful. They  meant  to  threaten  secession  and  war,  and 
arouse  a  party  in  the  North  that  would  unite  with  them, 
and  then  reconstruct  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  New  En- 
gland out,  and  take  all  the  rest  of  the  nation  in.  Had 
they  succeeded,  they  would  have  been  in  the  condition  of 
a  man  that  should  go  to  bed  whole  at  night,  and  wake 
up  in  the  morning  without  his  head  !  For  the  brain  of 
this  nation  is  New  England.  There  is  not  a  part  that  does 
not  derive  its  stimulus  and  supply  from  that  fountain  of 
laws  and  ideas.  Well  may  they  wish  to  exclude  from  their 
corrupt  constitution  and  laws  that  part  of  this  nation 
which  has  been  the  throne  of  God.  Well  may  they  desire 
to  separate  themselves  from   that   portion  of  our  country 


356  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

which  has  been  the  source  of  all  that  is  godlike  in  Ameri- 
can history.  But  I  do  not  think  that  they  will  cut  off  our 
head.  And  hereafter  I  think  it  will  be  felt  more  and  more 
that  the  North  is  the  nation:  not  New  England,  but  the 
whole  North  from  ocean  to  ocean, — all  that  is  comprised 
in  the  Northern  loyal  Free  States.  It  is  the  foundation  of 
industry;  it  is  the  school  of  intelligence;  it  is  the  home  of 
civilized  institutions;  it  is  the  repository  of  those  princi- 
ples which  are  the  foundation  of  our  political  fabric;  and 
if  we  hope  to  save  the  government  and  our  peculiar  ideas, 
it  is  the  North  that  must  save  them,  and  not  the  South. 
We  may  just  as  well  say  it  as  to  disguise  it.  Whatever 
may  be  wise  or  unwise,  expedient  or  inexpedient,  in  times 
of  party  management,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  and  I  re- 
peat it  again  and  again,  that  the  North  is  this  nation,  and 
that  the  North  must  govern  it:  not  against  the  Constitu- 
tion, but  by  the  Constitution;  not  against  law,  but  through 
law;  not  for  selfishness,  but  for  the  well-being  of  the 
whole;  not  to  aggrandize  itself,  but  to  enrich  every  State 
in  the  Union,  from  the  North  to  the  South,  and  from  the 
East  to  the  West.  The  South  are  prodigal  sons;  they  are 
wasters;  they  are  destroyers.  The  North  has  conservative 
forces;  and  now  that  she  has  come  to  govern,  she  will  be 
derelict,  she  will  forfeit  every  claim  to  respect,  and  she  will 
bring  the  judgment  of  God  on  her  head,  if  she  hesitates 
to  take  the  government,  and  maintain  it  till  she  has  car- 
ried the  principles  of  the  American  people  of  this  conti- 
nent triumphantly  through. 

Since,  then,  her  ascendency  means  liberty,  the  thrift  of 
the  common  people,  and  the  progress  of  civilization,  the 
North  owes  it  to  the  nation  itself  not  to  yield  up  that  as- 
cendency. One  side  or  the  other  must  prevail.  Let  it  be 
that  side  that  carries  forward  to  the  future  the  precious 
legacies  of  the  past.  There  go  two  principles  looking  to 
the  future.  One  is  represented  by  our  flag,  and  all  its 
starry  folds.  Liberty;  democratic  equality;  Christianity; 
God,  the  only  king;  right,  the  only  barrier  and  restraint: 
and  then,  God  and  right  being  respected,  liberty  to  all, 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  the  more  liberty  the  stronger  and 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  357 

safer, — that  is  the  Northern  conception.  And  that  is  the 
precious  seed  that  shall  pierce  to  State  after  State,  rolling 
westward  her  empire.  What  has  the  North  done  ?  Look 
at  Michigan;  look  at  Ohio;  look  at  Indiana;  look  at  Illi- 
nois; look  at  Wisconsin;  look  at  Iowa.  These  are  the 
fruits  of  Northern  ideas.  And  where  is  the  South  ?  Look 
at  Missouri;  look  at  Texas.  See  what  States  she  rears. 
And  which  of  these  shall  be  the  seed-planter  of  the  future  ? 
Which  shall  carry  the  victorious  banner  ?  Shall  the  South 
carry  her  bastard  bunting,  bearing  the  pestiferous  seed  of 
slavery,  degradation,  and  national  rottenness?  or  shall  the 
North,  advancing  her  banner,  carry  with  her  stars  and 
stripes  all  that  they  symbolize, — God's  glory  in  man's  lib- 
erty? I  think — and  I  thank  God  for  it — -that  the  great 
heart  of  this  people  is  beginning  to  accept  this  destiny, 
and  that  it  is  becoming  the  pride  of  their  future. 

There  is  but  one  other  thing  that  I  will  say,  for  I  do  not 
wish  to  weary  you  with  too  long  a  discussion  of  that  which  is 
dear  to  my  own  heart  as  life  itself.  While  there  have  been 
many  incidental  ills  and  evils  occasioned  by  the  present 
conflict,  it  has  had  one  good  effect  in  amalgamating  this 
heterogeneous  people.  Since  we  have  received  millions 
from  foreign  lands,  there  have  been  some  political  jealous- 
ies toward  those  belonging  to  other  nations.  I  think  you 
have  seen  the  end  of  that  most  un-American  Native-Amer- 
icanism. There  is  not  one  nation  that  has  not  contributed 
its  quota  to  fight  the  battles  of  liberty.  The  blood  of 
the  YankeV  has  mingled  with  the  blood  of  the  Irishman. 
Right  beside  our  Curtis  was  the  noble  Sigel.  Right  by  the 
side  of  the  wounded  American  lay  the  wounded  German. 
Two  tongues  met  when  they  spoke  the  common  words, Land, 
Liberty,  God,  and  Freedom.  And  now  there  is  no  foreign 
blood  among  us.  They  are  ours.  They  have  earned  their 
birth  here.  Their  nativity  is  as  if  our  mothers  bore  them 
and  nursed  them.  America  has  received  all  her  foreign 
population,  now,  with  a  more  glorious  adoption,  and  they 
are  our  kindred.  God  be  thanked  for  this  substantial 
benefit.  War,  with  all  its  horrors,  is  not  without  its  inci- 
dental advantages. 


35 8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Is  the  year,  then,  that  is  just  past,  to  have  a  parallel  and 
sequence  in  the  year  that  is  come?  What  is  to  be  the  fut- 
ure? What  are  our  prospects  and  hopes?  I  am  not  a 
prophet.  I  cannot  lift  the  veil  from  what  is  before  us.  I 
can  only  express  my  own  judgment.  Perhaps  }'ou  think  I 
am  sanguine.  I  think  I  am  not  sanguine,  though  I  am 
hopeful.  And  yet  I  have  no  other  thought  than  that  vic- 
tory awaits  us  at  every  step.  We  are  able  to  bear  our  share 
of  defeat.  If  the  blessing  of  liberty  is  too  great  to  be 
purchased  at  so  cheap  a  price,  let  God  tell  us  the  price,  and 
we  are  ready  to  pay  it.  We  have  more  sons  to  give.  We 
can  live  lower,  and  on  less.  Our  patience  is  scarcely  drawn 
upon.  The  sources  of  our  prosperity  are  hardly  touched. 
And  I  think  I  may  say  for  you,  and  the  great  American 
common  people,  "  We  will  give  every  dollar  that  we  are 
worth,  every  child  that  we  have,  and  our  own  selves;  we 
will  bring  all  that  we  are,  and  all  that  we  have,  and  offer 
them  up  freely;  but  this  country  shall  be  one,  and  undi- 
vided. We  will  have  one  Constitution,  and  one  liberty,  and 
that  universal."  The  Atlantic  shall  sound  it,  and  the 
Pacific  shall  echo  it  back,  deep  answering  to  deep,  and  it 
shall  reverberate  from  the  Lakes  on  the  North  to  the  un- 
frozen Gulf  on  the  South, — "  One  nation;  one  Constitu- 
tion; one  starry  banner!"  Hear  it,  England!  —  one 
country,  and  indivisible.  Hear  it,  Europe  ! — one  people, 
and  inseparable.  One  God;  one  hope;  one  baptism;  one 
Constitution;  one  government;  one  nation;  one  country; 
one  people, — cost  what  it  may,  we  will  have  it  !   ■ 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE   AND   PENALTY.* 


"  Blessed  be  thou,  Lord  God  of  Israel,  our  Father,  for  ever  and  ever. 
Thine,  O  Lord,  is  the  greatness,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  and  the  vic- 
tory, and  the  majesty;  for  all  that  is  in  the  heaven  and  in  the  earth  is 
thine  ;  thine  is  the  kingdom,  O  Lord,  and  thou  art  exalted  as  head  above 
all.  Both  riches  and  honor  come  of  thee,  and  thou  reignest  over  all;  and 
in  thine  hand  is  power  and  might  ;  and  in  thine  hand  it  is  to  make  great, 
and  to  give  strength  unto  all.  Now,  therefore,  our  God,  we  thank  thee,  and 
praise  thy  glorious  name." — i  Chron.  xxix.  10-13. 


This  is  one  of  the  most  sublime  national  ascriptions  of 
power  and  government  to  God  that  was  ever  made.  It 
fell  from  the  lips  of  David,  speaking  upon  one  of  the  most 
momentous  festival  occasions  in  the  Jewish  history,  and 
became,  by  acceptance,  the  sentiment  of  the  whole  people. 
They  declared  their  faith  in  God's  supremacy  and  govern- 
ment over  the  affairs,  not  only  of  individuals,  but  of  na- 
tions. They  recognized  and  acknowledged,  not  only  their 
dependence  upon  God  personally,  but  also  their  depend- 
ence upon  him  for  national  prosperity  and  glory.  It  is  the 
uniform  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  that  God  has  a  government 
#ver  this  world,  which  includes  in  it  both  the  government 
of  individuals  and  the  government  of  communities  of  in- 
dividuals. This  doctrine  is  not  peculiar  either  to  Chris- 
tianity or  to  Judaism.  All  nations  that  have  attained  any 
degree  of  civilization  have  substantially  held  this  great 
truth,  that  the  world  is  governed  by  God,  and  that  not  only 
the  affairs  of  individuals,  but  the  affairs  of  societies  also, 
were  supervised  and  provided  for  under  the  Divine  gov- 
ernment.    But  in  the  sacred  Word  the  government  of  God 

*  September  28,  1862.  Emancipation  was  proclaimed  six  days  before; 
the  habeas  co>-ptis  suspended  four  days  before  ;  Lee  had  retreated  after  An- 
tietam,  Bragg  was  still  strong  in  Kentucky,  and  men's  minds  were  deeply 
exercised  over  the  question  of  the  President's  War  Powers. 


.1 


6o  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


over  nations  is  taught  with  more  intelligence,  with  more 
discrimination,  with  a  clearer  revelation  of  the  principles 
on  which  that  government  stands,  than  ever  it  was  taught 
elsewhere.  All  religions  recognize  the  fact  of  government. 
It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  faith,  in  its  antecedents, 
and  in  its  own  self,  that  it  reveals  the  ground  and  methods 
of  the  Divine  moral  government  over  the  world. 

It  is  important  to  know  that  the  government  of  God  over 
nations  is  conducted  by  an  administration  of  natural  laws. 
There  are  many  who  have  thought  that  God  governed  as 
an  absolute  monarch,  looking  at  such  things  as  pleased 
him,  and  rewarding  them  by  a  direct  personal  volition,  and 
looking  at  such  things  as  displeased  him,  and  punishing 
them  by  a  direct  personal  volition.  There  are  many  who 
revolt  from  the  moral  government  of  a  Being  of  whom  it 
is  taught  that  he  interjects  his  own  volitions  upon  the 
stated  laws  of  nature.  And  the  progress  of  science  reveals 
the  fact  more  and  more  plainly  that  there  is  not  any  in- 
terference with  natural  law.  It  equally  lays  the  founda- 
tion for  the  better  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
government, — namely,  that  it  is  a  government  over  this 
world  through  natural  laws,  and  by  a  Divine  administra- 
tion of  them.  It  is  said  that  natural  laws  are  stated  and 
immutable.  That  is  very  well  for  a  popular  expression, 
but  it  will  not  bear  examination.  For  there  is  nothing 
that  is  less  immutable  than  a  law;  nothing  that  is  adapted 
to  have  more  elasticity;  nothing  that  may  be  more  end-* 
lessly  varied  by  the  degree  of  intelligence  that  you  bring 
to  bear  upon  it,  and  the  advantage  which  you  choose  to 
take  of  it.  An  ignorant  and  stupid  man,  standing  in  the 
scope  of  a  natural  law,  makes  nothing  of  it.  An  intelli- 
gent and  wise  man,  by  using  it,  makes  the  fields  fruitful, 
covers  the  hillsides  with  thrifty  orchards,  and  fills  the  val- 
leys with  beautiful  gardens.  And  the  difference  between 
a  stupid  and  ignorant  man  and  a  wise  and  intelligent  man 
is  simply  the  difference  of  the  control  that  they  bring  to 
bear  upon  natural  laws,  and  the  use  to  which  they  put 
them.  And  the  difference  between  civilization  and  bar- 
barism is  the  difference  between  knowing  how  to  use  nat- 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE   AND   PENALTY.  361 

ural  laws  and  not  knowing  how  to  use  them.  And  as  men 
grow  toward  manhood,  they  come  more  and  more  to 
know  what  natural  laws  are,  and  how  to  use  them,  and 
how,  by  using  them,  to  obtain  benefit.  How  much  more, 
then,  shall  He  that  made  man  know  how  to  use  natural 
law  !  It  is  supposed  that  God  made  laws  as  a  machine 
which  he  does  not  dare  to  put  his  finger  into,  lest  he  shall 
stop  the  machine,  or  bruise  his  finger;  and  that  he  there- 
fore stands  behind  the  world,  saying,  "  I  have  built  this 
world,  and  put  laws  into  it,  and  wound  it  up,  and  I  cannot 
touch  it."  It  is  not  so.  God  manages  natural  laws, 
just  as  man  manages  natural  laws,  only  with  supreme 
intelligence  and  with  unerring  accuracy.  A  govern- 
ment of  natural  law  is  the  best  government  on  which 
volition  can  be  brought  to  bear.  For  the  Divine  scheme 
is  so  large  and  so  broad  that  there  is  not  a  thought 
nor  a  wish  to  be  executed  that  God  cannot  execute  better 
through  changes  under  law  than  by  direct,  overt  omnipo- 
tence. And  there  is  no  occasion  to  interject  volitions,  and 
set  aside  natural  law. 

This  does  not  diminish,  it  augments  immeasurably,  the 
efficiency  and  certainty  of  the  Divine  government  over 
men.  If  the  Divine  government  depended  upon  a  single 
being's  thought  and  continuity  of  attention,  it  might  be 
imagined  at  least  that  there  would  be  remissness  or  weari- 
ness and  slumbering, — though  He  that  keeps  Israel  never 
slumbers  nor  sleeps.  If  God's  government  is  one  of  ap- 
pointed laws  that  have  no  remission  and  never  cease  their 
agenc)'',  if  there  are  treasured  in  them  great  penalties  and 
great  rewards,  if  the  government  of  natural  law  is  self- 
executing,  and  if  God  gives  it  power  to  roll  on  and  dis- 
tribute mercies  and  curses,  according  as  they  are,  one  or 
the  other,  fit  and  proper,  then  the  system  of  administra- 
tion is  one  from  which  there  is  no  escape. 

Now  God's  government  over  nations  is  a  government 
through  natural  laws.  It  is  universal.  It  is  unvarying. 
It  is  immutable.     It  is  not  to  be  escaped. 

The  administration  of  God  over  nations  is  conducted 
substantially  upon  the  same  great  principles  as  that  over 


362  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

individuals.  A  nation  is  but  an  aggregation  of  individuals. 
There  is  more  in  national  life  than  there  is  in  any  individ- 
ual life;  but  men  individually  carry  with  them  into  civil 
federation  every  law  and  necessity  that  they  have  as  individ- 
uals. They  leave  nothing  behind.  They  take  on  addi- 
tional obligations,  and  come  under  some  additional  laws; 
but  they  leave  off  nothing.  And  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment that  prevails  over  individuals  prevails  over  them 
as  much  when  they  are  aggregated  into  societies  as  when 
they  stand  alone.  It  is  true  that  the  conditions  and  the 
methods  of  evolution  in  nations  differ  from  those  in  individ- 
ual life.  The  life  of  an  individual  is  quickly  sped.  What- 
ever takes  place  with  regard  to  a  man  must  take  place  in  a 
period  of  some  eighty  years.  And  if  an  individual  is  indolent, 
his  indolence  very  soon  makes  its  penalty  appear.  Drunk- 
enness in  a  man  does  not  wait  through  many  generations. 
The  penalty  must  appear  during  his  life,  or  it  cannot  be  a 
penalty.  The  penalty  of  dishonesty  and  dishonor  comes 
quickly  to  a  man.  For  the  circle  in  which  an  individual 
moves  is  small,  and  he  comes  to  the  result  of  his  conduct 
soon.  But  a  nation  is  made  up  of  millions  of  individuals, 
that  splice  each  other  and  overlap  generations,  so  that 
the  punishment  of  a  nation  does  not  come,  as  does  that  of 
an  individual,  during  the  lifetime  of  any  one,  but  during 
the  lifetime  of  the  whole  nation.  The  period  is  prolonged. 
For  drunkenness  cannot  be  produced  in  a  nation,  as  in  an 
individual,  to-day  or  to-morrow.  It  takes  a  longer  time  to 
make  a  nation  drunk  than  it  does  to  make  a  man  drunk. 
A  long  process  must  be  gone  through  before  a  nation  can 
be  debauched.  The  space  of  some  generations  is  required 
for  that.  It  is  not  until  an  evil  habit  is  established  that 
the  penalty  begins  to  inure.  And  so  in  respect  to  national 
dishonesty,  a  nation  is  not  made  dishonest,  as  a  man  is,  in 
a  day.  A  hundred  men  may  become  dishonest,  and  they 
may  be  steadily  infecting  a  hundred  others  with  dis- 
honesty; and  these  may  spread  their  desolating  principles 
to  a  whole  generation;  but  it  takes  a  great  while  before  so 
large  a  life  as  that  of  a  nation,  with  its  myriad  individuals, 
acting  and  counteracting,  becomes  so  corrupted  as  to  be- 


NATIONAL  INJUSTICE  AND  PENALTY.  363 

gin  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  great  law  of  reward  and  of 
punishment. 

As  a  nation  is  complex,  as  it  is  made  up  of  successive 
men,  as  it  requires  long  periods  for  the  evolution  of  any- 
thing, good  or  bad,  the  reward  or  the  penalty  will  not  be 
immediate.  The  good  or  the  evil  comes  to  a  nation  ac- 
cording to  its  periods  of  life,  just  as  it  does  to  an  individ- 
ual. When  the  time  comes,  the  remuneration  comes  to  the 
nation,  just  as  certainly  as  it  does  to  the  individual,  al- 
though it  takes  a  longer  time  to  move,  because  there  is  so 
much  more  of  national  life  than  of  individual  life,  and 
because  the  adjusting  processes  require  so  much  more 
space  and  time  in  the  life  of  a  nation  than  in  the  life  of 
an  individual. 

A  nation,  like  an  individual,  is  held  to  responsibility  for 
its  obedience  to  physical  laws.  The  laws  that  relate  to  an 
individual  man's  body,  and  that  vindicate  themselves  in 
the  case  of  an  individual,  also  relate  to  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  a  race  or  a  nation.  A  nation  is  held  to  responsi- 
bility for  the  violation  or  observance  of  social  laws,  or 
laws  of  intelligence,  of  industry,  of  frugality,  of  morals,  of 
piety.  It  takes  longer  to  make  a  nation  accountable  than 
an  individual.  But  in  its  longer  period  a  nation  is  held 
accountable  for  just  exactly  the  same  things  that  an  indi- 
vidual is.  For  a  million  men  have  no  right,  because  they 
are  a  million,  to  do  what  each  individual  one  of  them  has 
no  right  to  do,  against  a  natural  law. 

The  observance  or  violation  of  moral  principles  in  civil 
affairs  is,  if  possible,  even  more  signally  rewarded  or  pun- 
ished in  national  life  than  in  'individual  life.  Honor, 
truth,  justice,  fairness,  fidelity  to  obligation,  moderation 
of  desire,  magnanimity, — these  are  more  in  a  nation  than 
in  an  individual.  They  are,  therefore,  more  obviously  re- 
warded in  a  nation  than  in  an  individual,  and  their  oppo- 
sites  more  obviously  punished.  If  this  be  so,  nowhere  so 
much  in  the  world  as  in  pur  land  ought  Christian  citizens 
to  be  taught  to  consider  the  facts  and  principles  that  bear 
on  national  life,  as  well  as  those  bearing  on  their  own  indi- 
vidual life. 


364  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

You  are  a  part  of  a  family,  and  you  know  that  the  wel- 
fare of  that  family  concerns  your  individual  welfare.  You 
are  a  part  of  the  city  or  town  where  you  live,  and  I  need 
not  say  to  you  that  you  have  your  dividend  of  the  public 
welfare,  good  or  bad.  You  are  members  of  the  great  civil 
society,  you  are  members  of  the  body  politic  of  this  nation; 
and  while  the  welfare  of  the  nation  is  made  up  in  part  of 
what  you  contribute  to  it,  your  welfare  is  in  part  made  up 
of  the  nation  itself.  And  no  Christian  minister  that  under- 
stands his  duty  in  America  can  fail  to  indoctrinate  his 
people  in  respect  to  their  Christian  duties  as  citizens. 
Though  as  Christians  you  examine  your  own  hearts  and  your 
own  consciences,  though  as  Christian  communicants  you 
strive  to  cast  out  evil  thoughts  and  desires  from  your  mind, 
that  does  not  fulfill  your  duty.  You  are  bound,  as  a  part 
of  your  fealty  to  Christ,  to  think  also  of  national  character, 
of  national  morals,  and  of  national  welfare.  And  as  we 
have  come  to  a  time  in  which,  in  the  most  signal  manner, 
God  is  making  to  appear  his  great  retributive  government 
of  nations,  I  propose  to  mark  out  some  of  those  features 
of  Divine  government  that  are  now  displaying  themselves 
toward  this  nation,  and  in  our  affairs. 

If  it  is  possible  for  a  nation  to  sin,  it  must  be  when  it 
has  been  led  systematically  to  violate  all  the  natural  rights 
of  a  whole  race  or  people ;  and  American  slavery,  by  the  very 
definition  of  our  jurists,  is  the  deprivation  of  men  of  every 
natural  right.  For  the  American  doctrine  of  slavery  is  no 
analogue  or  derivative  of*  the  Hebrew  or  any  mild  form  of 
slavery.  It  is  the  extremest  and  worst  form  of  the  Roman 
doctrine  of  slavery;  the  harshest  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  It  is  a  dehumanizing  of  men.  It  is  the  deliberate 
taking  of  men,  and  putting  them  in  the  place  of  cattle  or 
chattels,  and  violating  every  one  of  their  natural  rights. 
Now,  if  this  was  done  by  an  individual,  we  might  suppose 
that  that  individual,  in  due  time,  would  be  punished.  If 
it  was  done  by  a  small  community,  we  might  suppose  that 
that  community  would  be  punished.  And  if  there  is  a 
moral  government,  if  God  is  just,  and  if  he  rewards  or 
punishes  nations  in  this  world,  it  is  not  possible  for  a   na- 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE  AND  PENALTY.  365 

tion  systematically  to  violate  every  natural  right  of  four 
millions  of  people,  and  go  unpunished.  If  that  can  be 
done, — if  a  nation  can  deny  every  single  principle  of  the 
Decalogue,  and  every  moral  canon,  as  applied  to  a  whole 
people,  from  generation  to  generation,  and  God  take  no 
account  of  it, — then  I  do  not  blame  men  for  saying  that 
there  is  no  God.  I  do  not  stand  here  to  say  that  if  the  Bible 
does  not  condemn  slavery,  I  will  throw  the  Bible  away.  I 
make  no  such  extravagant  declaration  as  that.  There  are 
reasons  why  you  cannot  throw  the  Bible  away.  It  clings 
to  you;  it  is  a  part  of  your  life;  it  is  woven  into  your 
memory  of  father  and  mother,  and  of  your  childhood;  and 
you  cannot  throw  it  away.  But  this  I  do  say:  that  if  you 
teach  that  a  nation  of  thirty  millions  of  men  may,  by  their 
organic  laws,  systematically  violate  the  natural  rights  of 
four  millions  of  men  for  twenty-five  years,  for  fifty  years, 
for  seventy-five  years,  for  a  hundred  years,  and  no  sort  of 
retribution  follow,  then  do  not  blame  men  for  saying  that 
in  that  case  there  is  no  moral  government  over  the  affairs 
of  this  world. 

Suppose  a  man  could  drink  a  quart  of  whisky  before 
breakfast,  another  quart  before  dinner,  and  another  before 
supper,  but  never  reel,  and  do  it  for  forty  years,  for  sixty 
years,  and  never  be  drunk,  what  headway  should  I  make 
with  young  men  in  impressing  upon  their  minds  the  dan- 
gers of  drinking  whisky?  It  would  not  be  dangerous  if  it 
did  not  make  men  drunk.  And  if  men  can  perpetrate 
every  violation  of  natural  law  upon  a  whole  race,  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  and  no  penalty  follow,  then  there  is 
no  testimony  of  God  against  such  wickedness, — indeed,  it 
is  not  wicked. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  they  do  it,  and  every  step  of  doing 
is  marked  either  by  the  intimation  of  penalty  or  the  actual 
disclosure  of  it,  and  if  that  penalty  is  graded  so  that  you 
can  trace  it  from  step  to  step,  and  so  that  he  that  is  blind 
can  feel  it,  if  he  cannot  see  it,  then  there  is  no  casuistry 
about  slavery,  or  about  Scripture  or  textual  authority 
against  slavery.  Then  no  man  can  get  rid  of  the  doctrine 
of   God's  judgment  against   slavery,  and   that   there   is  a 


366  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

moral  government  which   makes    it    penal  to  violate  the 
rights  of  men. 

Let  us  look  at  it  a  little  in  this  light,  and  see  if  there  is 
any  testimony,  under  God's  great  moral  government,  on 
the  subject  of  the  sinfulness  of. slavery. 

1.  There  is  no  right  more  universal,  and  more  sacred,  be- 
cause lying  so  near  to  the  root  of  existence,  than  the  right 
of  men  to  their  own  labor.  It  is  primal.  But  the  very  first 
step  of  slavery  is  to  deny  that  right.  There  are  four  mill- 
ions of  men,  women,  and  children,  to-day,  to  whom  is 
denied  the  right  to  their  own  labor, — the  right  to  direct  it 
or  to  have  the  fruits  of  it.  Now  you  may  reason  as  cun- 
ningly as  you  please,  and  tell  me  that  it  is  better  that  it 
should  be  so,  and  that  the  slaves  are  better  off  where  they 
are,  and  I  will  point  to  every  State  where  slavery  has  de- 
nied to  the  slave  the  right  to  his  own  labor,  and  will  show 
that  in  that  very  spot  God  has  blighted  and  cursed  the  soil. 
Every  Slave  State  that  has  had  exacted  and  enforced  labor 
has  itself  felt  the  blight  and  curse  of  slavery  in  its  agricul- 
ture. What  is  the  land  in  Virginia  worth  to-day?  It  is 
worn  out  and  abandoned.  If  it  were  not  for  slave-breeding, 
old  slave-tilled  Virginia  would  not  now  be  a  Slave  State. 
It  is  not  on  account  of  her  tobacco,  it  is  not  on  account  of 
her  cereals,  it  is  because  Virginians  sell  their  own  blood  in 
the  market,  that  she  is  a  Slave  State.  It  is  only  by  doing 
that,  that  she  can  make  profit  on  slaves  now.  Her  agricul- 
ture is  killed.  Her  soil  is  wasted.  You  may  track  slavery 
through  North  Carolina,  through  South  Carolina,  through 
Georgia,  through  Alabama,  through  Mississippi,  through 
Louisiana;  and  I  do  not  tell  any  secret,  or  state  that  which 
any  man  doubts,  when  I  say  that  the  agriculture  of  slavery 
is  an  exhausting  agriculture,  and  that  it  wears  out  every 
part  of  the  country  that  it  touches.  The  work  of  the  slave 
carries  the  punishment  of  the  master.  The  master  takes 
away  his  right  to  his  labor,  and  the  slave  turns  round  and 
says,  "I  curse  the  soil."  The  soil  is  cursed,  and  it  is  a  wit- 
ness of  God. 

2.  Slavery  violates  the  social  and  family  rights  of  men. 
For  the  law  of  slavery  is  that  every  man  in  slavery  is  his 


NATIONAL  INJUSTICE  AND  PENALTY.  367 

master's,  and  not  his  own.  Of  course,  therefore,  every 
woman  follows  the  same  law.  And  there  is  no  such  a  thing 
as  the  right  of  marriage.  There  is  a  form  of  marriage 
which  is  observed  with  more  or  less  decency  under  differ- 
ent circumstances;  but  there  is  neither  the  doctrine  nor 
the  impression,  throughout  slavery,  that,  when  a  man  is 
once  married,  his  wife  is  sacred  to  him  forever.  Sale  is 
divorce;  and  the  general  law  is  that,  when  a  man  is  sold 
ten  miles  from  the  plantation  where  his  wife  is  owned,  he 
is  free  to  take  another.  The  Church  never  thinks  of  dis- 
ciplining him  if  he  does,  nor  the  woman  if  she  takes  a  sec- 
ond or  a  third  husband. 

Now  if  anything  is  fundamental  in  this  world,  it  is  mar- 
riage; but  if  anything  is  violated  systematically  and 
inevitably,  it  is  the  right  of  marriage  in  men  that  do  not 
own  either  their  wives  or  their  children  in  any  way  what- 
ever. Is  there  any  testimony  on  this  subject?  Has  God 
visited  such  a  monstrous  violation  of  natural  and  moral 
law  with  any  punishment  ?  Yes,  in  destroying  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  family  relation.  The  virtue  of  the  family  estate 
is  sapped  throughout  the  South.  I  know  what  I  speak.  It 
is  not  a  matter  into  which  you  can  go  in  detail;  but  the 
great  sanctities  and  purities  of  wedded  life  are  universally 
violated  in  the  South.  Talk  about  amalgamation  as  one 
of  the  hateful  abolitionist  doctrines  !  Amalgamation  is 
never  unpopular  until  it  has  been  made  lawful;  and  then 
men  hate  it  like  perdition.  But  just  so  long  as  it  is  concu- 
binage, adultery,  and  fornication,  it  is  the  most  popular 
doctrine  in  the  whole  South.  And  I  know  that  the  very 
foundation  of  the  virtue  of  the  young  men  throughout  the 
South  is  perpetually  sapped  and  undermined.  I  believe 
that  nowhere  are  women  more  virtuous  than  there;  and 
nowhere  do  they  suffer  more  than  there.  And  in  God's 
great  revealing  day,  when  the  anguish  of  wives'  hearts 
and  mothers'  hearts,  when  all  that  they  have  been  made  to 
suffer  by  the  contaminations  which  they  have  seen  brought 
by  slavery  into  their  families,  shall  be  revealed,  O  how 
dreadful  will  then  appear  God's  witness  and  punishment 
of  that  vile  system  !     Those  who  take  away  from  the  slave 


3^3  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  fundamental  right  of  matrimony,  and  of  the  family,  are 
punished  by  the  undermining  of  the  virtue  and  purity  of 
their  own  households. 

3.  Slavery  makes  ignorance  indispensable  to  the  slave; 
because  where  there  is  knowledge,  every  faculty  is  a  wheel 
set  in  motion.  The  more  complex  the  machinery  of  a 
man's  mind  is,  the  more  needful  it  is  to  have  a  skillful  en- 
gineer to  manage  and  keep  it  in  repair,  and  the  more  fuel 
it  requires  to  run  it;  while  the  less  complex  it  is,  the  nearer 
the  man  is  to  an  animal, the  easier  it  is  to  manage  it  and  keep 
it  in  repair,  and  supply  its  wants.  As  long  as  man  lives 
only  in  bone  and  muscle,  he  asks  nothing  but  pork  and 
corn-meal.  As  long  as  he  is  an  ox,  he  chews  ox-fodder. 
When  he  becomes  a  man,  he  eats  man's  food.  And  the 
difference  between  a  slave  and  a  man  is  the  difference  be- 
tween fodder  and  food.  The  moment  you  give  a  man  a 
heart,  he  must  have  something  for  his  heart;  the  moment 
you  give  him  imagination,  he  must  have  some  opportunity, 
some  scope,  some  leisure,  for  his  imagination;  the  moment 
you  give  him  reason,  he  must  have  food  for  his  reason;  and 
as  you  augment  a  man  in  civilization,  and  make  more  and 
more  of  him,  there  must  be  a  larger  space,  more  room,  for 
him.  And  so,  when  you  give  slaves  intelligence,  you  make 
them  so  voluminous  that  a  man  cannot  afford  to  provide 
for  a  hundred  of  them;  and  it  is  not  safe  to  let  them  provide 
for  themselves.  The  only  way,  therefore,  to  make  slavery 
profitable,  is  to  keep  the  slave  ignorant. 

Now,  is  there  no  punishment  for  this  wrong?  If  a  man 
shuts  the  door  of  knowledge  against  his  fellowman,  is 
there  no  testimony  of  God  against  it?  Is  it  no  sin  to  rob 
manhood  of  knowledge?  Is  it  no  crime  to  take  from  man 
the  liberty  of  being  what  God  made  him  to  be  ?  I  hold 
that  there  is  no  other  crime  in  the  calendar  to  be  compared 
with  that.  The  man  that  robs  a  bank  in  New  York  commits  a 
slight  offense  compared  with  that  which  he  commits  who 
robs  a  human  being  of  the  right  to  open  his  own  mind  be- 
fore God  and  man.  And  what  is  the  punishment  of  that? 
The  white  man  says  to  the  slave,  "  You  shall  not  know 
anything";  and  the  slave    says  to  the  white  man,  "  Massa, 


NATIONAL    INJUSTICE   AND   PEXAITY.  369 

you  shall  not  know  anything," — and  he  does  not !  For  the 
great  mass  of  the  white  men  of  the  South  are  profoundly  ig- 
norant, and  must  remain  ignorant,  for  the  reason  that  you 
cannot  have  schools  where  there  is  a  legalized  system  of 
ignorance.  Where  there  is  a  system  of  enforced  ignorance 
that  deprives  four  millions  of  men  of  knowledge,  you  can- 
not also  have  a  system  of  forced  intelligence  that  shall 
diffuse  knowledge  among  the  remainder  of  the  population, 
as  the  free  schools  of  the  North  do  among  our  population. 
The  necessity  of  keeping  the  slave  ignorant  is  the  necessity 
of  keeping  the  major  part  of  the  white  people  at  the  South 
ignorant.  They  are  ignorant,  and  ignorant  they  will  re- 
main while  slavery  remains;  and  God  bears  witness  that 
he  punishes  this  exclusion  of  knowledge  from  the  slave. 

4.  Slavery,  taking  away  from  man  his  rights,  and  degrad- 
ing him  to  be  a  thing  of  bargain  and  sale,  avenges  itself  by 
making  human  life  unsacred  wherever  slavery  prevails.  It 
begins  by  lowering  the  idea  of  manhood,  and  by  making 
slave-life  of  no  account,  except  for  purposes  of  traffic. 
The  punishment  is  that,  in  lowering  the  idea  of  manhood, 
and  making  life  of  no  account  in  respect  to  four  millions 
of  men,  it  does  the  same  things  in  respect  to  all  mankind. 
And  where  is  life  so  cheap,  and  where  can  a  man  be  killed 
so  easily  and  with  so  little  disturbance  of  society,  as  in  the 
Southern  States  ?  And  where  slavery  is  the  most  rancorous, 
not  only  are  duels,  riots,  assassinations,  and  bloody  broils 
most  frequent,  but  the  whole  of  social  life  is  low  and  bar- 
barous. And  it  is  reasonable  that  life  should  be  cheaper 
there  than  in  civilized  communities,  because  it  is  a  great 
deal  more  to  kill  a  virtuous,  noble-minded  man  than  a  bar- 
barian !  There  are  some  men  such  that  if  you  kill  one,  you 
kill  a  thousand  men;  and  there  are  some  men  of  whom 
you  might  kill  a  thousand,  and  then  not  kill  more  than 
one.  Influences  proceed  together  by  elective  affinities; 
and  thus  a  system  that  for  the  sake  of  slavery  lowers  the 
doctrine  of  manhood,  lowers  it  about  all  men.  Thus  it 
punishes  itself,  and  carries  the  penalty  in  its  own  nature. 

5.  Yet   more   terrible   is  another  aspect.     Slavery,  while 

admitted  to  be  an   evil,  and   regretted,  might  consist  with 
24 


37°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

correct  civil  ideas.  It  did  in  the  beginning.  Till  within 
my  remembrance,  Christian  men  and  statesmen  in  the 
South  admitted  that  slavery  was  an  evil,  deprecated  its  ex- 
istence, and  hoped  for  its  decline  and  its  extinction;  and  it 
was  quite  compatible  with  the  existence  of  slavery  that 
these  men  held  right  doctrines  about  men  and  government. 
But  a  change  came,  and  the  doctrine  that  now  exists 
throughout  the  South  on  the  subject  of  slavery  is,  that 
slavery  is  right,  and  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  strong  and 
the  intelligent  to  take  away  from  the  weak  and  the  igno- 
rant every  civil  right,  and  every  personal  right,  and  to 
subject  and  subdue  them  to  their  own  will.  That  is  now 
claimed  by  the  South  as  a  right.  Well,  what  has  been  the 
penalty  ?  The  assumption  of  the  right  to  denude  four 
millions  of  men  of  their  rights  has  avenged  itself  by  rolling 
back  and  corrupting  every  political  theory  and  every  polit- 
ical idea  throughout  the  South.  Every  thinking  man 
there  has  been  corrupted  to  the  core  by  this  doctrine  of 
slavery.  And  I  aver  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
the  South  have  set  themselves  free  from  democracy  and 
republicanism.  They  are  neither  republican  nor  demo- 
cratic. They  are  aristocratic,  and  are  verging  close  upon 
monarchy.  And  slavery  has  punished  them.  As  an  in- 
strument in  the  hand  of  God,  it  has  been  turned  upon 
them  for  their  punishment.  They  have  been  punished  as 
with  a  whip  of  scorpions.  They  have  held  a  doctrine  that 
justified  them  in  taking  every  civil  and  every  natural  right 
away  from  their  fellow-men,  and  God  has  punished  them 
by  turning  them  back  to  the  barbaric  periods,  and  driving 
them  upon  the  waste  and  now  abandoned  doctrines  of 
Europe.  And  the  States  of  the  South, — you  know  where 
they  are.  They  are  four  hundred  years  back  of  where  you 
stand,  and  they  are  going  back.  They  have  already  got 
the  other  side  of  the  Reformation,  and  they  are  on  the 
way  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  God  will  thrust  them  in  ! 

6.  As  with  States,  so  with  the  Federal  government.  I 
might  cite  innumerable  instances  of  penalty  that  have  ac- 
companied the  opening  progress  of  this  system  of  slavery. 
The  Federal  government   has   tolerated  slavery,  and  it  has 


NATIONAL    INJUSTICE   AND   PENALTY.  371 

experienced,  and  is  experiencing,  punishment  therefor.  In 
the  inception  of  this  government,  when  independent  States 
were  being  persuaded  to  coalesce,  and  to  form  one  great 
nation,  the  dread  of  weakness  was  so  great  that  men  con- 
sented to  act  by  sight,  and  not  by  faith. 

A  cooper  goes  to  work  to  make  a  wine-cask.  He  pre- 
pares the  staves,  and  begins  to  set  them  up.  This  one  is 
sound,  and  he  sets  it  up;  that  one  is  sound,  and  he  sets 
that  up;  he  runs  around  the  circle,  till  he  comes  to  the 
last  three  or  four  staves,  when  he  takes  them  up,  and  finds 
that  they  are  worm-eaten  and  bored  in  every  direction. 
He  says,  "  I  am  afraid  that  I  shall  not  make  my  barrel  if  I 
do  not  put  them  in:  I  know  they  are  poor,  that  the  wine 
will  leak  out,  and  that  I  shall  have  a  terrible  time  to  save 
it,  but  I  must  make  up  my  barrel,  and  these  are  all  that  I 
have."  So  he  puts  them  in,  and  drives  down  the  hoops; 
and  when  the  wine  is  put  in  it  runs  out,  and  then  follows 
a  system  of  tinkering,  and  driving  in  a  chip  here,  and  a 
sliver  there.  But  in  spite  of  all  that  he  can  do,  the  wine 
leaks  away.  And,  after  infinite  trials  and  vexations,  he 
finds  that  the  wine  is  all  gone,  and  that  the  barrel  is  good 
for  nothing.  What  should  he  have  done  ?  He  should  have 
thrown  out  those  worm-eaten  staves,  and  made  the  barrel 
smaller. 

Now,  because  they  were  afraid  that  South  Carolina — 
that  rottenest  of  rotten  staves — would  not  come  in,  the 
framers  of  our  government  admitted  slavery,  the  worm- 
eaten  devastation  of  this  country.  Suppose  they  had  said, 
"  We  will  have  a  Union  and  have  freedom  in  it,  and  only 
those  that  consent  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  shall  be  ad- 
mitted,"—  suppose  they  had  said  this,  and  made  their 
barrel  smaller,  and  made  it  sound,  is  there  any  doubt  as  to 
what  the  issue  would  have  been  ?  But  they  were  so  afraid 
of  weakness  that  they  wished  to  make  the  barrel  large,  and 
they  put  in  worm-eaten  staves;  and  the  result  is  that  there 
has  not  been  one  single  weakness  in  this  government  that 
has  not  followed  directly  from  the  mischief  of  slavery  in 
it.  We  were  a  homogeneous  people.  We  had  opportuni- 
ties on  this  continent,  and  elements  of  prosperity,  such  as 


372  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

no  nation  ever  possessed.  There  never  was  launched  such 
a  people  on  such  a  sphere  as  this.  And  the  great  and  only 
cause  of  weakness  and  trouble  in  the  Federal  government 
has  been  slavery.  And  the  agitations  and  disturbances 
and  sufferings  through  which  we  have  passed  have  been  so 
many  penalties  and  punishments  which  God  has  infixed 
upon  the  wickedness  that  included  slavery  in  this  govern- 
ment. We  have  had  a  head  full  of  sound  teeth.  Slavery 
is  the  only  tooth  that  has  ached.  Every  other  one  has 
been  true  to  its  function. 

It  has  been  said  that  resistance  to  slavery  has  been  the 
cause  of  all  our  national  troubles.  That  is  as  if  a  wise 
physiologist  should  say  that  the  resistance  of  the  principle 
of  health  in  a  man's  body  to  disease  was  the  cause  of 
fevers,  and  that  the  way  not  to  have  fevers  was  to  lie  down 
and  let  the  disease  go  through  its  course.  Yes,  there  has 
been  conscience  enough  to  make  resistance,  thank  God. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  that,  we  should  have  been  corrupted 
through  and  through,  and  the  very  marrow  would  have 
been  rotten  before  this  time. 

For  a  period  of  fifty  years,  on  pleas  of  national  peace, 
for  the  sake  of  harmony  and  prosperity,  the  loyal  and  free 
States  have  declined  to  maintain  the  policy  of  liberty,  and 
have  permitted  slavery  to  augment  from  an  acknowledged 
evil  to  a  dominant  power, — from  a  thing  permitted  to  a 
despotic  influence.  We  have,  for  a  period  of  fifty  years, 
had  a  race  of  statesmen,  bribed  and  corrupted,  who  have 
perpetually  said,  "  Let  us  not  disturb  the  prosperity  of  this 
great  nation."  O,  how  they  have  laughed  at  and  scorned 
the  men  that  sounded  out  God's  denunciations  and  woes 
against  such  monstrous  iniquity  !  and  how  they  have  ut- 
tered in  the  ears  of  a  credulous  public  the  declaration, 
"This  nation,  this  Government,  this  Constitution, — are 
they  not  more  precious  than  the  ismsoi  the  abolitionists  ?" 
In  other  words,  when  God's  law  demanded  justice,  they 
have  said,  "  Commercial  prosperity  is  more  than  God's 
law."  When  once  a  man,  that  never,  I  fear,  will  say  so 
good  a  thing  again,  said  that  there  was  a  higher  law  than 
legislators  ever  passed,  the   whole  nation — not   excepting 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE   AND   PENALTY.  373 

ministers  in  pulpits,  who  have,  I  hope,  learned  better 
things  by  this  time — derided  the  idea  that  there  could  be  a 
higher  law.  And  such  has  been  the  state  of  things  in  the 
midst  of  which  politicians  in  this  country  have  been 
trained,  and  which  has  brought  the  original  principles  of 
justice  and  equity  to  contempt.  The  ruling  spirit  of  the 
nation  has  been  a  commercial  spirit,  and  that  in  its  lowest 
forms. 

Has  there  been  any  penalty  ?  What  has  been  the  result 
of  the  last  fifty  years  of  peace-making?  Go  to  Sharps- 
burg;  go  into  Virginia,  where  battles  have  been  fought; 
go  along  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy;  go  through 
Kentucky  and  Missouri,  where  war  like  a  sirocco  has  des- 
olated everything;  go  where  the  land  rocks  and  reels  with 
earthquakes  and  convulsions, — and  read  the  lessons  of 
peace  that  we  have  been  taught.  For  in  these  days  we  are 
reaping  what  we  have  sowed.  These  things  are  the  fruit 
of  the  seed  that  we  have  planted.  You  would  have  peace, 
and  you  see  what  you  have  got.  If  you  had  stood  up  be- 
fore, manfully,  and  listened  betimes,  and  resisted  the  evil 
that  threatened  the  very  life  of  the  nation,  you  would  not 
have  come  to  this  pass.  You  were  warned,  you  were  ex- 
horted, innumerable  witnesses  foretold  what  the  result 
must  be,  and  behold  it  has  come  upon  you  ! 

I  beg  you  still  further  to  take  notice  of  some  remarkable 
facts. 

If  there  is  any  State  in  this  Union  that  has  suffered  more 
severely  than  another,  it  is  Virginia.  If  there  is  any  State 
that  has  sinned  against  light  and  knowledge,  it  is  Virginia. 
She  knew  better;  and  she  has  been  desolated,  skinned, 
peeled,  stripped  bare.  Famine  now  sweeps  with  outspread 
wings  over  her  plains,  and  desolation  grins  in  her  valleys, 
that  a  few  months  ago  were  as  lovely  as  paradise. 

Virginia  was  dragooned  out  of  the  nation.  When  the 
convention  was  elected,  it  was  elected  by  the  people  in 
favor  of  the  Union.  They  assembled  in  Richmond. 
There  was  a  conspiracy  of  slave-traders,  who,  in  connec- 
tion with  some  desperate  politicians,  instituted  a  terrorism; 
and  that  convention  was  dragooned   to  a  secret  vote  that 


374  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

took  the  State  out  of  the  Union,  by  that  corruptest,  guilt- 
iest, and  most  accursed  class  of  men,  slave-traders,  who 
are  hated  of  men,  of  God,  and  the  devil.  And  that  State, 
which  was  the  keystone  of  the  arch,  and  which  permitted 
herself  to  fall  out,  has  had  the  most  terrible  punishment. 
Is  there  no  lesson  in  that  ?     Is  that  an  accidental  fact  ? 

Consider,  again,  the  strange  part  that  has  been  played 
in  this  conflict  by  Southern  women.  A  woman  always 
goes  with  her  whole  heart,  whether  for  the  good  or  for  the 
bad.  Women  are  the  best  and  the  worst  things  that  God 
ever  made  !  And  they  have  been  true  to  their  nature  in 
this  conflict.  Southern  men  have  been  tame  and  cool  in 
comparison  with  the  fury  of  Southern  women.  Now,  ad- 
mit that  they  were  blinded.  A  man  that  steps  off  from  a 
precipice  is  not  saved  because  he  is  blindfolded.  A  man 
that  walks  in  fire  is  not  saved  because  he  thought  it  was 
water.  I  suppose  that  of  the  male  population  of  the  South 
between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty,  a  majority  will  be 
utterly  cut  off  before  this  war  ends.  To  a  great  extent, 
Southern  households  are  to  be  stripped  of  those  that  are 
their  heads,  and  the  South  is  to  be  a  realm  in  which 
woman  shall  be  deprived  of  her  natural  protector,  and 
bear  unutterable  woes  of  poverty  and  sorrow  and  murder 
and  rapine.  She  has  taken  such  an  unfortunate  position 
in  this  war,  for  slavery,  and  she  has  sinned  against  such 
great  light,  that  God  is  bringing  down  upon  her  condign 
punishment. 

We,  too,  are  suffering  in  the  North,  and  in  the  same  way 
that  we  ought  to.  I  accept  the  punishment.  It  is  meas- 
ured with  an  even  hand  all  over  the  country.  Every  man 
that  should  have  voted  right,  and  did  not,  is  having,  or  is 
yet  to  have,  a  part  in  the  sufferings  caused  by  this  strug- 
gle. Every  State  that,  for  the  sake  of  its  manufactories, 
has  refused  to  do  the  right  thing,  has  suffered,  and  shall 
suffer.  For  I  call  you  more  especially  to  take  notice,  that 
the  North  has  suffered  to  the  extent  to  which  she  has 
winked  at  slavery  for  the  sake  of  commerce.  Why  is  it 
that  the  State  of  Connecticut — my  State — the  State  in  which 
I  was  born  and  bred,  which  I  love  with  an  unfaltering  love, 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE  AND   PENALTY.  375 

and  of  which  I  have  been  so  often  ashamed — has  been  so 
servile,  so  radically  Democratic,  in  the  sense  of  that  De- 
mocracy which  means  pandering  to  slavery, — why  is  it,  but 
that  she  has  established  petty  manufactories  along  the 
shore,  and  that  her  great  market  has  been  South?  Why 
has  the  manufacturing  North  been  so  largely  pro-slavery  ? 
Why  has  the  policy  of  freedom  been  so  often  betrayed  and 
paralyzed  by  the  merchants  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
and  Boston  and  Pittsburgh?  Commerce  has  bribed  them. 
And  what  is  the  result?  You  have  been  making  money 
out  of  slavery.  A  part  of  my  support  comes  out  of  slavery. 
I  do  not  deny  this.  I  know  that  I  eat  sugar  and  wear  cot- 
ton that  have  been  produced  by  the  unrequited  labor  of 
slaves.  I  know  that  this  evil  of  slavery  has  gone  through 
every  fiber  of  the  whole  North.  And  while  I  blame  the 
North,  I  take  part  of  the  blame  on  my  own  head.  I  put 
part  of  it  on  your  head.  I  distribute  it  to  every  State. 
I  am  not  making  complaint  against  the  South  distinctively, 
but  against  the  Nation.  And  by  the  time  you  have  paid 
two  thousand  million  dollars  of  taxes,  and  have  but  just 
begun,  I  think  that  the  Lord  will  have  got  back  pretty 
much  all  that  the  North  has  made  out  of  slavery  !  God  is  a 
great  tax-gatherer:  he  is  out  now  on  that  errand;  and  he 
will  have  a  prosperous  time  ! 

I  call  you  still  further  to  take  notice,  that  every  nation 
and  people  on  the  globe  that  has  had  any  political  or  pecu- 
niary connection  with  this  monstrous  evil  is  being  made  to 
suffer.  God  is  pouring  out  the  vial  of  his  wrath;  and  bear- 
ing witness,  tremendous  witness,  by  war,  against  slavery, 
and  against  the  cruel  wickedness  of  men  that  perpetuate 
it.  The  South  suffers,  the  North  suffers,  and,  next  to  this 
nation,  England  suffers,  because,  next  to  this  nation,  she  is 
guilty.  England  ?  why,  there  is  not  a  better-tongued  peo- 
ple in  the  world.  England  ?  I  honor  her  old  history;  I 
honor  her  struggles  for  liberty;  I  hqnor  her  stalwart  valor 
in  the  present  day.  And  yet  the  commercial  classes  in 
England  have  thriven,  and  made  their  wealth  and  built 
their  palaces,  out  of  slave  labor.  And  to-day  there  is 
mourning  in  the  factories  of   England,  there   is  famine  in 


376  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

her  streets,  and  the  commercial  classes  are  demanding  that 
the  ports  of  the  South  shall  be  opened.  And  now  that 
government,  which  has  already  winked  at  wickedness  on 
account  of  the  necessity  of  obtaining  cotton,  is  yielding, 
and  is  considering  whether  it  is  not  necessary  for  her  to 
commit  another  monstrous  wickedness.  God  punishes 
England,  because  England  has  had  to  do  with  slavery. 
And  he  is  punishing  France.  France  suffers  less,  but 
France  is  suffering.  Find  me  a  nation  whose  welfare  has 
depended  on  cotton  or  sugar,  and  I  will  find  you  a  nation 
that  is  suffering  in  consequence  of  this  war. 

Are  these  facts  accidental  ?  The  condition  of  the  South, 
of  the  North,  and  of  foreign  countries,  in  their  relations  to 
the  war, — are  these  accidental  ?  Is  there  any  such  thing 
as  a  divine  witness  ?  Are  there  any  such  things  as  indica- 
tions of  a  moral  government,  and  of  punishments  accruing 
from  the  transgression  of  moral  laws  ? 

What  then,  I  ask,  in  conclusion,  is  infidelity  in  our  day? 
It  is  refusing  to  hear  God's  voice,  and  to  believe  God's  tes- 
timony in  his  providence.  There  are  plenty  of  men  who 
believe  in  Genesis,  and  Chronicles,  and  the  Psalms,  and 
Isaiah,  and  Daniel,  and  Ezekiel,  and  Matthew,  and  the 
other  Evangelists,  and  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament, 
clear  down  to  the  Apocalypse;  there  are  plenty  of  men 
who  believe  in  the  letter  of  Scripture;  and  there  are  plenty 
of  men  who  believe  everything  that  God  said  four  thou- 
sand years  ago;  but  the  Lord  God  Almighty  is  walking 
forth  at  this  time  in  clouds  and  thunder  such  as  never 
rocked  Sinai.  His  voice  is  in  all  the  land,  and  in  all  the 
earth,  and  those  men  that  refuse  to  hear  God  in  his  own 
time,  and  in  the  language  of  the  events  that  are  taking 
place,  are  infidels.  And  the  infidelity  is  greater  in  your 
case  than  it  could  be  in  the  case  of  any  other  people;  be- 
cause to  believe  in  slavery,  to  refuse  to  believe  in  liberty, 
and  to  be  unwilling  to. believe  that  God  rewards  liberty  and 
punishes  slavery,  against  your  education,  against  your  his- 
toric ideas,  against  all  the  canons  of  your  political  struct- 
ure, against  the  natural  sympathies  of  the  heart, — that  is  a 
monstrous  infidelity.     No  man  can  be  such  an   infidel  by 


NATIONAL  INJUSTICE  AND  PENALTY.  377 

disbelieving  the  Bible  as  you  can  by  standing  and  looking 
upon  the  current  events  of  this  age,  and  refusing  to  be- 
lieve that  God  is  bearing  witness  against  oppression  and 
in  favor  of  liberty.  Take  care  !  You  are  in  more  danger 
on  that  point,  just  now,  than  on  any  other.  Because 
things  are  coming  to  a  crisis.  We  are  about  to  move, in 
gigantic  force  in  one  way  or  the  other;  and  it  is  necessary 
that  we  should  fall  back  on  some  great  principle.  Hence- 
forth, let  us  refuse  to  take  guidance  and  direction  from 
the  counsels  of  cunning  men  or  weaving  politicians.  It  is 
time  for  vis  to  fall  back  from  the  counsels  of  men,  and 
strike  some  great  immutable  principle  of  God. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  our  policy  for  the  future?  What 
are  we  to  do  ?  One  class  of  men  will  say,  "The  remedy 
for  all  these  evils  is  to  gather  together  about  twenty  seces- 
sionists, and  about  twenty  abolitionists,  and  hang  them  !  " 
But  I  will  tell  you  what  hanging  abolitionists  will  do.  It 
will  do  just  exactly  what  would  be  done  if,  when  a  terrible 
disease  had  broken  out  on  a  ship,  the  crew  should  kick  the 
doctors  overboard,  and  the  medicine  after  them.  The 
disease  would  stay  on  board,  and  only  the  cure  would  go 
overboard.  You  may  rage  as  much  as  you  please,  but  the 
men  who  labor  to  bring  back  the  voices  of  the  founders  of 
this  Union;  the  men  whose  faith  touches  the  original  prin- 
ciples of  God's  Word;  the  men  that  are  in  sympathy  with 
Luther;  the  men  that  breathe  the  breath  that  fanned  the 
flame  of  the  Revolution;  the  men  that  walk  in  the  spirit  of 
the  old  Puritans;  the  men  that  are  like  the  first  framers  of 
this  model  republic, — they  are  the  men,  if  there  be  any 
medicine  yet,  by  whose  hand  God  will  send  a  cure.  Hang 
them  ?  that  was  the  medicine  that  the  Jews  had  when 
they  crucified  Christ.  The  Lord  of  glory  was  put  upon  an 
ignominious  tree,  and  they  thought  that  they  would  have 
peace  in  Jerusalem  !  And  where  is  Jerusalem  ?  Where  are 
the  Jews  ?  They  are  a  by-word  and  a  hissing  to  the  earth. 
And  you,  the  children  of  men  that  came  here  for  liberty; 
you,  that  heard  only  the  doctrines  of  liberty  from  your 
mother's  lips,  and  drank  it  with  her  milk;  you,  in  whose 
make  every  thread   and   every   fiber   was  spun    from    the 


378  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

golden  fleece  of  liberty, — can  you  stand  in  any  doubt  as  to 
what  the  remedy  is  for  such  times  as  these  ?  It  is  to  repent 
of  past  days,  to  break  away  from  the  past  and  to  call  God 
to  witness  that  in  time  to  come  we  will  consecrate,  individ- 
ually and  nationally,  every  energy  to  repair  the  mischief 
of  slavery,  to  do  it  away  utterly,  and  to  establish  the  reign 
of  universal  liberty.  That  is  the  path  of  safety.  And 
blessed  be  God,  he  has  sent  a  porter.  He  has  opened  the 
door  by  the  hand  of  the  President.  He  has  lifted  the  silver 
trumpet  of  liberty,  and  the  blast  is  blown  that  rolls 
through  the  forest,  and  goes  along  the  mountain-side,  and 
spreads  wide  over  the  prairies.  It  is  known  on  the  hither 
ocean,  and  on  the  thither;  and  the  waves  of  the  Pacific,  and 
the  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  lift  themselves  up.  and  sound 
together  notes  of  gladness  because  that  policy  is  enun- 
ciated wmich  cannot  be  taken  back.  As  long  as  it  was  a 
question  whether  the  President  meant  to  declare  emanci- 
pation, as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  United  States,  as  a  military  necessity, — as  long  as 
there  was  any  doubt  on  this  subject,  the  North  was  in 
danger  of  being  divided  into  two  parties,  one  attempting 
to  make  him  proclaim  liberty,  and  the  other  attempting  to 
make  him  stand  up  for  slavery.  He  has  taken  his  choice 
between  them.  And  there  can  be  but  two  parties  in  the 
North,  one  of  which  shall  go  for  liberty,  the  government, 
and  the  President,  and  the  other  for  the  South,  for  treach- 
ery, and  for  slavery.  The  foundation  of  all  opposition  is 
knocked  out. 

I  know  it  is  said  that  the  President  is  not  the  govern- 
ment; that  the  Constitution  is  the  government.  What  !  a 
sheepish  parchment  a  government  !  I  should  think  it  was 
a  very  fit  one  for  some  such  men  as  I  often  see  and  hear  ! 
What  is  a  government  in  our  country  ?  It  is  a  body  of  liv- 
ing men,  ordained  by  the  people,  who  administer  public 
affairs  according  to  the  laws  that  are  written  in  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  statute-books.  The  government  consists  of 
living  men  that  are  administering,  in  a  certain  method,  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  It  is  not  a  dry  writing,  or  a  book. 
President  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet,  the  heads  of  the  execu- 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE  AND  PENALTY.  379 

tive  departments,  are  the  government.  And  men  must  take 
their  choice  whether  they  will  go  against  their  government 
or  go  with  it.  Mouthing  traitors  will  pretend  to  go  with 
the  government  while  they  are  undermining  it,  and  honest 
men  will  go  with  it, — and  you  know  that  the  honest  men 
in  the  North  are  yet  a  large  majority.  I  thank  God  that 
the  lines  are  drawn.  There  is  nothing  so  demoralizing  as 
equivocal  neutrality,  and  nothing  so  bad.  And  since  the 
President  has  taken  ground,  since  the  administration  and 
government  are  now  fixed  on  the  side  of  liberty,  the  old 
original  wisdom  of  our  Constitution,  and  the  doctrine  of 
our  fathers,  we  are  going  to  have  the  Union  as  it  never 
was,  but  as  it  was  meant  to  be.  The  Union  as  it  was 
meant  to  be,  and  not  the  Union  as  it  was,  is  to  be  our  doc- 
trine; because  the  Union  as  it  was,  was  a  monstrous  out- 
rage on  your  rights,  and  on  mine.  The  Union  as  it  was 
guaranteed  me  the  right  of  speech,  to  be  paid  for  by  my 
life  in  Virginia  and  Carolina  and  Georgia  and  Alabama 
and  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  and  Arkansas  and  Missouri. 
I  could  not  have  gone  to  either  of  those  States  and  spoken  the 
words  that  I  have  spoken  to-night  without  praising  God  to- 
morrow morning  in  another  world.  Am  I  to  celebrate  the 
Union  as  it  was,  which  was  a  practical  violation  of  the  great 
canons  of  the  Constitution,  of  the  great  principles  of  the 
Bills  of  Rights,  and  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  ?  Slavery  had  corrupted  it,  and  made 
it  to  be  practically  an  abominable  thing  in  many  of  its 
usages.  But  the  Union  as  it  was  to  be,  the  Union  as  it  was 
in  the  intent  of  the  framers  of  it, — let  that  come  back;  and, 
so  far  as  it  is  twisted  out  of  shape,  let  the  twists  be  taken 
out,  so  that  it  shall  stand  just  exactly  plumb  to  the  line  of 
the  Constitution.  Then  we  shall  have  the  Union  that  is  to 
be,  and  the  Union  that  we  want. 

And  now,  my  Christian  friends,  if  the  whole  Church  of 
the  Christian  North  and  the  loyal  North,  if  the  ministers 
and  the  members  of  the  churches,  and  all  that  are  religiously 
inclined  throughout  the  North,  will  be  pleased  to  make 
this  a  matter  of  religious  conviction,  and  if  they  will  as- 
sume that  God  has  come  to  judgment  with  this  nation,  and 


380  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

will  for  their  future  policy  ask,  not,  "  Mr.  Seward,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do  ? "  nor,  "  Mr.  Seymour,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  to  do?"  nor  even,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  to  do?"  but,  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to 
do?" — if  the  Christian  public  of  the  North  will  settle  their 
duty  in  the  light  of  eternity,  and  according  to  the  princi- 
ples of  God's  Word,  and  if  they  will  take  the  slave  and 
bear  him  to  Calvary,  and  lay  him  down  under  the  cross  of 
Him  that  gave  his  life  for  the  poor  and  the  wretched,  and 
if  then,  as  the  sacred  drops  fall  from  the  wounded  side 
upon  his  beaten  and  bruised  body,  kneeling  down,  they 
will  say,  "Jesus,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  for  this  in- 
jured and  oppressed  one  ?"  and  will  settle  it  there,  and  un- 
der that  influence,  I  have  no  fear. 

We  shall  see  struggles,  and  go  through  deep  and  bitter 
trials  yet;  but  the  future  is  bright.  For  where  Christ  sits 
is  daylight  and  morning.  And  if  the  whole  Christian  pub- 
lic of  the  North  set  their  faces  toward  God,  and  move 
toward  him,  they  will  move  away  from  night,  and  toward 
the  day, — a  day  that,  when  it  shall  once  have  arisen  on  this 
continent,  shall  know  no  setting, — a  day  of  Christian  lib- 
erty,— the  harbinger  of  universal  freedom  to  a  world  regen- 
erated.    God  grant  it ! 

And  as  for  me,  I  am  determined,  by  that  same  help  that 
has  been  vouchsafed  to  me  from  the  beginning,  to  preach 
a  Gospel  of  liberty  among  you,  and  to  bear  witness  for  lib- 
erty, as  founded  in  religion,  to  all  this  nation.  I  will  not 
be  intimidated.  I  shall  not  be  persuaded.  Come  weal  or 
come  woe, — whether  we  are  defeated  and  cast  back  again, 
or  whether  we  go  forward  immediately  to  the  prosperity  of 
an  ascertained  and  settled  liberty, — as  long  as  I  have  life 
and  health,  and  strength  and  breath,  I  will  use  them  first 
and  last,  and  chiefly  and  only,  for  the  enunciation  of  that 
Gospel  which  brings  release  to  the  captive,  and  liberty  to 
man.  There  is  no  power  even  in  hell,  though  you  bring  its 
legions  and  its  monstrosities  upon  the  earth,  that  for  one 
single  moment  will  hinder  or  turn  back  this  testimony  that 
God  made  man  to  be  free.  I  will  preach  it  for  the  sewing- 
woman;  I   will  preach  it  for  the  poor  day  laborer;  I    will 


NATIONAL   INJUSTICE   AND   PENALTY.  381 

preach  it  for  the  white  man  and  for  the  black  man;  I  will 
preach  it  for  all  in  this  land ;  I  will  preach  it  for  the  oppressed 
of  other  lands, — for  the  Irishman,  for  the  Dane,  for  the  En- 
glishman, for  the  Frenchman,  for  the  struggling  Italian, 
and  for  the  Hungarian;  I  will  preach  it  for  every  man.  For 
God  hath  made  all  nations  of  one  blood,  and  to  dwell  to- 
gether. I  own  the  brotherhood.  I  accept  every  man  as 
my  brother,  inheriting  my  right.  And  as  long  as  I  claim 
for  myself  liberty,  I  will  assert  it  for  other  men,  I  will  live 
for  it,  and  I  will  die  for  it. 

I  see  that  this  is  not  my  own  individual  inspiration.  I  am 
moved  to  this  because  it  is  in  the  public  heart,  because  it  is 
the  public  sentiment  of  States  and  communities.  I  am 
but  the  mouthpiece  of  millions  of  men;  and  I  say  to  those 
that  meditate  treachery  and  tyranny,  Beware  !  God  has 
come  to  judgment,  but  he  has  come  to  a  judgment  by 
which  he  will  purify  his  people,  and  make  them  a  peculiar 
people,  zealous  of  good  works.  We  shall  see  a  glorious 
Union.  We  shall  see  a  restored  Constitution.  We  shall 
see  a  liberty  in  whose  bright  day  Georgia  and  Massachu- 
setts shall  shake  hands  that  never  shall  be  separated  again. 
There  is  love  yet  to  be  raked  open.  Now  there  is  fierce- 
ness of  hatred;  but  there  shall  come  concord,  fellowship, 
and  union,  that  no  foreign  influence  can  break,  and  no 
home  trouble  shall  ever  mar  again.  We  shall  live  to  see 
a  better  day. 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF 
GOVERNMENT/ 


"  That  the  hypocrite  reign  not,  lest  the  people  be  ensnared." — Job 
xxxiv.  30. 

The  whole  context  from  the  seventeeth  verse  is  worthy 
of  reading. 

"  Shall  even  he  that  hateth  right  govern  ?  and  wilt  thou  con- 
demn him  that  is  most  just?  Is  it  fit  to  say  to  a  king,  Thou  art 
wicked  ?  and  to  princes,  Ye  are  ungodly  ?  How  much  less  to 
him  that  accepteth  not  the  persons  of  princes,  nor  regardeth  the 
rich  more  than  the  poor?  for  they  all  are  the  work  of  his  hands." 

God  is  the  greatest  democrat  in  the  universe.  He  does 
not  regard  ranks,  nor  conditions,  nor  degrees;  and  he  says 
that  the  highest  rich  man  is  just  like  the  lowest  poor 
man,  and  that  a  king  is  no  better  than  the  humblest  of  his 
subjects.  They  are  all  alike  before  the  throne  of  God. 
As  you  go  toward  heaven,  you  go  toward  the  true  divine 
democracy. 

"  In  a  moment  shall  they  die,  and  the  people  shall  be  troubled 
at  midnight,  and  pass  away :  and  the  mighty  shall  be  taken  away 
without  hand.  For  his  eyes  are  upon  the  ways  of  man,  and  he 
seeth  all  his  goings.  There  is  no  darkness  nor  shadow  of  death, 
where  the  workers  of  iniquity  may  hide  themselves  " — from  God. 
"  For  he  will  not  lay  upon  man  more  than  right,  that  he  should 
enter  into  judgment  with  God.  He  shall  break  in  pieces  mighty 
men  without  number,  and  set  others  in  their  stead.  Therefore 
he  knoweth  their  works,  and  he  overturneth  them  in  the  night, 
so  that  they  are  destroyed.  He  striketh  them  as  wicked  men  in 
the  open  sight  of  others  ;  because  they  turned  back  from  him, 
and  would  not  consider  any  of  his  ways :  so  that  they  cause  the 
cry  of  the  poor  to  come  unto  him,  and  he  heareth  the  cry  of  the 
afflicted.     When  he  giveth  quietness,  who  then  can  make  trouble  ? 

*  November  22,  1862. 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.        383 

and  when  he  hideth  his  face,  who  then  can  behold  him  ?  whether 
it  be  done  against  a  nation,  or  against  a  man  only  :  that  the  hypo- 
crite reign  not,  lest  the  people  be  ensnared." 

It  is  affirmed  that  Job  was  written  at  some  period  be- 
tween Abraham  and  Moses.  It  is  the  oldest  portion,  or  at 
least  one  of  the  oldest  portions,  of  the  sacred  writings. 
And  yet,  old  as  it  is,  the  world-long  controversy  whether 
God  governed  the  world  by  a  moral  law,  with  rewards 
and  penalties,  had  begun  when  it  was  written.  The  whole 
passage  read  is  a  fine  assertion  of  the  fact  of  Divine  gov- 
ernment, and  with  shades  and  applications  that  would 
seem  to  make  it  the  transcript  of  God's  procedure  in  our 
own  time. 

The  fault  of  all  expectations  and  arguments  as  to  the 
existence  of  a  moral  government  over  human  affairs  is  apt 
to  be  that  men  seek  for  the  evidences  of  a  moral  govern- 
ment where  these  are  not  most  evident.  For  the  Divine 
government  is  distributed  through  many  different  depart- 
ments of  life.  A  part  of  it  appears  in  the  individual.  A 
part  of  it  follows  him  into  the  family.  A  part  of  it  be- 
longs to  his  commercial,  and  a  part  of  it  to  his  civil  life. 
And  we  are  to  gather  the  results  of  any  moral  course,  not 
alone  in  an  individual  fate,  but  in  the  collective  fate  of  all 
the  individuals  represented  in  the  household,  in  their  bus- 
iness, and  in  their  civil  estate.  And  the  results  of  God's 
moral  administration  appear  partly  in  the  individual, 
partly  in  the  household,  partly  in  the  affairs  of  commerce, 
and  partly  in  national  histories.  But  man's  life,  taken 
comprehensively,  bears  witness  to  nothing,  if  not  to  the 
moral  government  of  God,  which  rewards  right  conduct, 
truth,  honor,  virtue,  manhood,  and  duty,  and  punishes  the 
reverse.  And  history  has  been  written  in  vain,  if  history 
has  not  taught  this.  But  it  has  not  been  written  in  vain, 
and  it  does  teach  this.  A  man  in  civil  government  is  just 
as  much  a  subject  of  the  divine  moral  government  as  a 
man  in  his  individual  relations. 

Civil  governments  are  said  to  be  of  God.  All  govern- 
ment is  ordained  of  God;  and  civil  governments  are  so, 
not  as  by  revelation  and  ordination,  but  because  the  nature 


384  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  man  necessitates  government.  God  did  not  create  man, 
and  then  command  a  government  over  him,  but  he  created 
man  with  a  necessity  and  instinct  of  government,  and  then 
left  that  instinct  and  necessity  to  develop  themselves.  God 
made  men  to  need  clothes,  but  he  never  cut  out  a  pattern 
for  them  to  make  their  clothes  by.  He  left  them  to  choose 
their  own  raiment.  God  made  appetite,  but  he  never 
made  a  bill  of  fare.  He  left  men  to  pick  out  their  own 
food.  God  made  man's  necessity  for  government,  and 
then  let  him  alone,  and  that  necessity  of  government 
wrought  out  civil  governments. 

There  has  been  a  law,  also,  in  these;  for  governments 
are  not  accidental.  Governments  are  always  the  legiti- 
mate outworkings  of  the  condition  of  those  governed; 
and  there  cannot,  for  any  prolonged  period,  be  a  govern- 
ment that  is  not,  in  the  nature  of  things,  adapted  to  those 
under  it.  If  there  is  an  absolute  monarchy,  it  is  an  indi- 
cation that  there  is  a  state  of  the  people  that  requires  an 
absolute  monarchy.  If  there  is  an  intermediate,  or  aristo- 
cratic government,  it  is  an  indication  that  the  state  of  the 
people  is  such  as  to  necessitate  that  government.  If  there 
is  a  continuous  and  strong  republican  government,  or  self- 
government  in  any  form,  it  is  because  there  was  a  condi- 
tion of  the  people  that  wrought  it  out.  For  governments 
are  not  arbitrary.  They  are  the  effect  of  which  the  moral 
state  of  the  people  is  the  cause.  Therefore  we  are  not  to 
rail  against  any  form  of  government,  as  if  it  were  itself  a 
monstrous  wrong.  Governments  are  shadows  that  na- 
tions and  peoples  themselves  cast;  and  they  usually  meas- 
ure in  some  degree  the  proportions  of  the  peoples  or 
nations  that  cast  them. 

The  lowest  conditions  of  men  always  induce  strong  gov- 
ernments; they  always  induce  governments  of  force  rather 
than  of  motive;  and  for  the  reason  that  men  in  an  unde- 
veloped and  ignorant  state  are  unsusceptible  of  motive. 
They  do  not  think  much.  Their  moral  sense  is  inchoate, 
and  you  cannot  address  many  motives  to  it.  That  part  of 
their  life  is  superstitious  rather  than  religious,  and  it  leads 
to  the  introduction  of  superstitious  motives  into  govern- 


THE  GROUXD  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       385 

ment.  And  in  proportion  as  men  are  in  condition  like  an- 
imals, you  must  harness  and  whip  them  as  you  do  animals. 
You  cannot  govern  them  in  any  other  way.  We  act  upon 
this  principle  in  our  households;  for  the  little  child,  before 
it  has  learned  to  use  its  reason  and  its  moral  sense,  is  gov- 
erned through  the  skin.  And  just  in  proportion  as  it  is 
redeemed  from  animalism,  and  carried  up  toward  intelli- 
gence and  moral  sense,  a  moral  and  intellectual  govern- 
ment is  introduced  in  the  place  of  a  physical  government. 
You  cannot  govern  a  child  of  four  years  as  you  can  a  man 
of  forty,  simply  because  those  motives  which  influence  the 
developed  nature  of  the  man  have  no  effect  on  the  unde- 
veloped nature  of  the  child.  And  so  it  is  in  governments. 
While  men  are  low  and  brutal  and  savage,  while  they  have 
possession  of  but  a  part  of  themselves,  it  is  not  possible 
to  govern  them  in  any  way  except  with  reference  to  their 
condition. 

The  middle  state  will  result  in  government  by  orders 
and  classes.  It  will  emancipate  such  as  are  strong  and  in- 
telligent, and  leave  the  ignorant  yet  under  strong  govern- 
ment. When  all  men  are  ignorant,  you  will  have  absolute 
monarchies;  when  a  part  are  intelligent  and  the  rest  are 
ignorant,  you  will  have  aristocracies;  and  when  the  whole 
are  intelligent,  you  will  have  democracies,  or  republican 
governments.  One  of  these  three  is  inevitable.  The  peo- 
ple determine  what  the  government  shall  be.  If  they  are 
brutal,  there  will  be  tyrannies;  if  they  are  partly  civilized 
and  partly  uncivilized,  there  will  be  aristocracies;  if  they 
are  wholly  civilized,  there  will  be  democracies.  Govern- 
ments necessitate  themselves,  and  adapt  themselves  to  the 
people. 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  this  order  of  government  as 
founded  upon  the  character  of  the  people. 

Strong  governments    belong    to    the    undeveloped    and 

weak.     It  is  so   of   necessity,  and  it  is  so  by  right.     If  it  is 

wrong  to  have   monarchies  when   they  are   required,  it  is 

still  more  wrong  to   have   people  that  can  be  governed  by 

nothing  but  monarchies.     So  long  as  people  are  crude  and 

undeveloped,  you  can  govern  them   in  no  other  way  than 
25 


J 


86  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


by  strong  and  compulsory  means.  There  were  attempts 
made  early  at  self-governments  but  they  all  failed  igno- 
miniously,  for  the  reason  that  the  people  were  not  prepared 
to  govern  themselves.  The  Jewish  nation  has  been  called 
a  commonwealth.  That  there  were  in  its  legislation  ele- 
ments of  a  commonwealth,  there  can  be  no  doubt;  but  in 
point  of  fact  the  government  of  the  Jewish  people  never 
did  amount  to  anything  more  than  a  strong  government. 
It  was  either  a  government  of  chiefs  over  tribes,  or  a  gov- 
ernment of  priests,  under  the  name  of  theocracy.  And  it 
was  a  strong  government,  whatever  the  form  might  be. 

Just  as  far  as  ignorance  and  passion  and  rudeness  exist 
in  a  community,  they  impede  self-government,  or  even 
make  it  impossible.  And  where  the  people  are  not  pre- 
pared or  qualified  to  govern  themselves,  absolute  govern- 
ments are  just  as  certain  now  as  ever  before.  Government 
is  not  a  thing  to  be  chosen,  except  so  far  as  necessity  is 
itself  choice.  Adaptation  is  a  kind  of  generic  choice.  It 
is  supposed  that  we  have  outgrown  monarchical  govern- 
ments. We  have  been  taught,  since  the  days  of  the  spell- 
ing-book and  the  old  "  Columbian  Orator,"  that  this  nation 
could  not  be  governed  by  a  monarchy.  It  depends  upon 
how  ignorant  and  how  wicked  you  are.  Large  portions  of 
this  nation  cannot  be  governed  by  anything  but  a  mon- 
archy now,  and  there  is  danger  that  ere  long  such  will  be 
the  case  with  the  whole  nation  unless  there  is  a  change. 
For  as  ignorance  disappears,  so  disappear  monarchies;  and 
as  ignorance  comes  back,  so  inevitably  come  back  mon- 
archies. August  laughs  at  the  idea  of  March,  and  says, 
"  We  have  no  frost;  we  have  warm  nights  and  glowing 
days,  and  there  shall  be  no  more  frosts."  And  September 
says  it,  only  with  a  fainter  voice.  And  October  begins  to 
feel  pinching  frosts.  And  as  the  days  grow  shorter,  and 
the  nights  grow  longer,  and  November  and  December 
come  in,  the  reign  of  winter  again  ensues.  And  there  is 
a  January  to  every  August,  as  there  is  an  April  to  every 
January.  And  there  are  just  such  revolutions  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  You  can  have  Pharaohs  again,  if  you 
want  them, — though  I  pray  God  that  there  may  be  a  Red 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       387 

Sea  for  every  one  of  them  !  You  can  have  dynasties  again 
through  just  letting  the  people  become  adapted  to  them 
by  ignorance,  by  unvirtue,  by  a  want  of  self-restraint,  by 
pampered  self-indulgence,  or  by  pride  growing  out  of 
monstrous  prosperity.  Every  step  toward  declension  from 
moral  character  is  a  written  invitation  for  tyranny  to  come 
back, — and  it  never  lingers  long  nor  hesitates  when  invited. 

Whenever,  from  any  cause,  large  portions  of  any  com- 
munity become  barbarous,  they  necessitate  monarchies,  and 
the  prevailing  governments  must  either  grow  strong,  or 
fail  entirely;  for  there  can  be  no  self-government  except 
where  there  is  virtue,  intelligence,  and  moral  worth. 

Strong  governments,  then,  belong  to  the  first  conditions 
of  the  world,  to  the  lowest  states  of  human  life;  and  they 
are  not  good  as  compared  with  better  governments,  but 
good  as  compared  with  nothing  at  all. 

The  process  of  civilization,  with  all  its  manifold  powers, 
acts  first,  of  course,  upon  the  strongest  natures.  In  strong 
governments  there  will  be,  if  they  be  at  all  good,  a  ten- 
dency to  improve.  This  tendency  usually  shows  itself  first, 
not  in  masses,  but  in  single  instances;  and  when  educating 
influences  begin  to  bear  upon  a  community,  the  most  sus- 
ceptible are  first  affected;  the  men  with  the  strongest 
minds,  with  the  most  intellection,  with  the  richest  natures, 
with  the  best  parts,  are  earliest  developed.  The  word 
aristocracy  comes  from  the  Greek,  and  signifies  government 
by  the  best.  And  in  the  progress  of  the  development  of 
national  life  the  first  men  that  are  educated,  and  that  begin 
to  have  the  power  that  comes  from  education,  are  by  orig- 
inal endowment  the  best  men,  the  most  intellectual  men, 
the  men  of  the  most  brain  and  substance. 

The  second  result  is  that  such  men  become  incapable  of 
enduring  an  arbitrary  government.  As  long  as  men  are 
ignorant,  and  deficient  in  will,  they  are  incompetent  to  re- 
sist a  strong  government,  and,  like  the  masses  around  them, 
they  submit  to  it;  but  as  they  begin  to  think,  and  have 
will-power,  they  begin  to  resist  the  government,  and  it 
slides  off,  and  begins  to  distribute  its  power,  and  an  aristoc- 
racy comes  in  as  the  first  transition  from  an   absolute  gov- 


388  rATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ernment,  so  that>  there  will  be  a  monarch,  with  a  class,  as 
in  England,  or  a  class  without  a  monarch,  as  in  some  of 
the  ancient  nations.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  gov- 
ernment is  called  the  government  of  the  best  men  over  the 
masses,  or  of  the  few  over  the  many.  And  this  is  a  nat- 
ural and  inevitable  transition  state  from  strong  govern- 
ment to  self-government.  It  holds  a  middle  place  between 
a  government  over  the  people  and  a  government  from  the 
people.  It  includes,  in  some  degree,  the  elements  of  both. 
And  the  same  reason  that  compels  the  crown  to  divide  its 
power  with  the  higher  classes  will  go  on  steadily,  compell- 
ing these  higher  classes  to  admit  fresh  sections  into  their 
upper  circle.  There  is  a  tendency  in  governments  to  work 
toward  the  republican  form.  That  is  to  say,  where  gov- 
ernments are  wisely  and  efficiently  administered,  men  more 
and  more  learn  the  art  and  acquire  the  capacity  of  govern- 
ing, and  become  themselves  depositaries  of  governmental 
power. 

In  all  Europe  there  is  a  steady  progress  toward  the  last 
great  form  of  civil  government, — namely,  republican  gov- 
ernment, or  government  of  the  people  by  the  people.  I 
know  it  is  said  that  the  English  government  is  the  best 
government  on  the  earth.  Very  likely  it  may  be  the  best 
in  the  intermediate  period;  but  it  is  not  standing  still  in 
that  period.  If  there  is  one  thing  more  certain  than  an- 
other, it  is  that,  as  the  popular  element  increases,  that  gov- 
ernment recedes  from  aristocracy  and  monarchy  toward 
republicanism.  There  may  be  a  nominal  king.  I  do  not 
object  to  that.  Names  do  not  change  anything.  I  would 
as  lief  have  a  man  or  a  woman  (I  would  rather  have  a 
woman,  on  an  average  !)  to  be  called  king  or  queen  as  to  have 
a  man  to  be  called  president.  And  as  to  the  class  of  nobility, 
there  have  been  periods  when  they,  or  when  the  nobility 
combined  with  the  monarch,  were  adapted  to  the  condi- 
tions of  the  people;  but  as  the  people  are  themselves  be- 
coming intelligent,  they  are  tending  toward  a  state  of 
things  that  will  inevitably  make  them  partners  of  the  great 
governing  power.  England  is  working  toward  self-govern- 
ment. 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       389 

The  republican  form  of  government  is  the  noblest  and 
the  best,  as  it  is  the  latest.  It  is  the  latest  because  it 
demands  the  highest  conditions  for  its  existence.  Self- 
government  by  the  whole  people  is  the  teleologic  idea.  It 
is  to  be  the  final  government  of  the  world.  As  to  whether 
the  world  is  ripe  enough  to  develop  such  a  government, 
which  shall  be  able  to  maintain  itself  through  any  consid- 
erable number  of  generations,  it  is  useless  to  speculate. 

But  the  process  of  developing  a  good  and  stable  re- 
publican government  may  go  through  ages.  It  is  not  a 
settled  fact  at  all,  that,  because  we  have  come  into  a  re- 
publican government,  this  nation  is  going  to  live  and  be 
perfected  in  it;  because  it  is  often  the  case  that  one  govern- 
ment rises  up  and  works  out  one  or  two  elements  of  the 
great  scheme  which  God  is  developing  in  this  world,  and 
then  dissolves,  and  that  the  next  government  takes  up  and 
carries  forward  that  which  the  first  began.  It  may  be  that 
the  work  which  we  have  begun  is  to  be  taken  up  and  car- 
ried forward  by  a  government  that  is  to  succeed  this.  Yet 
there  is  a  counter  analogy  to  this, — the  fact  that  God  is 
giving  to  nations  that  have  declined,  and  well-nigh  lost 
their  national  life,  rejuvenescence.  We  see  what  was  never 
before  seen, — a  nation,  after  having  died,  come  to  life 
again.  Italy  has  found  resurrection,  and  is  growing  strong. 
Spain  has  been  resuscitated,  and  is  growing  strong.  Even 
Austria  is  coming  up  from  senility,  and  seems  to  be  grow- 
ing strong.  Nations  now  seem  to  have  a  recuperative 
power.  And  two  things  are  possible  in  respect  to  our  own 
people.  Having  taken  the  first  steps  in  the  demonstration 
of  the  great  doctrine  of  the  government  of  the  people  by 
the  people,  our  whole  national  life  may  collapse,  and  new 
nations  may  come  up  and  carry  on  that  doctrine  in  its  later 
development;  or,  having  gone  through  one  period  of  our 
growth,  we  may  renew  our  youth,  and  go  on  again  in  the 
same  grand  and  divine  experiment  of  government  which 
we  have  wrought  out  thus  far. 

And  let  me  say  here,  that  republican  governments  cannot 
be  had  by  any  mere  legislation.  They  must  be  the  effect 
of  compelling  causes.     Government  is  an  outworking  of 


39°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  spirit  of  the  people,  and  it  holds  a  constant  relation  to 
their  actual  condition. 

If  men  are  ignorant,  or  morally  low,  even  under  re- 
publics, they  will  cease  to  be  self-governing.  They  will  be 
led  by  cunning  men,  who  will  gain  power  over  them  by 
courting  their  passions,  and  lead  them,  not  according  to 
the  decisions  and  judgments  of  the  masses,  but  according 
to  the  schemes  and  plans  of  those  who  acquire  a  surrepti- 
tious influence  over  them. 

This  is  the  meaning  of  our  text,  "  That  the  hypocrite 
reign  not,  lest  the  people  be  ensnared."  Under  republican 
governments  it  is  possible  for  men  to  be  ensnared  by 
cunning  men,  and,  while  they  seem  to  be  controlling  their 
own  destinies,  to  be  themselves  absolutely  controlled  and 
guided  and  governed. 

There  will  always  be  large  classes  of  men  whose  spirit 
and  training  will  cause  them  to  be  antagonistic  to  self- 
government.  Proud  and  haughty  natures  are  the  perpet- 
ual enemies  of  republicanism.  There  are  institutions  in 
society — some  of  them  religious  institutions — -that  nourish 
the  spirit  of  governing.  Even  the  teaching  of  God's 
supremacy,  and  of  a  certain  delegation  of  Divine  author- 
ity to  those  who  teach  it,  comes  to  be  an  inculcation  of 
government  in  such  a  sense  as  to  train  men  to  the  love  of 
governing.  Always,  in  every  republican  government,  there 
are  large  elements  which  tend  away  from  that  government 
toward  a  strong  government. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  all  delays  and  retrocessions  and  plot- 
tings,  unquestionably  the  human  race  are  developing  right 
on  toward  this  final  and  best  form  of  government.  In 
every  generation  tyranny  contracts  its  sphere;  and  now  we 
see  the  beginnings  of  the  preparation  for  a  higher  type  of 
government.  Despotisms  are  becoming  constitutional 
monarchies,  constitutional  monarchies  are  becoming  aristoc- 
racies, and  aristocracies  are  becoming  republican  govern- 
ments. And  the  tendency  of  the  whole  world  at  present, 
in  every  one  of  its  departments,  is  to  develop  the  common 
people.  Almost  every  influence  that  is  working  in  the 
world    now,    judging   it  from  hundred  years  to  hundred 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       391 

years,  is  flowing  in  one  direction;  and  that  direction  is 
toward  the  emancipation  and  elevation  and  education  and 
empowering  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind. 

The  tendency  of  religion  is  in  this  direction.  It  has 
worked  out  one  vein,  and  hierarchies  have  had  their  day. 
It  is  taking  on  more  democratic  forms,  and  it  will  take 
them  on  from  this  time  forth. 

The  spirit  of  missions  has  had  an  important  and  unsus- 
pected democratic  influence.  The  attempt  of  Christian 
nations,  at  a  vast  expense,  and  with  great  trouble,  to  civil- 
ize poor,  miserable  barbarians,  has  been  itself  a  testimony 
to  the  worth  of  poor,  miserable  barbarians.  It  has  had  a 
tendency  to  increase  in  the  popular  estimation  the  value 
of  a  man  without  regard  to  his  accidents,  without  regard 
to  his  condition  or  circumstances.  Man,  merely  as  a 
creature  of  God  and  an  heir  of  immortality,  has  risen  in 
the  market.  Before  Christianity  was  revealed,  do  you 
suppose  any  nation  on  earth  were  such  fools  as  to  spend 
millions  of  annual  dollars  to  civilize  barbarians  !  Before 
the  time  of  Christ,  it  was  an  offense  punishable  with  slavery 
or  death  to  be  a  foreigner.  If  a  mariner  was  shipwrecked 
upon  a  foreign  coast,  he  was  put  to  death  or  made  a  slave, 
on  the  charge  of  being  a  foreigner.  Clear  down  to  the 
days  of  the  Apostles,  to  be  a  foreigner  was  to  be  nothing  at 
all.  The  Greeks  did  not  recognize  human  existence  ex- 
cept as  Greek  existence.  They  counted  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  as  trash,  literally  and  truly.  They  learned  no  lan- 
guages but  their  own.  The  Greek  tongue  prevailed  in 
Greece,  and  there  was  not  another  language  spoken  there. 
The  Greeks  scorned  to  learn  any  language  but  their  own. 
They  called  other  languages  noises.  The  Greek  tongue 
was  considered  a  language  articulate,  having  sense  and 
philosophy  and  reason,  and  all  other  nations  besides  the 
Greeks  were  said  to  make  noises,  in  distinction  from  speak- 
ing. And  their  contempt  of  other  peoples,  previous  to  the 
setting  forth  of  the  Gospel, — how  does  it  stand  in  con- 
trast with  the  spirit  of  modern  Christian  nations  !  For 
England  and  France  and  Germany  and  America  are  send- 
ing out,  every  year,  scores  and  scores  of  men  elected  and 


39 2  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

consecrated  to  the  work  of  evangelization  abroad.  They 
give  their  lives  freely  to  that  work,  and  countless  treasures 
are  raised  at  home  for  their  sustenance  while  they  are 
ministering  to  barbarians  in  other  lands.  What  a  witness 
is  this  to  the  value  of  man  !  What  a  thing  is  worth,  is  to 
be  measured  by  what  men  will  do  and  surfer  for  it.  And 
silently,  imperceptibly,  and  unconsciously,  missions  have 
become  democratic,  and  have  raised  in  the  estimation  of 
the  world  the  worth  of  man; — not  this  man  or  that  man; 
not  a  man  of  this  nation,  or  a  man  of  that  nation;  not  a 
civilized  man;  not  a  man  of  genius;  not  a  man  of  skill; 
not  a  man  of  learning;  but  man,  with  just  the  original  at- 
tributes that  God  gave  him.  Religious  influences,  for  two 
thousand  years,  have  been  meliorating  laws  and  policies 
and  governments  so  as  to  bring  them  more  on  the  side  of 
the  people. 

And  now,  at  last,  almost  all  the  great  causes  of  human 
conduct  are  working  in  that  direction.  If  you  examine 
the  tendency  of  inventions  and  mechanic  arts,  you  shall 
find  that,  although  they  work  for  all  men,  they  do  not 
work  half  so  much  for  the  rich,  the  strong,  and  the  wise, 
as  they  do  for  the  poor,  the  weak,  and  the  ignorant. 
When  steam  was  invented,  it  was  the  poor  man's  invention; 
for  it  has  elevated  the  poor  man  ten  degrees  where  it  has 
the  rich  man  one.  Now  the  poor  man  can  travel  the 
world  over.  Once,  only  the  rich  man  could  do  it;  but 
steam  has  made  them  equal.  The  rich  man  always  could 
wear  fine  fabrics.  The  poor  man  could  not,  till  steam 
made  manufacturing  cheap.  The  rich  man  always  could 
have  luxuries.  The  poor  man  could  not,  till  art  and  science 
were  applied  to  domestic  institutions  and  common  life; 
and  then  he  could.  Now  the  poor  man  has  better  food 
than  the  rich  man  used  to  have,  and  he  knows  better  how 
to  cook  it  than  the  rich  man  once  did.  There  is  not  a 
truckman  in  New  York  that  does  not  live  better  than 
Alexander  lived.  There  is  not  a  seamstress  that  does  not 
have  on  her  table  things  that  would  have  made  Queen 
Elizabeth  stare.  Take  the  bill  of  provender,  I  was  going 
to  say,  of  Shakespeare's  time.     You   might   almost  call  it 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       393 

fodder,  it  was  so  coarse,  and  so  much  like  animals'  food. 
We  should  think  ourselves  treated  worse  than  the  prison- 
ers at  Sing  Sing,  if  we  had  to  live  as  the  royalty  did  three 
or  four  hundred  years  ago.  They  would  have  been  glad 
to  live  as  our  poor  people  live  now,  who  are  clothed  better 
than  they  were,  who  have  better  houses  than  they  had, 
and  whose  instruments  of  labor  necessitate  less  drudgery 
than  theirs  did.  For  every  machine,  although  when  first 
invented  it  seems  to  supersede  the  laborer,  has  the  effect 
to  raise  the  laborer  one  step  higher.  Every  time  an  iron 
muscle  is  invented,  it  gives  emancipation  to  human  muscle. 
Every  time  you  enslave  a  machine, — a  slave  that  you  have 
a  right  to  hold  in  bondage, — you  set  free  ten  thousand 
slaves  that  ought  not  to  be  held  in  bondage.  And  these 
are  revolutionizing  forces  that  you  cannot  get  around. 
You  might  as  well  undertake  to  change  the  course  of  the 
Gulf  Stream  as  to  undertake  to  arrest  their  tendency. 

And  that  which  is  true  of  art  is  also  true  of  literature. 
If  you  go  back  to  the  time  of  Sterne  and  Swift,  you  shall 
not  find,  I  had  almost  said,  a  single  generous,  humanita- 
rian sentiment  in  their  writings.  One  thing  is  certain, — 
that  down  to  the  time  of  Cowper,  the  English  literature 
(that  part  which  comprised  the  poems  particularly)  was 
filled  with  a  supercilious  contempt  for  the  common  people. 
The  boors,  the  peasants,  the  yeomen,  were  considered  as 
mats  on  which  fine  people  might  rub  their  feet  and  clean 
their  shoes;  as  good  for  nothing  in  themselves,  and  serv- 
iceable only  by  reason  of  their  relation  to  the  upper  classes. 
And  the  spirit  of  humanity,  the  appreciation  of  human 
worth  under  a  rough  exterior,  and,  above  all,  the  desire 
for  the  welfare  of  every  man, — these  sprang  up  within  the 
last  hundred  years.  Our  literature  has  been  growing 
purer.  Nor  is  it  so  with  ours  alone;  for  the  French  litera- 
ture has  improved  as  well  as  ours.  I  do  not  know  that  the 
French  have  as  many  Tract  Societies  as  we  have.  But  if 
it  is  religious  to  aim  to  develop  the  poor,  and  to  create  a 
powerful  tendency  toward  humanity  and  self-sacrifice  and 
purity,  then  such  writers  as  Victor  Hugo  are  religious 
writers.     They  are  not  spiritual  writers,  but  they  are  relig- 


394  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ious,  in  that  they  are  aiming  toward  the  evangelization 
of  the  masses  of  men.  And  the  literature  of  the  globe 
to-day  is  humane,  at  least,  if  it  is  not  spiritual. 

If  you  go  from  literature  to  art,  you  find  this  still  more 
remarkably  illustrated.  The  days  are  waning  in  which 
royalty,  aristocrats,  and  rich  men  can  be  said  to  be  the 
chief  patrons  of  art;  and  he  that  would  be  exalted  as  an 
artist  must  humble  himself,  and  accept  the  divine  idea  of 
the  grandeur  of  the  common  people,  and  not  disdain  their 
sympathy  and  their  patronage.  I  do  not  object  to  those 
who  painted  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  child  Jesus;  but  I 
think  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  child  Jesus  are  more  to  us 
than  they  were  to  those  that  painted  them.  What  are 
they  to  us  ?  Mother  and  child.  Mary  and  Jesus  were  for 
a  particular  age.  Mother  and  child  are  universal.  They 
are  something  that  comes  home  to  every  household  and 
every  heart.  And  the  Madonna  and  her  child  are  more  to 
us,  I  say,  than  they  were  to  those  that  painted  them.  And 
though  I  do  not  object  to  the  painting  of  antique  subjects, 
the  subjects  of  past  days,  unquestionably  the  living  schools 
are  to  be  the  schools  that  feel  themselves  called  to  work 
for  the  common  people,  and  in  the  direction  of  true  and 
Christian  democracy. 

Once  a  picture  was  significant  of  almost  royal  posses- 
sions. It  is  becoming  less  and  less  significant  of  wealth. 
Indeed,  I  think  that  pictures  are  less  apt  to  be  found  where 
there  is  sudden  wealth,  than  where  there  is  real  culture 
and  good  taste  in  comparative  poverty.  More  and  more 
every  year  pictures  are  coming  to  be  owned  by  persons  of 
moderate  and  slender  means,  because  they  have  an  appe- 
tite for  beauty,  and  must  have  beauty  to  feed  it.  One 
flower  in  the  room  of  a  seamstress  who  looks  at  it  every 
other  stitch,  is  worth  more  than  the  garden  of  a  king  which 
he  disdains  to  walk  in.  So  there  is  a  love  of  art  begin- 
ning to  develop  in  the  common  people.  And  all  things  are 
tending  to  make  it  possible  for  the  common  people  to  grat- 
ify their  taste  in  this  direction. 

Once  nobody  could  own  a  book  unless  he  had  a  fortune. 
Now  a  man  that  cannot  afford  to  own  a  book  ought  to  die; 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.        395 

he  is  too  poor  to  live  !  It  is  the  cheapest  thing  there  is. 
Rum  and  reading  are  the  two  cheapest  commodities  of  the 
globe  ! 

Take  one  single  invention, — photography.  The  world 
will  never  die  after  this.  It  will  live  in  shadow.  We  shall 
have  our  uncles  and  aunts,  our  fathers  and  mothers,  our 
children,  and  our  children's  children  in  every  year's  stage; 
and  we  can  keep  them.  What  a  shadowy  army  is  marching, 
in  the  shape  of  photographic  portraits,  to  the  next  genera- 
tion !  O  that  it  could  have  been  so  in  days  past  !  My 
mother  died  when  I  was  but  a  small  child,  and  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  ever  seen  her  face.  And  as  there  was  no 
pencil  that  could  afford  to  limn  her,  I  have  never  seen  a 
likeness  of  her.  Would  to  God  that  I  could  see  some  pict- 
ure of  my  mother  !  No  picture  that  hangs  on  prince's 
wall,  or  in  gallery,  would  I  not  give,  if  I  might  choose,  for 
a  faithful  portrait  of  my  mother.  Give  me  that  above  all 
other  pictures  under  God's  canopy.  My  children  are  richer 
than  i  was  when  I  was  a  child.  The  child  of  the  poorest 
man  in  this  congregation  is  richer  than  the  child  of  the 
richest  man  was  then. 

And  not  only  is  photography  enabling  us  to  preserve  our 
friends  but  it  is  bringing  the  whole  world  to  a  man's  door. 
You  can  look  upon  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  and  at  the 
same  time  toast  your  feet  at  your  own  fire.  All  the  palaces 
of  the  globe  are  brought  to  you,  as  are  also  the  mountains 
and  rivers  of  distant  countries.  The  very  battle-field  of 
Antietam  was  here  almost  as  soon  as  the  news  of  the  battle 
reached  us;  and  before  the  dead  were  buried,  we  had  por- 
trayed their  mangled  and  swollen  forms. 

And  not  only  is  photography  taking  representations  of 
all  the  natural  and  artificial  wonders  of  the  globe,  so  that 
the  poorest  man  can  have  the  portrait  of  everything 
on  earth;  but  it  is  taking  even  the  secrets  of  the  sun  and 
moon. 

And  these  are  but  single  instances  of  elements  which  are, 
as  we  see,  working  to  make  rich  and  strongmen  richer  and 
stronger,  to  be  sure,  but  working  ten  thousand  times  more 
to  make  the  poor  and  the  weak  rich  and  strong. 


396  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

And  as  in  respect  to  these  elements,  so  in  respect  to 
learning  and  education.  Always  the  rich  have  been  able 
to  educate  their  children.  Not  always  have  the  poor  been 
able  to  do  it.  But  now  everything  is  working  toward  the 
education  of  the  common  people. 

So  that  at  this  time,  while  governments  are  ameliorating, 
while  absolute  monarchies  are  changing  to  constitutional 
monarchies,  while  constitutional  monarchies  are  becoming 
aristocracies,  while  aristocracies  are  more  and  more  diffus- 
ing themselves,  and  sharing  their  power  with  the  masses, 
while  all  tendencies  are  toward  self-government  in  polit- 
ical forms, — at  this  time,  while  these  things  are  taking 
place,  religion  and  art  and  learning  and  science  and  inven- 
tions are  co-operating.  There  is  one  direction  to  all  these 
forces.  God's  hand,  like  a  sign-board,  is  pointing  toward 
democracy,  and  saying  to  the  nations  of  the  earth,  "This  is 
the  way:  walk  ye  in  it."  The  road  is  very  muddy  in  some 
spots,  and  the  march  will  be  slow,  but  the  march  will  be 
one  way;  and  though  it  may  be  like  the  march  into  sum- 
mer out  of  winter,  or  like  the  march  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt 
into  the  promised  land,  summer  and  the  promised  land — 
self-government — will  at  last  be  reached. 

Let  us  look,  then,  in  the  light  of  these  remarks,  at  some 
of  the  relations  of  our  own  times  to  this  tendency. 

The  first  thing  to  which  I  will  call  your  attention  is  that 
extraordinary  contrast  which  exists  between  this  country 
and  the  other  countries  of  the  world, — the  most  extraor- 
dinary, I  think,  that  was  ever  exhibited  under  the  sun. 
Europe,  starting  from  a  point  of  abject  despotism,  has,  for 
the  last  two  hundred  years,  been  steadily  unfolding,  and 
throwing  off  its  cerements,  and  working  its  limbs,  and  pre- 
paring its  feet  for  marching.  Nay,  it  has  begun  to  march. 
And  though  its  way  is  through  revolutions  and  through 
blood,  though  it  is  held  back  by  reactions  and  retroces- 
sions, yet,  on  the  whole,  judged  by  long  periods  of  time, 
the  progress  of  Europe  has  been  from  barbarism  to  Chris- 
tian civilization;  from  absolute  monarchies,  up  through 
constitutional  monarchies  and  aristocracies,  toward  gov- 
ernments by  the  people.     And  all  tendencies,  however  much 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       397 

they  may  have  seemed  to  thwart  these  things,  have  really 
worked  for  them.  Europe  began  at  the  point  of  despot- 
ism, and  she  has  gone  toward  republicanism  until  she  has 
all  but  grasped  it. 

How  was  it  with  America  ?  We  began  at  the  point  of 
Christian  democracy.  There  never  was  so  democratic  a 
people  as  we  were.  There  never  was  a  nation  with  such 
developments  of  republican  ideas.  And  we  have  steadily 
marched  in  the  opposite  direction.  We  have  gone  right 
away  from  democracy  toward  aristocracy.  We  have  tended 
more  and  more  to  deny  the  natural  rights  of  man,  and  set 
the  strong  over  the  weak  (the  white  strong  over  the  black 
weak),  and  to  found  a  new  dynasty,  most  hateful  and 
odious,  until  we  are  poisoned  in  the  very  veins  of  our  na- 
tional life,  in  every  part  of  our  governmental  policy. 

And  while  Europe  has  been  going  in  one  direction,  we 
have  met  her,  going  in  the  other,  she  bearing  the  dark  em- 
blem of  despotism,  which  has  grown  brighter  and  brighter 
until  it  has  almost  emerged  into  the  glorious  light  of  lib- 
erty, and  we  bearing  a  blazing  torch  kindled  from  the  very 
altar  of  God,  which  has  grown  dimmer  and  dimmer  till  it 
has  almost  sunk  into  Egyptian  darkness.  There  never  was 
another  such  contrast. 

That  tendency  has  been  met,  and,  in  so  far  as  the  free 
Northern  States  are  concerned,  turned  back,  but  only  just 
in  time  for  their  redemption.  But  the  attempt  to  recover 
ourselves  has  led  to  a  conflict  between  these  opposite  ele- 
ments such  as  never  before  raged.  For  this  war  is  a  war 
of  ideas;  it  is  a  war  of  fundamental  principles;  it  is  a  war 
of  absolute  influences;  it  is  a  war  between  the  spirit  of 
absolute  government  as  developed  by  the  necessities  of  a 
servile  society,  and  the  spirit  of  self-government  as  de- 
veloped by  the  condition  of  an  intelligent  population. 

Now  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  as  to  the  final  issue. 
God's  intention  is  too  plainly  indicated  to  leave  any  doubt 
as  to  the  ultimate  state  of  the  world.  But  whether  that 
state  is  to  exist  in  our  day,  in  our  children's  time,  or  in  re- 
mote ages,  no  man  can  tell.  We  know  which  side,  after 
tumultuous  struggles,  shall  have  the  victory,  but  whether 


398  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

that  victory  shall  be  delayed  through  generations,  or 
whether  it  shall  be  achieved  at  once,  we  do  not  know. 

Yet,  let  us  take  a  hopeful  view.  Let  us  hope  that  we 
shall  be  found  adequate  to  the  exigencies  which  have  come 
upon  us.  Let  us  not  be  bribed  nor  betrayed.  There  is  no 
question  but  that  the  right  is  with  us.  Every  principle  of 
justice  and  humanity  that  has  been  developed  in  the  past 
cries  out  to  us  of  the  North  to  go  forward.  Every  analogy 
of  God's  providence  calls  out  to  us  to  advance  coura- 
geously. Every  aspiration  of  the  human  soul  urges  us,  who 
are  on  the  side  of  universal  liberty,  the  liberty  of  all  men, 
not  to  yield,  not  to  compromise,  but  to  maintain  our  stand 
to  the  bitter  end,  and  to  the  glorious  victory  therein. 

I  believe  that  this  nation  will  not  flinch,  and  that  it  will 
stand.  Yet  I  do  not  know  the  power  of  the  Devil.  His 
minions,  his  hypocritical  agents,  are  abroad.  I  do  not  dis- 
guise my  opinion  on  this  subject,  any  more  than  on  any 
other.  I  believe  the  opposition  that  has  arisen  against  the 
administration  and  the  government  is  the  meanest  and 
most  hypocritical  that  ever  existed.  I  would  sooner  pluck 
off  my  right  arm  than  give  countenance  to  it  in  any  way. 
There  was  a  time  when  I  felt  that  all  party  spirit  was  being 
laid  aside,  and  that  all  parties  were  being  united  to  sustain 
the  administration  in  the  prosecution  of  this  glorious  war 
in  the  cause  of  universal  humanity.  I  was  in  favor  of 
sinking  all  political  considerations,  and  standing  by  those 
men  that  best  stood  by  the  government.  But  since  the 
enemy  has  sown  tares  among  us,  and  an  opposition  has 
been  formed,  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  I  strike 
hands  except  with  him  who  is  openly  and  avowedly  for 
liberty,  and  liberty  for  every  man.  I  would  denounce  my 
own  brother,  I  would  denounce  my  own  father,  if  he  were 
ranged  on  the  side  of  these  enemies  of  their  country  and 
of  freedom.  I  love  my  God  and  my  fellow-men  more  than 
any  man  that  carries  my  blood  in  his  veins.  And  however 
much  men  may  have  been  my  friends,  however  much  I 
would  have  been  glad  to  help  men  into  places  of  power, 
once  let  them  stand  on  the  side  of  those  detestable  hypo- 
crites who  are  undermining  with   specious  pretenses    the 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       399 

cause  of  liberty,  and  who,  by  infamous  guises,  are  feign- 
ing friendship  for  an  administration  which  they  mean  to 
destroy,  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  I  touch  them, 
except  with  the  besom  or  with  the  rod  of  destruction. 

But,  although  in  the  main  I  hope,  let  us  be  prepared  for 
the  worst.  We  have  materials  for  a  terrible  conflict  among 
ourselves.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  those  who  invite  them 
that  we  have  not  revolutionary  outbreaks  in  our  midst. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  there  are  men  in  New  York  who 
would  inaugurate  blood,  murder,  and  revolution,  if  they 
dared.  The  only  thing  which  holds  them  back  is  a  sneak- 
ing prudence.  But  for  that  we  should  have  another  era  of 
massacre  such  as  Paris  saw  in  the  days  of  the  French 
Revolution.  There  are  men  in  our  midst  who  are  so 
wicked  that  they  do  not  need  to  go  to  hell !  They  carry 
it  with  them;  it  is  in  them;  and  they  are  their  own  devil  ! 
And  these  are  the  men,  unquestionably,  that  are  first  and 
foremost  as  plotters  in  that  specious,  sinuous  friendship 
that  would  go  to  the  administration,  and  say,  "  How  art 
thou,  my  brother?"  while  it  plunges  the  dagger  under  the 
fifth  rib.  Be  not  found  in  their  counsels.  O  my  soul, 
come  not  into  their  secrets.  It  is  not  a  safe  thing  for  a 
man  that  keeps  well  to  his  God  and  his  country  to  keep 
such  company.  Take  care  whom  you  go  with.  And  when 
you  go  to  vote,  vote  so  strong  for  liberty  that  there  shall 
not  be  any  danger  in  your  vote.*  Throw  it  as  far  as 
you  can  toward  God's  throne,  toward  God's  providence, 
toward  the  destiny  of  the  race,  toward  the  final  results  of 
Christianity.  Throw  it  away  from  glozing,  deceitful,  self- 
ish man.  Go  with  the  stanchest  principles.  Go  back  to 
the  days  when  we  had  Franklins  and  Jeffersons  and  Wash- 
ingtons,  and  take  their  utterances,  and  follow  their  pre- 
cepts. The  only  way  for  us  to  escape  troubles  innumera- 
ble, I  think,  is  to  fight  out  this  battle  which  we  have 
entered  upon,  with  courage  and  energy,  and  to  the  very 
last.  You  never  will  have  another  war  so  cheap  as  this. 
Suppose  you  should  make  peace  with  the  South  by  sliding 
these    unprincipled   and   subtle    politicians   into   power, — 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  then  pending  State  election  of  New  York. 


400  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

suppose  you  should  compel  the  weak  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment to  yield  to  a  compromise  with  the  South, — do  you 
suppose  that  would  bring  peace  in  your  day? 

From  the  moment  that  they  get  on  their  feet  again,  every 
election  in  the  North  will  turn  upon  whether  one  State  or 
another  shall  not  go  over  to  the  Southern  interest;  and 
there  will  be  a  fight  between  Northern  and  Southern  in- 
terests, and  you  will  have  to  vote  under  the  menace  of 
arms,  and  hold  your  ground  by  force,  or  go  down  before 
threats.  And  when  it  comes  to  threatening,  the  South  is 
worth  a  hundred  of  you.  When  it  comes  to  knuckling, 
you  are  worth  a  hundred  of  the  South  !  You  are  on  your 
feet  now,  and  I  advise  you  to  keep  there.  Your  hands  are 
out,  with  your  hearts  behind  them,  and  I  advise  you  to 
keep  them  out.  There  has  never  been  a  sight  more  despi- 
cable than  that  of  Northern  doughfaces  in  the  presence  of 
Southern  slave-drivers;  and  now  that  Northern  manhood 
is  emancipated,  and  you  are  standing  up,  I  beseech  of  you 
in  the  name  of  God  and  humanity,  do  not  put  yourself 
again  into  bondage  and  servility. 

Money, — will  that  buy  you  ?  Then  stand  for  liberty.  A 
slave  made  free  will  purchase  a  hundred  dollars'  worth  at 
your  factory  where  a  slave  in  bondage  will  purchase  one 
dollar's  worth.  What  does  a  slave  want?  How  many 
combs  will  he  buy?  How  many  mirrors?  How  much 
glass  ?  How  many  pianos  ?  How  many  harps  ?  How 
many  books  ?  How  many  harnesses  ?  How  many  whips  ? 
One  in  the  hands  of  a  single  man  is  enough  for  forty 
slaves.  Freedom  will  diminish  exports  immensely.  Why? 
Because,  when  the  slaves  were  slaves,  they  lived  on  the 
least  conceivable  quantity  of  everything,  and  there  was  a 
great  surplus  for  exporting.  But  the  moment  you  make 
them  free,  they  will  become  consumers  to  a  much  greater 
degree  than  they  have  been.  If  you  must  have  a  money 
motive,  I  advocate  freedom  on  this  ground.  Freedom 
promotes  commerce  and  manufactures.  There  is  not  a 
farmer  to  whom,  if  his  plough  could  speak,  it  would  not 
say,  "Go  for  freedom, — it  will  make  me  bright;"  there  is 
not  a  mechanic  to  whom  his  every  tool,  if  it   could  speak, 


THE  GROUND  AND  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       4°i 

would  not  say,  "Vote  for  freedom,  —  it  will  make  me 
lively;"  there  is  not  a  ship-builder  to  whom  every  ship  in 
his  yard,  if  it  could  speak,  would  not  say,  "Work  for  free- 
dom,— it  will  make  me  merry  on  the  wave;"  there  is  not 
a  manufacturer  to  whom  his  machinery,  if  it  could  speak, 
would  not  say,  "  Encourage  freedom, — it  will  make  me 
musical." 

All  the  factories  in  New  England,  if  they  could  vote, 
would  vote  for  freedom, — except  cat-o'-nine-tail  factories; 
I  believe  they  would  vote  for  slavery.  No;  they  would 
turn  about  and  go  to  making  horsewhips,  and,  on  second 
thought,  vote  for  freedom  !  Every  interest  of  agriculture, 
commerce,  and  manufactures,  every  industrial  interest  of 
the  North,  will  be  abundantly  profited  by  a  policy  of  lib- 
erty. As  civilization  increases  among  men,  it  makes  them 
more,  and  multiplies  their  necessities.  When  a  man  is  a 
savage,  he  has  but  one  or  two  faculties  to  feed;  but  when 
he  becomes  civilized,  he  has  a  great  many  more  mouths 
open  and  calling  for  food.  For  the  more  the  human  mind 
is  developed,  the  more  numerous  are  its  wants  which  must 
be  supplied.  And  blessed  is  that  nation  which  has  to  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  a  civilized  people.  They  are  great  con- 
sumers. 

It  is  supposed  that  the  natural  state  of  a  man  is  simplic- 
ity. No,  it  is  complexity.  The  natural  state  of  a  man  is 
like  that  of  a  tree.  And  what  is  the  last  state  of  an  oak, 
but  to  divide  and  subdivide,  and  spread  out  infinite 
branches  on  every  side  ?  The  first  state  of  a  man,  like  the 
first  state  of  a  tree,  may  be  simplicity,  and  he  may  be,  as 
it  were,  a  single  whip;  but  as  he  begins  to  grow  he  will 
throw  out  branches,  and  these  branches  will  throw  out 
other  branches,  and  those  will  throw  out  others,  and  he 
will  take  in  more  by  root  and  leaf.  Every  interest  that 
makes  money  and  intelligence  pleads  for  a  policy  of 
liberty. 

And  since  there  is  a  necessity  for  it,  since  by   the  voice 

of  the  highest  officer  of  the  nation   it   has  been   declared 

that  emancipation  is  a   military   necessity,  let   us  stand  by 

that  which  we  have  got.     Let  us  not   fall  back   one  single 
26 


40  2  rA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

step  in  this  great  conflict,  in  which  thus  far  God  has  so 
gloriously  led  us.  For  if  this  nation  falls  to  pieces  in  your 
day,  or  in  your  child's  day,  will  it  come  together  again  ? 
No  hand  has  ever  yet  restored  the  Phidian  marbles.  No 
architect  has  ever  rebuilt  Athens.  The  Acropolis  is 
disheveled  and  rent,  a  monument  of  her  death,  and  a 
memorial  of  her  past  glory.  But  it  is  easier  to  bring  to- 
gether shattered  temples  than  it  will  be  to  bring  together 
the  shattered  principles  of  this  great  temple  of  liberty 
which  has  been  reared  in  our  country,  if  you  permit  it  to 
be  rent.  It  is  a  doctrine  of  devils,  this  doctrine  of  divis- 
ion. While  you  have  the  power,  hold  the  nation  together. 
Weld  it.  Secure  the  unity  of  this  people,  voluntary  at  the 
North,  and  compelled  at  the  South.  One  government, 
one  Constitution,  one  political  doctrine  which  makes  all 
men  free  and  equal, — that  shall  be  the  glory  of  the  conti- 
nent; that  shall  be  the  prophecy  of  the  future;  that  shall 
bring  down  the  blessing  of  God,  against  which  all  the 
machinations  of  the  Devil  shall  not  prevail. 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS/ 


"  For,  brethren,  ye  have  been  called  unto  liberty  :  only  use  not  liberty 
for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  by  love  serve  one  another." — Gal.  v.  13. 


It  has  been  said,  usually,  that  this  and  like  passages 
were  metaphorical  and  signified  simply  spiritual  liberty. 
They  include  that;  but  they  neither  begin  nor  end  with  it. 

The  Apostle  is  not  discussing,  either,  the  question  of 
personal  liberty.  That  is  but  an  inference  and  special  ap- 
plication of  a  larger  right  than  even  civil  and  political  lib- 
erty,— a  right  that  lies  back  of  all  society  and  all  individual 
volition,  and  depends  in  nothing  upon  men's  opinions  or 
arrangements,  but  stands  in  the  Divine  arrangement,  in  the 
creative  decree. 

What,  then,  is  liberty, — the  source  or  fountain  of  which  all 
other  liberties  are  but  streams  or  defluctions? 

There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  absolute  liberty, — that  is, 
the  liberty  of  acting  according  to  our  own  wishes,  without 
hindrance  and  without  limitation;  for  man  is  created  to 
act  by  means  of  certain  laws.  Above  all  creatures  on  earth, 
man  is  placed  under  many  and  exacting  laws.  He  is  sur- 
rounded, he  is  walled  in,  he  is  domed  and  circuited  by 
laws;  and  every  one  of  them  is  imperative.  And  it  is  the 
law  of  the  animal  creation,  that,  as  you  augment  being, 
you  augment  law.  For  there  is  no  power,  there  is  no 
faculty,  in  man,  that  is  not  relative  to  some  law  which  it 
represents  outside  of  him.  And  all  laws  of  matter  external 
to  his  own  self  are  imperative  upon  him.  And  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  liberty,  in  the  largest  sense,  in  the  physical 
world.     You  are  at  liberty  to  go  where   you   please,  pro- 

*  December  28,   1862,    while   the    Emancipation   Proclamation  was  ex- 
pected. 


4<H  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

vided  you  please  to  go  where  natural  laws  will  let  you;  but 
if  a  man,  on  the  top  of  one  mountain,  pleases  to  walk 
through  the  air  to  the  next  one,  can  he  ?  He  is  at  liberty 
to  try;  but  he  will  fall  over  the  precipice  below  if  he  under- 
takes it.  Has  a  man  liberty  to  do  as  he  pleases  ?  Let  him 
walk  on  water.  He  has  no  such  liberty.  Our  liberty  is 
hedged  in  by  natural  law.  There  is  no  step  that  you  can 
take  without  asking  permission  of  laws, — and  how  many 
there  are  of  them  !  How  many  of  them  touch  us  at  every 
point !  I  am  a  focal  center;  and  laws  of  light,  laws  of 
electricity,  laws  of  gravitation,  and  social  laws  are  running 
in  on  me  perpetually,  from  every  direction;  and  I  am  the 
creature  of  them  all,  and  I  am  obliged  to  submit  to  them 
all.  I  cannot  help  myself.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
real  and  absolute  liberty  in  this  regard. 

All  laws  of  our  physical  body,  of  every  organ  of  that 
body,  must  be  observed.  Thus,  the  eye  has  its  law;  and  a 
man  has  liberty  of  sight  only  through  obedience  to  that 
law.  The  ear  has  its  law;  the  tongue  has  its  law;  the 
heart  has  its  law;  the  lungs  have  their  law.  There  is  a 
law  that  belongs  to  each  particular  function  of  the  phys- 
ical organization.  And  there  is  no  liberty  in  a  man  except 
in  obedience  to  those  laws.  Every  faculty  of  the  mind  is 
a  definite  power,  moving  within  fixed  limits  toward  ends 
that  cannot  be  varied.  Thus,  you  cannot  feel  with  the 
faculty  that  is  made  for  thinking,  and  you  cannot  think 
with  the  faculty  that  is  made  for  feeling,  any  more  than 
you  can  digest  food  with  the  lungs,  and  breathe  with  the 
stomach.  You  cannot  transpose  functions  from  one  faculty 
to  another.  You  have  received  your  mind,  with  its  faculties, 
each  of  which  has  its  inward  law,  impressed  upon  it  of  God; 
and  the  liberty  that  you  have  is  a  liberty  which  is  obliged  to 
take  into  account,  not  only  the  laws  of  the  physical  world,  but 
also  the  laws  of  your  body,  and  of  all  the  faculties  of  your 
body.  And  the  laws  of  society  itself,  as  well  as  the  laws 
developed  through  experience,  are  as  binding  and  im- 
perative as  the  laws  of  nature,  expressed  in  the  material 
world,  or  in  us.  No  creature  is  so  harnessed  by  imperative 
and  absolute  laws  as  man;  and  therefore,  than  this  vague 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  4°5 

but  popular  idea  that  liberty  means  doing  just  what  you 
please,  nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth.  No  creature 
that  God  made  on  the  earth  has  so  little  liberty  to  do  what 
he  pleases  as  man.  You  cannot  use  your  arm  except  ac- 
cording to  its  muscles.  You  cannot  use  your  foot  except 
according  to  its  organization.  You  cannot  use  any  organ 
of  the  body  except  within  the  circuit  of  its  appointed  nat- 
ural law.  You  cannot  use  the  mind  nor  the  affections  ex- 
cept according  to  their  own  laws.  There  is  no  liberty 
except  inside  of  certain  boundaries. 

The  only  liberty,  then,  that  a  man  has,  is  the  liberty  to 
use  himself,  in  all  his  powers,  according  to  the  laws  which 
God  has  imposed  on  those  powers.  The  only  liberty  in 
this  world  is  the  liberty  to  be  unhindered  in  obeying  nat- 
ural laws.  Our  directions,  our  tendencies,  and  therefore 
our  duties,  are  all  expressed  in  the  laws  that  God  has 
made;  and  when  we  come  to  those  laws  we  are  bound  to 
obey  them;  and  if  anybody  hinders  us,  then  our  liberties 
begin.  As  toward  God,  liberty  means  obedience  to  laws; 
and  it  is  only  when  we  are  disputed  in  the  right  of  this 
obedience  by  men,  that  we  begin  to  get  an  idea  of  liberty. 
We  have  a  right  to  obey  God,  whether  he  speaks  on  Sinai, 
or  in  muscle  or  bone  or  faculty,  or  any  other  way.  It  is 
our  liberty  to  unfold  natural  laws,  and  to  follow  them. 

This  may  seem  but  a  very  narrow  possession.  It  is  so  only 
in  words,  not  in  reality.  It  seems  as  though  a  man  were 
shut  up  when  you  say  that  he  can  do  nothing  but  obey  a 
fixed  natural  law.  The  first  thought  suggested  by  the 
statement  is  that  the  liberty  just  to  obey  a  law  is  a  liberty 
so  restricted  as  to  be  almost  no  liberty  at  all.  That  de- 
pends upon  what  the  law  includes.  Take  an  example  or 
two.  You  can  do  nothing  in  vision  except  what  the  laws 
of  vision  allow  you  to  do;  but  how  much  there  is  that  can 
be  done  in  obedience  to  those  laws.  In  a  whole  lifetime  you 
cannot  see  all  that  there  is  to  be  seen.  You  must,  if  you 
use  your  ear,  do  it  according  to  the  acoustic  law;  and  yet, 
in  obeying  that  law,  what  a  liberty  is  opened  up  !  A  man 
would  need  to  be  far  older  than  Methuselah  to  exhaust 
sound  in  all  its  varieties  and  combinations. 


4o6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

This,  then,  is  the  sovereignty  of  man.  It  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  individual  upon  a  Christian  basis.  It  is  the  right  of 
every  man  over  his  own  mind,  heart,  and  body;  over  his 
time,  movements,  and  relations  to  the  physical  world.  It 
is  the  sovereignty  of  every  man  over  himself.  It  is  his 
right  to  have  and  hold  and  use  himself  according  to  the 
laws  that  God  made.  That  is  his  liberty;  and  if  any  one 
attempts  to  take  it  away  from  him,  he  attempts  to  deprive 
him  of  so  much  of  his  liberty.  If  he  does  not  know  how 
to  use  himself  thus,  he  loses  by  his  ignorance  so  much  of 
his  liberty. 

This  sovereignty  has  seldom  been  exercised  by,  or  even 
revealed  to,  the  mass  of  men  in  the  world.  Man  has  been 
rigidly  hindered  and  hampered  by  civil  and  secular  im- 
positions as  to  his  body.  Men  have  not  been  allowed  to 
exercise  their  natural  physical  capacities  according  to  the 
law  of  their  own  development.  It  has  been  in  this  respect 
as  it  was  in  Egypt  in  respect  to  business.  It  was  ordained 
what  calling  a  man  should  follow.  If  he  was  born  of  a 
priest,  he  had  a  right  only  to  be  a  priest.  If  he  was  born 
of  a  mechanic,  he  was  bound  to  be  a  mechanic.  He 
could  not  elect,  according  to  the  formal  law  of  adap- 
tation, what  pursuit  he  would  engage  in,  where  he  would 
sro,  or  what  he  would  be.  Laws  have  divided  men,  cut 
them  up  into  classes,  and  set  apart  to  some  much,  to 
others  less,  to  others  still  less,  and  to  others  almost 
nothing  except  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  table  of  the 
more  favored.  And  it  is  no  small  thing  to  say  to  every 
human  being  on  the  earth,  "  God  gave  you  the  right  to 
develop  your  body,  and  all  that  pertains  to  it,  according  to 
the  law  that  is  in  you,  and  not  according  to  the  law  that 
happens  to  be  in  the  civil  society  where  you  are." 

You  have  that  liberty.  Do  you  not  like  the  practice  of 
law  ?  You  can  preach,  if  you  please,  and  if  you  are  com- 
petent. Do  you  not  like  the  pulpit  ?  Nothing  hinders 
you  from  turning  to  the  store.  Are  you  a  turner  ?  and  do 
you  find  that  you  are  thrown  into  a  business  that  does  not 
suit  you  ?  Go  to  the  forge,  if  you  like.  Nobody  stands  in 
the  way  of  your  doing  it.     Are  you  at  the  forge  ?  and   do 


HffMLC&LfVA.  @^L      WmLM^ 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  4° 7 

you  say,  "  I  am  better  adapted  for  a  seaman  "  ?  Then  why 
do  you  not  go  on  the  deck  ?  Are  you  on  deck  ?  and  do  you 
say,  "  Farming  is  that  to  which  I  am  best  suited  "  ?  Then 
there  is  no  authority  or  custom  to  prevent  you  from  going 
on  a  farm.  Do  you  say,  "  I  am  too  far  north  "?  Then  go 
to  the  tropics:  they  are  free  to  you.  Or  if  you  say,  "  I  am 
too  near  the  equatorial  zone  of  unhealth,"  then  it  is  your 
privilege  to  go  to  the  frigid  zone,  if,  you  choose. 

It  seems  a  small  thing  to  say  that  a  man  has  a  right  to 
develop  his  bodily  life  according  to  the  laws  of  the  body; 
but  that  declaration  in  Georgia  or  Alabama  would  work  a 
revolution  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours.  There  are  some 
four  millions  of  men  that,  if  you  should  say  to  them,  "  You 
have  a  right  to  develop  your  body  according  to  natural 
law,"  would  inaugurate  a  servile  revolution  in  a  moment. 
For  we  are  in  such  an  exquisite  state  in  this  country,  that 
to  fall  back  on  Divine  law  and  original  equity  is  to  over- 
throw civil  law.  And  yet  against  civil  law,  and  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  Gospel,  I  declare  to  every  man  that  lives  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  "You  are  called  to  liberty."  And  as 
long  as  the  Bible  is  held  in  the  hands,  not  of  priests,  but 
of  freemen,  just  so  long  it  will  be  interpreted  so  as  to 
sound  a  trumpet-call  to  every  living  man  on  earth,  saying: 
"You  have  a  right  to  go  wherever  the  laws  of  your  being 
permit  you  to  go,  and  to  do  whatever  those  laws  permit  you 
to  do."  Though  a  man  be  born  black  as  midnight, — though 
his  face  is  as  if  all  the  stars  of  darkness  had  kissed  him, — 
still,  if  he  is  born  with  the  tongue  of  an  orator,  he  has  God's 
permission  and  God's  ordination  to  be  an  orator;  and  no- 
body has  a  right  to  say  to  him,  "You  shall  not."  If  a  man 
has  an  artificer's  skill  in  his  hand,  he  has  a  right  to  cut  and 
carve,  whether  it  be  machinery  or  statue  or  what  not;  and 
nobody  has  a  right  to  say  to  him,  "  You  shall  not  follow 
out  the  law  that  is  infixed  in  your  organization  and  your 
constitution."  And  this  is  what  I  consider  to  be  the  most 
atrocious  thing  in  that  most  atrocious,  heaven-abhorred  and 
hell-beloved  system  of  slavery.  What  ?  that  it  gives  a  man 
coarse  clothes  ?  John  wore  camel's  hair  and  a  leathern 
girdle,  and  he  was  well  enough  off.     Is  it  because  it  gives 


408  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  man  coarse  food  ?  Thousands  of  you  would  be  better 
off  if  you  ate  coarse  food.  Is  it  because  in  its  workings 
men  are  underfed  or  underclothed  ?  Or,  are  they  happy 
because  they  are  overclothed  and  overfed  ?  Why,  my 
pigs  are  happy,  that  have  the  liberty  to  grunt  as  much  as 
they  please,  that  have  all  they  want  to  eat,  and  that  have 
plenty  of  straw  to  lie  on.  And  men  defend  slavery  on  the 
ground  that  the  black  men  of  the  South  are  well  fed  and 
clothed,  and  are  apparently  happy  in  their  condition;  but 
the  fact  that  they  have  enough  to  eat  and  to  wear,  and  that 
they  can  sing,  is  no  evidence  that  they  have  all  the  rights 
of  their  manhood.  I  say  that  they  have  a  right  to  listen 
to  the  voice  of  God  in  their  faculties  and  organization,  and 
to  follow  out  the  laws  that  God  has  wrought  in  them.  And 
that  we  have  four  millions  of  men  before  whom  we  stand 
in  all  the  majesty  of  local  and  national  law,  and  say:  "  You 
shall  not  come  up  into  yourself;  you  shall  not  have  the  lib- 
erty to  be  what  God  made  you  able  to  be;  you  shall  not 
be  free  to  obey  the  laws  of  your  being," — this  is  to  go  at 
right  angles  to  Divine  decrees;  it  is  to  contravene  God's 
creative  idea. 

Man  has  been  robbed,  likewise,  of  his  mind, — that  is,  of 
his  education.  An  uneducated  mind  is  like  undug  ore. 
Iron  on  my  farm  is  nothing.  When  I  have  dug  it  out,  and 
smelted  it,  and  purified  it,  and  when  it  has  been  made  into 
a  sword,  into  knives,  into  utensils  or  machinery  of  any  sort, 
then  the  mineral  has  been  educated.  Now  a  man  is  noth- 
ing but  a  mine  of  undug  faculties.  The  first  step  in  edu- 
cation consists  in  digging  them  out  in  the  rough,  prepar- 
atory to  bringing  them  to  their  perfect  form.  When  a  man 
is  first  born,  he  is  like  an  acorn.  But  in  an  acorn — that  is, 
in  its  possible  future — there  is  timber.  In  a  bushel  of 
acorns  there  are  ships,  there  are  dwellings,  there  are 
curiously  carved  cornices  and  statues.  And  when  men  are 
born,  they  are  born  into  philosophers,  into  statesmen,  into 
orators,  into  patriots,  into  wise  men, — provided  that,  being 
born,  they  are  planted,  and  developed,  and  given  an  op- 
portunity to  grow  to  that  which  God  thought  of  when  he 
created  them.     But  the  belief  of  the  human  race  has  been 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  409 

that  the  man  who  knew  much  was  a  very  dangerous  creat- 
ure. The  heresy  of  five  thousand  years  out  of  six,  and  of 
five  hundred  more,  and  of  a  hundred  more  besides,  has  been 
that  knowledge  was  dangerous  for  the  common  people. 

There  are  walking-sticks  that  are  made  for  seats  as  well 
as  walking-sticks.  When  they  are  shut  up,  they  are  like 
walking-sticks,  and  they  cannot  stand  of  themselves;  but 
if  you  open  them,  there  sprout  out  legs,  that  enable  them 
not  only  to  stand,  but  to  support  a  man's  weight.  An  un- 
educated man  is  like  an  unopened  walking-stick  of  this 
kind.  He  cannot  stand  alone.  He  needs  to  lean  on  some 
king  or  government.  It-is  not  until  he  has  been  taken  and 
educated. and  expanded  that  he  can  hold  himself  up.  And 
it  is  this  idea  of  developing  that  which  God  has  put  in 
every  man,  so  that  he  can  stand  alone,  that  is  the  founda- 
tion of  self-government, — the  only  divine  government  in 
this  world.  There  are  in  each  individual  man  all  the 
faculties  that  are  necessary,  if  they  are  balanced  and  co- 
ordinated, to  make  him  a  perfect  being  in  his  social  organ- 
ization; and  education  means  merely  the  opening  up  of  a 
man,  and  giving  him  all  his  legs  to  stand  on,  and  all  his 
hands  to  help  himself  with.  Those  who  govern  others,  and 
who  maintain  themselves  by  governing  them,  want  men  to 
need  some  one  to  lean  on,  and  to  take  care  of  them;  and 
therefore  they  do  not  want  them  opened  up.  Just  that 
which  they  do  not  like  is  to  have  every  man  capable  of 
standing  of  himself;  for  their  interest  demands  a  state  of 
things  in  which  one  head  shall  think  for  a  million  heads, 
and  one  hand  shall  rule  for  a  million  hands.  And  it  has 
been,  since  time  began,  the  heresy  that  education  was  to  be 
feared.  Priests  have  been  afraid,  and  prime  ministers  and 
princes  and  kings  have  been  afraid,  of  education.  And 
yet  to  every  man  belongs  the  liberty  of  having  the  fullest 
development  of  all  that  God  put  into  the  making  of  the 
human  mind.  We  are  called  to  liberty.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
design  of  that  system  which  lies  under  the  foundations  of 
society,  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  the  full  use  of  every 
faculty  of  his  mind  according  to  the  law  that  God  estab- 
lished in  that  faculty. 


410  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

But  man  has  been  yet  worse  robbed  in  soul  than  even  in 
body  and  mind.  He  has  had  presented  to  him  false  gods 
of  every  kind  for  his  worship.  And  by  the  most  rigorous 
despotism  and  the  most  fearful  threatenings,  he  has  been  for- 
bidden to  find  his  own  way  to  God,  and  compelled  to  accept 
the  gods  that  were  fashioned  for  him.  And  when  the  true 
God  has  been  revealed  at  length,  after  many  generations, 
the  way  to  the  true  God  has  been  hedged  up,  and  worship 
and  obedience  have  been  prescribed,  and  men  have  had 
no  liberty  of  going  their  own  way,  but  have  been  obliged 
to  walk  the  priests'  and  the  church's  way.  Thus  man's 
whole  ethical  life  has  been  framed  and  imposed  upon  him 
without  his  consent,  and  without  appeal  from  it.  And  al- 
though much  of  the  religion  and  ethics  that  has  been 
taught  has  belonged  to  the  true  system,  much  of  it  has  not. 
And  nowhere  else  has  man  been  so  trained  to  be  a  coward 
as  in  maintaining  his  right  to  fashion  his  own  ethical  life, 
to  worship  and  to  find  God  in  his  own  way;  while  nowhere 
else  has  sounded  out  so  loudly  the  sweet  voice  of  the  Gos- 
pel, saying,  "Ye  are  called  unto  liberty." 

I  think  men  in  this  world,  for  the  most  part,  have  been 
much  like  orphans,  to  whom  has  been  bequeathed  a  large 
estate,  but  whose  fraudulent  executor  or  guardian  has  kept 
them  ignorant  of  their  parents,  their  possessions,  and  their 
rights,  and  bound  them  out  in  every  direction  to  ignomin- 
ious callings.  God's  great  brood  of  orphan  children  have 
been  in  the  hands  of  the  Devil  as  their  executor;  and  he 
has  kept  them  from  knowing  anything  of  their  Father,  or 
of  their  inheritance,  or  of  the  liberty  that  belongs  to  them. 
Now  the  Gospel  has  come  in  to  rip  up  the  old  settlement, 
expose  the  fraud,  and  bring  the  orphans  back  to  their 
property  and  privileges  again.  And  the  voice  of  our  text, 
the  voice  of  the  providence  of  God,  to-day,  is,  "  Ye  are 
called  to  liberty." 

Let  us,  then,  see  how  this  call  of  the  Gospel  acts.  Christ 
brought  liberty  to  men.  That  is,  in  the  first  instance,  he 
established  man's  true  place  in  creation  as  a  child  of  God; 
he  told  him  what  he  was,  and  treated  him  as  if  he  was  such. 
While   the   humiliation   of  Christ, — not  merely  his  being 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  411 

born  in  the  likeness  of  a  man,  but  his  selecting  for  his 
parentage  the  lowest  class  in  society,  and  his  being  born 
under  circumstances  indicative  of  the  most  impoverished 
condition, — while  this  certainly  illustrates  the  design  of 
God,  and  was  meant  to,  and  to  do  still  more  that  is  left  out 
of  sight,  it  determines  man's  place  in  creation.  Christ  came 
into  the  world  among  men  that  had  no  adventitious  value. 
There  was  not,  of  those  with  whom  he  mingled  during  the 
first  ten  years  of  his  earthly  life,  a  man  that  could  be  proud 
on  account  of  his  clothes,  his  grounds,  his  house,  his  privi- 
leges, his  honors,  or  his  titles.  Christ  was  born  in  the 
midst  of  men,  and  he  lived  for  thirty  years  among  men,  that 
had  absolutely  nothing  but  their  own  individual  selves.  He 
associated  with  men,  not  because  they  were  wise,  educated, 
large  men,  not  because  they  were  privileged  or  titled  men, 
but  simply  because  they  were  men.  For  he  wished  to 
teach  us  that  the  lowest  man  on  earth  is  a  child  of  God. 
And  if  this  is  true  of  the  lowest,  how  much  more  eminently 
is  it  true  of  everything  higher  than  the  lowest!  He  began 
at  the  bottom  of  life,  and  stuck  close  to  the  bottom  of  life, 
where  there  was  simply  man,  and  nothing  else.  And  he 
bore  witness  by  every  word  that  he  spoke,  and  by  every 
deed  that  he  performed,  that  man,  low,  base,  undeveloped, 
least  and  lowest,  is  yet  God's  child.  He  is  a  child  of  eter- 
nity. He  came  hither  from  thence,  and  he  goes  thither 
again.  He  was  God-wrought,  and  he  feels  a  yearning  for 
his  parentage,  and  seeks  again  the  source  from  which 
he  came.  Nor  can  he  be  measured  by  anything  in  this 
world.  No  latitudes  drawn  from  the  earth's  surface  can 
gird  a  man,  and  no  longitudes  can  belt  him.  Take  the 
lines  of  infinity,  and  measure  him  with  them;  take  God's 
dwelling-place,  and  measure  him  by  its  instruments;  meas- 
ure him  by  nothing  else  than  these.  Take  the  meanest, 
the  most  imbruted  creature;  take  the  blackest  slave  that, 
overworked  and  outworked,  is  kicked  out  to  die  under  the 
frosty  hedge,  and  whose  bones  even  the  crows  do  not  wait 
to  pick,  and  there  is  not  a  star  that  nightly  blazes  in  the 
heavens,  and  speaks  of  God,  that  shall  not  burn  to 'the 
socket  and  go  out,  before  the  spirit  in  that   poor,  low,  mis- 


412  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

erable,  brutish  thing  shall  cease  to  flame  up  bright  as  God's 
own  crown.  The  poorest  creature,  the  lowest  creature,  the 
meanest  creature,  is  immortal,  is  an  eternal  heir  of  God, 
and  bears  a  spark  of  divinity  within  him.  This  revelation 
of  what  a  man  is,  in  and  of  his  own  nature,  without  any  re- 
gard to  his  circumstances,  is  the  key-note  of  civilization, 
and  the  key-note  of  the  liberties  of  states  and  of  communi- 
ties that  shall  be  permanent  and  normal  and  philosophical. 
It  is  no  small  thing  for  a  man  to  know  that.  Why,  a 
slave  that  knows  it  and  sings  it,  a  slave  that  dreams  of 
heaven  and  chants  of  Christ,  is  richer  than  is  the  richest 
master  that  has  no  god  but  the  Devil,  and  stands  higher 
in  the  sight  of  angels  than  he.  For  as  angels  come  with 
God's  blessings  down  to  men,  methinks  they  fly  but  a  little 
way  before  they  reach  the  spirits  of  some  of  those  sainted 
old  slaves,  and  that  then  thev  descend 

"  Nine  times  the  space  that  measures  day  and  night 
To  mortal  men," 

and  at  last  come  to  the  master.  And  the  difference  lies  in 
the  simple  fact  that  the  former  have  in  them  Christ,  the  hope 
of  glory.  And  the  man  who  has  that  has  done  his  march, 
and  is  ready  to  enter  into  his  rest,  and  to  ascend  the  throne 
which  he  has  inherited. 

You  know  the  story  of  Williams,  the  missionary  among 
the  Indians,  who,  it  was  supposed,  was  a  kidnaped  Bour- 
bon, sent  off  by  some  usurper  of  the  throne,  and  who  after- 
wards found  out  that  he  was  of  the  stock  of  royalty,  and 
spent  part  of  his  life  in  trying  to  collate  the  facts  and 
make  the  chain  of  evidence  complete  that  he  was  descended 
from  the  loins  of  kings,  and  was  the  rightful  heir  to  the 
throne  of  France.  It  was  not  so,  I  presume;  but  suppose 
it  had  been  so,  think  how,  when  the  idea  dawned  upon  him 
in  his  forest  travels;  how,  when  he  came  to  take  fact  after 
fact,  and  put  them  together,  and  prove  that  he  was  of  royal 
blood,  and  a  monarch  entitled  to  all  the  treasures  of  the 
empire,  how  he  must  have  felt  a  heart-swell,  though  he 
might  have  deemed  it  best  to  continue  a  missionary!  I 
know  not  how  it  would  have  been  with  him,  but  I  know  how 
it  would  have  been  with  me.     If  I  had  learned  that  I  was 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  4*3 

born  to  human  titles,  and  to  all  those  regalities,  and  if  I  had 
chosen  to  be  a  missionary,  I  would  have  been  a  royal  mis- 
sionary, and  I  would  have  given  the  people  among  whom 
I  moved  to  understand  that  a  king  stooped  when  I  stooped. 

Now  Christ  comes  and  whispers  in  the  ears  of  men,  say- 
ing: "  You  are  an  exiled  child  of  royalty;  you  are  an  heir, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  to  an  eternal  inheritance,  and  thrones 
and  dominions  and  crowns  are  yours."  He  says  it  to  the 
poorest,  the  meanest,  and  the  lowest,  and  fixes  a  man  in 
the  knowledge  of  his  Father,  his  titles,  his  dignity,  and  his 
destiny.     And  what  a  liberty  is  there  ! 

Christ  restores  and  enforces  the  right  of  a  man  to  use  all 
his  nature  according  to  the  law  which  God  has  fixed  in 
every  part  of  that  nature,  without  hindrance  from  without. 
He  does  this  by  his  Gospel;  and  I  am  entitled  to  preach 
that  Gospel.  But  suppose  I  undertake  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel in  Georgia,  in  full, — not  the  letter  which  kills,  but  the 
spirit  which  makes  alive  ?  Men  want  me  to  do  it.  I  am 
frequently  asked  why  I  do  not  do  it.  They  exhort  me, 
with  a  fidelity  and  a  pathos  that  do  not  fail  to  touch  me, 
to  preach  the  Gospel  !  And  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
that  I  will.  And  to-day  I  begin  by  declaring,  in  the  words 
of  this  passage,  "  Ye  have  been  called  unto  liberty."  Hear  it, 
every  Calmuck,  every  Tartar,  every  Chinaman,  every  Jap- 
anese, every  Italian,  every  Austrian,  every  Russian  serf, 
every  Frenchman;  hear  it,  among  the  mountain  fastnesses 
of  Norway  and  Sweden,  through  England,  and  along  the 
German  coast;  hear  it  in  the  islands  of  the  sea;  hear  it,  ye 
denizens  of  the  forests  of  America;  hear  it,  ye  slaves  on 
every  plantation  throughout  the  bounds  of  the  land;  every- 
where, in  all  the  earth,  hear  the  Gospel, — "  Ye  have  been 
called  unto  liberty  !  "  And  if  you  ask  me,  "  What  is 
that  liberty  ?  "  I  declare  that  it  is  the  right  of  every  man 
who  is  born  unto  this  world  to  use  every  power,  every 
faculty  of  his  being,  according  to  the  law  that  God  has 
fixed  in  that  power  and  in  that  faculty,  and  not  according 
to  any  external  imposition  of  man.  This  is  the  liberty  to 
which  you  are  called.  And  do  you  want  me  to  preach  the 
Gospel  any  more  ?  [  Voices:  Amen  !  Amen  .']     "And  let  all  the 


4i  4  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

people  say,  Amen."  The  time  is  coming  when  these  truths 
of  Christ  shall  flame  out,  and  when  men  shall  understand 
that  preaching  the  Gospel  does  not  mean  preaching  genu- 
flexions and  days  and  ordinances  and  abstract  doctrines, 
but  that  there  is  a  truth  of  the  Gospel  that  carries  emanci- 
pation through  and  through,  right  to  the  soul,  right  to  the 
heart,  and  that  makes  every  man  that  lives  on  the  globe  a 
son  of  God,  and  therefore  impossible  to  be  a  slave. 

But,  more  in  detail,  Christ  has  given  to  every  one  of  us 
liberty  of  thought  and  liberty  of  belief.  It  is  not  irrespon- 
sible liberty  of  thought  that  we  are  called  to.  We  have 
no  liberty  of  thinking  that  disdains  the  laws  of  thinking. 
There  is  no  liberty  that  does  not  involve  the  observance  of 
law.  Nevertheless,  you  have,  every  man  has,  as  much 
right  as  I  have  to  read  God's  Word,  to  think  what  truths 
are  in  that  word,  and  to  use  every  part  of  the  mind  in 
reasoning  upon  those  truths.  Sometimes  men  say  that 
faith  requires  us  to  lay  aside  our  reason.  I  beg  your  par-- 
don,  it  never  does.  I  will  tell  you  what  I  think  about  faith 
and  reason.  It  is  about  these  as  it  is  about  birds  that 
both  run  and  fly.  A  turkey  that  runs  around  in  the  woods 
never  rises  suddenly.  It  first  runs  on  the  ground  till  it 
gains  sufficient  momentum  to  enable  it  to  rise  and  fly. 
Now  I  think  that  reason  is  like  legs  that  run  on  the  ground; 
and  as  soon  as  you  have  come  to  the  end  of  the  earth,  if 
3tou  need  more,  and  you  have  faith,  lift  your  wings,  and 
you  can  fly.  But  one  follows  the  other.  Faith  never  can 
be  said  to  be  coincident  with  reason.  Reason  is  that  fac- 
ulty which  knows  things  so  far  as  they  can  be  known;  and 
up  to  the  point  to  which  they  can  be  found  out,  you  are 
free  to  use  it;  and,  when  you  get  to  the  end  of  knowing, 
if  you  have  faith,  then  fly.  All  beyond  is  the  region  of 
faith.  Faith  is  that  which  takes  cognizance  of  things  that 
are  not  within  the  sphere  of  knowing.  And  a  part  of 
Christian  liberty  is  the  right  of  free  thinking  and  free  be- 
lieving. 

If  there  are  infidels  here  that  have  been  accustomed  to 
carp  at  religion,  and  that  say  that  they  have  a  right  of  free 
investigation,  I  beg  to  inform  them  that  they  have  not  that 


LIBERTY  UNDER  LAWS.  415 

right  any  more  than  every  Christian  has  it.  You  have  the 
liberty  to  think:  we  have  the  liberty  to  think.  We  are 
responsible  for  the  laws  of  thought:  you  are  responsible 
for  the  laws  of  thought.  We  all  stand  on  one  ground  in 
that  regard.  And  as  far  as  the  liberty  of  believing  is  con- 
cerned, we  all  have  that.  You  may  frame  a  doctrine  dif- 
ferent from  mine,  and  you  have  a  right  to  your  doctrine, 
and  I  have  a  right  to  mine.  You  have  a  right  to  use  your 
liberty  of  believing,  though  I  do  not  always  respect  the 
way  in  which  men  use  their  liberty  of  believing.  You 
have  a  right  to  investigate,  to  think,  to  believe,  and  to 
frame  doctrines;  but  you  are  bound  to  do  these  things  ac- 
cording to  certain  laws  of  investigation,  of  thought,  of 
belief,  and  of  doctrine,  that  have  been  unfolded  and  estab- 
lished. 

A  word  more,  perhaps,  is  required  respecting  this  decla- 
ration that  you  have  a  right  to  use  every  part  of  your 
mind.  There  are  old  castles  and  old  mansions  that  have 
some  rooms  that  the  children  are  not  allowed  to  go  into. 
They  are  "haunted"  rooms.  The  children  have  lived  ten 
or  fifteen  years  without  ever  having  entered  those  rooms, 
except,  perhaps,  occasionally  at  broad  noonday.  They 
would  not  go  into  them  at  night  for  all  the  world,  because 
they  are  "haunted." 

Now  the  mind  has  haunted  rooms;  and  on  Sunday  I 
reason  in  this  place,  with  my  causality,  my  comparison,  my 
analogical  powers,  without  disturbing  anybody;  but  the 
moment  that,  in  reasoning,  I  with  mirth  drive  right  toward 
a  great  truth,  filled  full  of  benignity  toward  men,  and 
reverence  toward  God,  men  hear  sounds  proceeding  from 
those  rooms.  If  I  am  largely  endowed  with  the  organ  of 
mirthfulness,  what  did  God  put  it  into  me  for  but  that  it 
might  be  a  help  to  me  in  reasoning  ?  But  the  moment  I 
begin  to  use  it,  men  look  toward  the  haunted  rooms,  and 
say,  "  I  positively  heard  sounds  that  seemed  like  laugh- 
ter;" and  they  begin  to  exclaim  against  the  desecration  of 
the  Sabbath  ! 

Now,  I  declare  the  liberty  of  God's  people  to  use  every 
faculty  of  their  mind  on  Sunday  as  well  as  on  week-days. 


41 6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

A  man  has  as  much  right  to  smile  on  Sundav  as  on  Mon- 
day. He  has  as  much  right  to  laugh,  if  he  has  a  good 
reason  for  laughing,  in  the  church  as  out  of  it.  It  is 
foolish  to  laugh  in  either  without  a  good  reason;  and  if 
you  have  a  good  reason,  it  is  foolish  not  to  laugh  !  It  is 
every  person's  liberty  to  use  every  faculty  that  God  put 
into  his  mind  according  to  its  laws,  for  a  good  purpose. 

The  like  is  true  in  respect  to  imagination.  Because  this 
has  been  employed  so  much  in  the  service  of  sin,  men  think 
that  it  is  not  fit  to  be  employed  in  the  service  of  God.  But 
if  it  has  been  perverted,  we  must  consecrate  it,  and  lift  it  up 
to  higher  uses.  And  how  blessed  is  that  liberty  from  God 
to  the  human  mind  of  using  every  one  of  the  faculties  ac- 
cording to  the  law  that  is  in  it ! 

There  is  also  the  liberty  of  worship  which  Christ  has  re- 
stored to  us;  and  that  is  absolute.  Why,  you  may  be  a 
Quaker;  God  is  willing,  and  I  am  willing,  if  you  are.  Do 
not  you  want  to  be  one  ?  Well,  you  may  be  a  Presbyterian, 
if  your  conscience  wants  it,  and  your  heart  wants  it;  I  am 
willing,  and  God  is  willing.  Do  not  you  like  it?  Then  you 
may  be  a  Methodist.  If  you  do  not  like  that,  you  may  be 
a  Baptist.  If  you  do  not  like  that,  you  may  come  here  and 
be  all  together.  If  you  do  not  want  any  of  these  nor  all 
of  them,  what  do  you  want  ?  You  are  at  liberty  to  choose 
the  denomination  that  suits  you  best. 

When  you  are  grown  to  manhood,  and  when,  conscious 
of  the  purity  of  your  intent,  when,  full  of  honor — when, 
revering  moral  sentiment  as  if  it  were  a  religion,  you  at 
last  find  one  that  is  to  be  your  companion  for  life,  and 
when,  drawing  near,  your  heart  would  speak  to  her,  who 
shall  give  a  liturgy  or  ritual  in  which  to  utter  the  words  of 
love?  Who  shall  prescribe  to  you  the  mode  of  expressing 
devotion  ?  Your  soul  finds  its  own  channel,  and  employs 
its  own  words;  and  no  man  may  step  between  you  and  her 
whom  you  love  to  say,  "  Speak  thus,  and  only  thus." 

And  if  it  be  so  when  we  meet  our  mere  companions  and 
equals,  how  much  more  is  this  royalty  of  liberty  when  the 
soul  goes  rolling  back  toward  God,  and  would  fain  express 
its  sense  of  love  and  gratitude  in  the  presence  of  divine 


LIBERTY  UNDER   LAWS.  4*7 

realities  !  Who  shall  tell  the  soul  how  to  speak  to  God  ? 
Who  shall  tell  my  child  how  to  come  and  throw  its  arms 
about  me  ?  What  tyrannic  schoolmaster  shall  stand  in  the 
door  when  my  daughter  would  rush  to  me  after  a  long 
separation,  with  sobs  and  silence  to  say,  "  I  love  ; "  or 
with  laughter  and  glee  to  say,  "  I  love;  "  or  with  words  well- 
measured  and  outpoured  to  say,  "  I  love  "  ?  The  soul  asks 
no  interpreter;  it  is  its  own  interpreter;  and  no  man  may 
stand  in  its  way  and  say  to  God  what  it  wants  to  say. 
This  would  be  an  intrusion.  If  men  ask  your  help  in  mat- 
ters of  this  kind,  you  may  give  it;  but  your  help  must  not 
be  their  tyrant. 

There  is  also  in  this  same  gift  of  religion  the  liberty  of 
beauty  and  of  taste.  A  great  many  persons  have  felt  that 
it  was  wicked  for  a  Christian  to  dress  beautifully.  Do  not 
misunderstand  me.  You  have  a  right  to  use  your  rights 
and  liberties  as  you  please,  when  you  please  to  subordinate 
them  to  others'  benefits.  Then  it  is  perfectly  right.  And 
if,  in  accordance  with  this  condition,  a  man  in  his  own 
judgment  says,  "  I  do  love  beauty,  and  I  will  have  it  in 
my  dwelling  and  on  my  person,"  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  I  rebuke  those  who  pronounce  it  to  be  wicked, 
and  I  say  to  them,  "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan;  thou  art  an 
offense  unto  me;  for  thou  savorest  not  of  the  things  that  be 
of  God."  There  is  a  royal  liberty  of  all  to  follow  every  faculty 
in  their  mind  according  to  the  law  that  God  put  into  that 
faculty,  and  not  according  to  the  law  of  society  or  of  public 
sentiment.  Of  course  there  are  many  ethical  questions  of 
how  far  or  how  much;  and  these  are  legitimate  questions; 
but  that  persons  may  enjoy  beauty,  robe  themselves  in  it, 
surround  themselves  by  it,  and  adorn  their  houses  with  it, 
I  maintain.  Though  every  man,  in  his  own  place  and  cir- 
cumstances, must  determine  how  much  of  that  liberty  he 
shall  dispense  with  or  retain  for  the  sake  of  others,  the  lib- 
erty is  there;  and  no  man  can  call  you  to  account  for  it. 
And  not  only  are  men  to  allow  you  to  enjoy  that  liberty, 
but  they  are  bound  to  respect  your  employment  of  it,  and 
they  have  no  right  to  point  to  you  and  say,  "  He  is  a  Chris- 
tian, and  yet  he  dresses  in  those  jewels  and  feathers  and 
27 


41 8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

trappings."  It  is  because  you  are  a  Christian  that  you 
have  a  right,  if  you  can  afford  it,  to  dress  in  silks  and  satins 
and  diamonds.  You  have  a  right  to  do  what  you  please  in 
this  regard,  subject  to  God,  and  not  to  men. 

The  time  is  coming  when  men  must  learn  this.  The 
first  lesson  of  Christianity  was  a  lesson  of  self-denial. 
Heretofore  men  have  been  obliged  to  learn  how  to  live  in 
abnegation.  But  the  world  is  not  always  going  to  be  in  a 
state  in  which  this  will  be  necessary.  The  day  is  rapidly 
coming  when  intelligence,  art,  and  abundance  will  every- 
where exist.  And  men  must  learn  how  to  be  rich,  and  be 
Christians  too.  They  must  learn  how  to  be  the  admirers 
and  creators  and  dispensers  of  beauty,  and  yet  be  Chris- 
tians. And  although  there  is  a  royal  sphere  of  Christian 
life  in  self-denial  which  we  never  shall  be  done  with,  in  one 
place  and  another, — though  there  will  be  abnegation  in 
every  Christian  life, — yet  intelligence  and  art  and  abun- 
dance will  belong  to  Christian  life,  and  men  must  learn  to 
be  Christians  in  these  things.  And  when  a  man  says  to 
me,  "  I  cannot  understand  how  it  is  that  you,  being  a  Chris- 
tian, possess  yourself  of  so  many  things  that  are  beautiful, 
and  merely  beautiful,  while  around  about  you  is  a  world 
lying  in  wickedness,"  I  reply  that  it  is  because  I  choose  to 
raise  up  a  higher  idea  for  men  to  aim  at  in  social  life.  If  the 
notions  of  some  men  were  carried  out  on  this  subject,  we 
should  dress,  as  John  did,  in  camel's  hair,  and  live  in  wil- 
dernesses and  caves,  and  have  insects  for  food. 

And  that  which  is  true  of  beauty  and  taste  is  also  true  of 
art,  of  music,  of  wealth,  and  of  the  occupations  and  pur- 
suits of  life. 

But  mark,  that  this  is  not  the  liberty  of  doing  just  as  a 
man  pleases  as  between  himself  and  God.  It  is  just  the 
contrary.  Every  man,  as  between  himself  and  God,  is 
bound  to  do  the  things  that  are  indicated  by  the  law  that 
he  has  received  in  himself,  and  outside  of  himself.  But  as 
respects  your  fellow-men  around  about  you,  it  is  your  lib- 
erty, so  far  as  they  interfere  with  you,  and  attempt  to  hin- 
der you,  to  carry  out  the  law  of  God  as  it  has  been  mani- 
fested to  you,  to  the  fullest  extent. 


LIBERTY   UNDER  LAWS.  4*9 

It  is  this  obedience  to  law  that  makes  such  liberty  safe, 
and  gives  society  such  benefits  from  it.  If  it  was  a  liberty 
that  gave  a  man  the  right  to  do  anything  that  he  pleased,  it 
might  be  dangerous.  It  would  then  be  what  is  in  the 
Bible  called  licentiousness.  But  where  it  consists  in  the 
right  of  a  man  to  follow  out  divine  laws  as  they  are  written 
in  him,  then  the  more  broad  that  liberty  is,  the  more  per- 
fectly regulated  and  ordered  and  safe  will  the  man's  life 
be.  A  little  liberty  in  men  may  be  dangerous.  Then  give 
them  more.  It  is  said  that  a  little  learning  is  dangerous. 
Yes,  a  little  learning  is;  but  a  little  intelligence  is  not. 
There  is  a  great  difference  between  intelligence  and  learn- 
ing. A  little  intelligence  is  safe;  a  little  more  is  safer  yet; 
a  little  more  is  still  safer;  and  the  more  a  man  has  of  it  the 
better  he  is.  For  intelligence  does  not  consist  in  the  facts 
that  a  man  knows.  It  consists  in  the  power  of  knowing. 
It  is  the  educated  faculty  in  man.  And  so  it  is  in  respect 
to  liberty.  Liberty  is  meant  for  man,  and  man  is  meant 
for  liberty;  and  the  more  you  can  make  him  understand 
the  law  of  God  that  is  in  him,  the  more  you  can  drive  him 
up  to  a  full  obedience  to,  and  to  a  complete  use  of,  the  law 
that  is  written  in  him,  the  more  safe  he  will  be.  A  man 
will  be  a  better  father,  a  better  husband,  a  better  brother, 
a  better  neighbor,  a  better  citizen,  and  a  better  Christian, 
the  more  liberty  he  has.  Liberty  is  the  breath  of  the  soul. 
It  is  that  by  which  God  meant  that  we  should  live.  Men 
live  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  free;  and  they  come 
short  of  true  living  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  cramped 
and  confined  and  imprisoned.  And  how  few  there  are  that 
live,  in  the  large  sense  of  the  term!  Nevertheless,  we  are 
called  to  the  royal  gift  of  liberty  in  Jesus  Christ. 

But  remember  that  there  is  something  more.  "  Only  use 
not  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh."  Do  not  think  that 
this  liberty  is  for  your  own  profit  and  benefit.  Do  not  be 
stingy  because  you  have  the  riches  of  liberty;  "  but  by  love 
serve  one  another," — become  slaves  to  each  other.  By 
compulsion,  no  man  should  be  a  slave;  but  without  com- 
pulsion, and  under  the  drawings  of  love,  every  man  should 
be.      Do  you   want   to   see  a   slave  ?    Do  not  go  down  to 


420  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

those  paradisiacal  lying  places  in   the  South,  to  see  the 
happy  slave.     I  will  point  you  to  one. 

The  day  is  drawing  to  a  close.  Through  all  the  hours 
of  it  a  slave  has  been  moving  about  the  house;  and  now, 
as  twilight  comes  on,  hear  the  slave  singing  a  hymn.  And 
what  is  it  that  this  angelic  choir  is  singing  to  ?  It  is  a  little 
nothing,  called  a  baby.  And  who  is  this  slave,  fit  to  be  an 
angel  in  royalty  of  gifts,  and  in  richness  of  cultivation  ? 
Why,  it  is  Mrs.  Browning,  the  poetess,  noble  in  understand- 
ing, versed  in  the  lore  of  ages,  deep  in  nature,  full  of  treas- 
ure such  as  no  king,  no  court,  and  no  palace  ever  had. 
She  sings.  And  when  the  little  child  is  uneasy  she  serves 
it.  When  the  child  tires  of  the  pillow  and  the  cradle,  it 
makes  a  pillow  of  her.  And  when  she  is  weary,  if  the 
child  does  not  wish  to  go,  she  still  holds  it.  And  when  at 
last  it  will  lie  down,  she  still  wakes  for  fear  that  the  child 
will  awake.  And  in  every  single  hour  of  the  night  she 
hears  its  call.  Not  a  whimper  or  sound  from  the  child  es- 
capes her  notice.  And  she  is  up  before  the  morning  star. 
And,  though  weary,  all  day  again  this  slave  serves  that  little 
baby, — that  little  uncrowned  despot  of  the  heart ! 

Ah  !  there  is  no  slave  out  of  heaven  like  a  loving  woman; 
and  of  all  loving  women  there  is  no  such  slave  as  a  mother. 
And  how  royal,  next  to  God  himself,  are  slaves  !  But  re- 
member what  kind  they  must  be.  "  By  love  serve  one  an- 
other." That  is  the  coin  that  buys  them.  It  is  love,  and 
it  is  giving  one's  self  for  another's  benefit  and  to  another's 
life  in  the  fullness  of  love,  that  makes  true  slavery.  How 
beautiful  are  those  slaves  that  are  slaves  through  love  ! 
Not  the  Greek  Slave  could  be  compared  with  them.  No 
ideal  that  we  can  form  can  approach  to  the  glory  of  their 
nature.  No  measure  can  be  found  by  which  to  estimate 
the  value  of  one  that  is  a  slave  through  love  to  another's 
uses. 

It  is  a  serious  responsibility  that  goes  with  liberty;  if 
you  have  it,  you  must  use  it  in  the  fear  of  God  for  the  good 
of  others  as  well  as  for  your  own  good. 

May  God  give  us  liberty,  all  of  us,  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
may  he  teach  us  to  use  that  liberty  as  Christ  himself  used 


LIBERTY   UNDER   LAWS.  421 

it,  "  who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery 
to  be  equal  with  God,  but  made  himself  of  no  reputation, 
and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made 
in  the  likeness  of  men;  and,  being  found  in  fashion  as  a 
man,  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross."  And  then  may  God  highly 
exalt  us  as  he  exalted  him,  and  give  us,  as  he  gave  him,  a 
name  which  is  above  every  name,  because  our  liberty  has 
been  used  for  others,  and  not  for  ourselves  alone. 


THE   MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.* 

BY    OLIVER    WENDELL    HOLMES. 


Mr.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  went  to  Great  Britain  al- 
ready well  known  at  home  as  the  favorite  preacher  of  a  large 
parish,  an  ardent  advocate  of  certain  leading  reforms,  one  of 
the  most  popular  lecturers  of  the  country,,  a  bold,  out- 
spoken, fertile,  ready,  crowd -compelling  orator,  whose 
reported  sermons  and  speeches  were  fuller  of  catholic 
humanity  than  of  theological  subtilties,  and  whose  sympa- 
thies were  of  that  lively  sort  which  are  apt  to  leap  sectarian 
fold  and  find  good  Christians  in  every  denomination.  He 
was  welcomed  by  friendly  persons  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  partly  for  these  merits,  partly  also  as  "  the  son 
of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Beecher"  and  "the  brother  of  Mrs. 
Beecher  Stowe." 

After  a  few  months'  absence  he  returns  to  America,  hav- 
ing finished  a  more  remarkable  embassy  than  any  envoy 
who  has  represented  us  in  Europe  since  Franklin  pleaded 
the  cause  of  the  young  Republic  at  the  Court  of  Versailles. 
He  kissed  no  royal  hand,  he  talked  with  no  courtly  diplo- 
matists, he  was  the  guest  of  no  titled  legislator,  he  had  no 
official  existence.  But  through  the  heart  of  the  people  he 
reached  nobles,  ministers,  courtiers,  the  throne  itself.  He 
whom  the  "  Times  "  attacks,  he  whom  "  Punch  "  carica- 
tures, is  a  power  in  the  land.  We  may  be  very  sure,  that, 
if  an  American  is  the  aim  of  their  pensioned  garroters  and  ■ 
hired  vitriol-throwers,  he  is  an  object  of  fear  as  well  as  of 
hatred,  and  that  the  assault  proves  his  ability  as  well  as  his 
love  of  freedom  and  zeal  for  the  nation  to  which  he  be- 
longs. 

Mr.  Beecher's  European  story  is  a  short  one  in  time,  but 

*  Reprinted  from  The  Atlantic  Monthly  of  January,  1864,  by  permission 
of  the  publishers,  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston. 


THE   MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.  423 

a  long  one  in  events.  He  went  out  a  lamb,  a  tired  clergy- 
man in  need  of  travel;  and  as  such  he  did  not  strive  nor 
cry,  nor  did  any  man  hear  his  voice  in  the  streets.  But  in 
the  den  of  lions  where  his  pathway  led  him  he  remembered 
his  own  lion's  nature,  and  uttered  his  voice  to  such  effect 
that  its  echoes  in  the  great  vaulted  caverns  of  London  and 
Liverpool  are  still  reaching  us,  as  the  sound  of  the  wood- 
man's axe  is  heard  long  after  the  stroke  is  seen,  as  the 
light  of  the  star  shines  upon  us  many  days  after  its  depart- 
ure from  the  source  of  radiance. 

Mr.  Beecher  made  a  single  speech  in  Great  Britain,  but 
it  was  delivered  piecemeal  in  different  places.  Its  exor- 
dium was  uttered  on  the  ninth  of  October  at  Manchester, 
and  its  peroration  was  pronounced  on  the  twentieth  of  the 
same  month  in  Exeter  Hall.  He  has  himself  furnished  us 
an  analysis  of  the  train  of  representations  and  arguments 
of  which  this  protracted  and  many-jointed  oration  was 
made  up.  At  Manchester  he  attempted  to  give  a  history 
of  that  series  of  political  movements,  extending  through 
half  a  century,  the  logical  and  inevitable  end  of  which  was 
open  conflict  between  the  two  opposing  forces  of  Freedom 
and  Slavery.  At  Glasgow  his  discourse  seems  to  have 
been  almost  unpremeditated.  A  meeting  of  one  or  two 
Temperance  advocates,  who  had  come  to  greet  him  as  a 
brother  in  their  cause,  took  on,  "quite  accidentally,"  a  po- 
litical character,  and  Mr.  Beecher  gratified  the  assembly 
with  an  address  which  really  looks  as  if  it  had  been  in 
great  measure  called  forth  by  the  pressure  of  the  moment. 
It  seems  more  like  a  conversation  than  a  set  harangue. 
First,  he  very  good  humoredly  defines  his  position  on  the 
Temperance  question,  and  then  naturally  slides  into  some 
self-revelations,  which  we  who  know  him  accept  as  the 
simple  expression  of  the  man's  character.  This  plain 
speaking  made  him  at  home  among  strangers  more  imme- 
diately, perhaps,  than  anything  else  he  could  have  told 
them.  "  I  am  born  without  moral  fear.  I  have  expressed 
my  views  in  any  audience,  and  it  never  cost  me  a  struggle. 
I  never  could  help  doing  it." 

The  way  a  man  handles  his  egoisms  is  a  test  of  his  mas- 


424  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

tery  over  an  audience  or  a  class  of  readers.  What  we  want 
to  know  about  the  person  who  is  to  counsel  or  lead  us  is 
just  what  he  is,  and  nobody  can  tell  us  so  well  as  himself. 
Every  real  master  of  speaking  or  writing  uses  his  person- 
ality as  he  would  any  other  serviceable  material;  the  very 
moment  a  speaker  or  writer  begins  to  use  it,  not  for  his 
main  purpose,  but  for  vanity's  sake,  as  all  weak  people 
are  sure  to  do,  hearers  and  readers  feel  the  difference  in  a 
moment.  Mr.  Beecher  is  a  strong,  healthy  man,  in  mind 
and  body.  His  nerves  have  never  been  corrugated  with 
alcohol;  his  thinking-marrow  is  not  brown  with  tobacco- 
fumes,  like  a  meerschaum,  as  are  the  brains  of  so  many 
unfortunate  Americans;  he  is  the  same  lusty,  warm- 
blooded, strong-fibered,  brave-hearted,  bright-souled,  clear- 
eyed  creature  that  he  was  when  the  college  boys  at  Am- 
herst acknowledged  him  as  the  chiefest  among  their 
football-kickers.  He  has  the  simple  frankness  of  a  man 
who  feels  himself  to  be  perfectly  sound  in  bodily,  mental, 
and  moral  structure;  and  his  self-revelation  is  a  thousand 
times  nobler  than  the  assumed  impersonality  which  is  a 
common  trick  with  cunning  speakers  who  never  forget 
their  own  interests.  Thus  it  is,  that,  wherever  Mr.  Beecher 
goes,  everybody  feels,  after  he  has  addressed  them  once  or 
twice,  that  they  know  him  well,  almost  as  if  they  had  al- 
ways known  him;  and  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  land  who 
has  such  a  multitude  that  look  upon  him  as  if  he  were 
their  brother. 

Having  magnetized  his  Glasgow  audience,  he  continued 
the  subject  already  opened  at  Manchester  by  showing,  in 
the  midst  of  that  great  toiling  population,  the  deadly  in- 
fluence exerted  by  Slavery  in  bringing  labor  into  contempt, 
and  its  ruinous  consequences  to  the  free  workingman 
everywhere.  In  Edinburgh  he  explained  how  the  Nation 
grew  up  out  of  separate  States,  each  jealous  of  its  special 
sovereignty;  how  the  struggle  for  the  control  of  the  united 
Nation,  after  leaving  it  for  a  long  time  in  the  hands  of  the 
South,  to  be  used  in  favor  of  Slavery,  at  length  gave  it  into 
those  of  the  North,  whose  influence  was  to  be  for  Free- 
dom; and  that  for  this  reason  the  South,  when  it  could  no 


THE   MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.  425 

longer  rule  the  Nation,  rebelled  against  it.  In  Liverpool, 
the  center  of  vast  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests, 
he  showed  how  those  interests  are  injured  by  Slavery, — 
"  that  this  attempt  to  cover  the  fairest  portion  of  the  earth 
with  a  slave-population  that  buys  nothing,  and  a  degraded 
white  population  that  buys  next  to  nothing,  should  array 
against  it  the  sympathy  of  every  true  political  economist 
and  every  thoughtful  and  far-seeing  manufacturer,  as 
tending:  to  strike  at  the  vital  want  of  commerce, — not  the 
want  of  cotton,  but  the  want  of  customers." 

In  his  great  closing  effort  at  Exeter  Hall  in  London,  Mr. 
Beecher  began  by  disclaiming  the  honor  of  having  been  a 
pioneer  in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  which  he  found  in 
progress  at  his  entry  upon  public  life,  when  he  "  fell  into 
the  ranks,  and  fought  as  well  as  he  knew  how,  in  the  ranks 
or  in  command."  He  unfolded  before  his  audience  the 
plan  and  connection  of  his  previous  addresses,  showing 
how  they  were  related  to  each  other  as  parts  of  a  consecu- 
tive series.  He  had  endeavored,  he  told  them,  to  enlist 
the  judgment,  the  conscience,  the  interests  of  the  British 
people  against  the  attempt  to  spread  Slavery  over  the  con- 
tinent, and  the  rebellion  it  has  kindled.  He  had  shown  that 
Slavery  was  the  only  cause  of  the  war,  that  sympathy  with 
the  South  was  only  aiding  the  building  up  of  a  slave-em- 
pire, that  the  North  was  contending  for  its  own  existence 
and  that  of  popular  institutions. 

Mr.  Beecher  then  asked  his  audience  to  look  at  the 
question  with  him  from  the  American  point  of  view.  He 
showed  how  the  conflict  began  as  a  moral  question;  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  South;  the  tenderness  for  them  on  the 
part  of  many  Northern  apologizers,  with  whom  he  himself 
had  never  stood.  He  pointed  out  how  the  question  grad- 
ually emerged  in  politics;  the  encroachments  of  the  South, 
until  they  reached  the  Judiciary  itself;  he  repeated  to 
them  the  admissions  of  Mr.  Stephens  as  to  the  preponder- 
ating influence  the  South  had  all  along  held  in  the  Govern- 
ment. An  interruption  obliged  him  to  explain  that  ad- 
justment of  our  State  and  National  governments  which 
Englishmen  seem  to  find  so  hard  to  understand.      Nothing 


426  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

shows  his  peculiar  powers  to  more  advantage  than  just 
such  interruptions.  Then  he  displays  his  felicitous  facility 
of  illustration,  his  familiar  way  of  bringing  a  great  ques- 
tion to  the  test  of  some  parallel  fact  that  everybody  before 
him  knows.  An  American  state-question  looks  as  mys- 
terious to  an  English  audience  as  an  ear  of  Indian  corn 
wrapt  in  its  sheath  to  an  English  wheat-grower.  Mr. 
Beecher  husks  it  for  them  as  only  an  American  born  and 
bred  can  do.  He  wants  a  few  sharp  questions  to  rouse 
his  quick  spirit.  He  could  almost  afford  to  carry  with  him 
his  picadorcs  to  sting  him  with  sarcasms,  his  cJiulos  to  flap 
their  inflammatory  epithets  in  his  face,  and  his  bandcrilleros 
to  stab  him  with  their  fiery  insults  into  a  plaza  de  toros, — 
an  audience  of  John  Bulls. 

Having  cleared  up  this  matter  so  that  our  comatose 
cousins  understood  the  relations  of  the  dough  and  the 
apple  in  our  national  dumpling, — to  borrow  one  of  their 
royal  reminiscences, — having  eulogized  the  fidelity  of  the 
North  to  the  national  compact,  he  referred  to  the  action 
of  "that  most  true,  honest,  just,  and  conscientious  magis- 
trate, Mr.  Lincoln," — at  the  mention  of  whose  name  the 
audience  cheered  as  long  and  loud  as  if  they  had  descended 
from  the  ancient  Ephesians. 

Mr.  Beecher  went  on  to  show  how  the  North  could  not 
help  fighting  when  it  was  attacked,  and  to  give  the  reasons 
that  made  it  necessary  to  fight, — reasons  which  none  but  a 
consistent  Friend  or  avowed  non-resistant  can  pretend  to 
dispute.  His  ordinary  style  in  speaking  is  pointed,  stac- 
catoed,  as  is  that  of  most  successful  extemporaneous  speak- 
ers; he  is  "short-gaited  ";  the  movement  of  his  thoughts 
is  that  of  the  chopping  sea,  rather  than  the  long,  rolling, 
rhythmical  wave-procession  of  phrase-balancing  rhetori- 
cians. But  when  the  lance  has  pricked  him  deep  enough, 
when  the  red  flag  has  flashed  in  his  face  often  enough, 
when  the  fireworks  have  hissed  and  sputtered  around  him 
long  enough,  when  the  cheers  have  warmed  him  so  that 
all  his  life  is  roused,  then  his  intellectual  sparkle  becomes 
a  steady  glow,  and  his  nimble  sentences  change  their  form, 
and  become  long-drawn,  stately  periods. 


THE  MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.  427 

"  Standing  by  my  cradle,  standing  by  my  hearth,  stand- 
ing by  the  altar  of  the  church,  standing  by  all  the  places 
that  mark  the  name  and  memory  of  heroic  men  who 
poured  their  blood  and  lives  for  principle,  I  declare  that  in 
ten  or  twenty  years  of  war  we  will  sacrifice  everything  we 
have  for  principle.  If  the  love  of  popular  liberty  is  dead 
in  Great  Britain,  you  will  not  understand  us;  but  if  the 
love  of  liberty  lives  as  it  once  lived,  and  has  worthy  suc- 
cessors of  those  renowned  men  that  were  our  ancestors  as 
much  as  yours,  and  whose  example  and  principles  we  in- 
herit to  make  fruitful  as  so  much  seed-corn  in  a  new  and 
fertile  land,  then  you  will  understand  our  firm,  invincible 
determination — deep  as  the  sea,  firm  as  the  mountains,  but 
calm  as  the  heavens  above  us — to  fight  this  war  through 
at  all  hazards  and  at  every  cost." 

When  have  Englishmen  listened  to  nobler  words,  fuller 
of  the  true  soul  of  eloquence  ?  Never,  surely,  since  their 
nation  entered  the  abdominous  period  of  its  existence, 
recognized  in  all  its  ideal  portraits,  for  which  food  and 
sleep  are  the  prime  conditions  of  well-being.  Yet  the  old 
instinct  which  has  made  the  name  of  Englishmen  glorious 
in  the  past  was  there,  in  the  audience  before  him,  and 
there  was  "  immense  cheering,"  relieved  by  some  slight 
colubrine  demonstrations. 

Mr.  Beecher  openly  accused  certain  "  important  organs  " 
of  deliberately  darkening  the  truth  and  falsifying  the 
facts.  The  audience  thereupon  gave  three  groans  for  a 
paper  called  the  "  Times,"  once  respectably  edited,  now 
deservedly  held  as  cheap  as  an  epigram  of  Mr.  Carlyle's 
or  a  promise  to  pay  dated  at  Richmond.  He  showed  the 
monstrous  absurdity  of  England's  attacking  us  for  fight- 
ing, and  for  fighting  to  uphold  a  principle.  "  On  what 
shore  has  not  the  prow  of  your  ships  dashed  ?  What  land 
is  there  with  a  name  and  a  people  where  your  banner  has 
not  led  your  soldiers  ?  And  when  the  great  resurrection- 
reveillc  shall  sound,  it  will  muster  British  soldiers  from 
every  clime  and  people  under  the  whole  heaven.  Ah!  but 
it  is  said  this  is  war  against  your  own  blood.  How  long 
is  it  since  you  poured  soldiers  into  Canada,  and  let  all  your 


428  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

yards  work  day  and  night  to  avenge  the  taking  of  two  men 
out  of  the  Trent  ?  "  How  ignominious  the  pretended  hu- 
manity of  England  looked  in  the  light  of  these  questions  ! 
And  even  while  Mr.  Beecher  was  speaking,  a  lurid  glow 
was  crimsoning  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  from  the  flames 
of  a  great  burning  city,  set  on  fire  by  British  ships  to 
avenge  a  crime  committed  by  some  remote  inhabitant  of 
the  same  country, — an  act  of  wholesale  barbarity  unap- 
proached  by  any  deed  which  can  be  laid  to  the  charge  of 
the  American  Union  in  the  course  of  this  long,  exasperat- 
ing conflict  ! 

Mr.  Beecher  explained  that  the  people  who  sympathized 
with  the  South  were  those  whose  voices  reached  America, 
while  the  friends  of  the  North  were  little  heard.  The  first 
had  bows  and  arrows;  the  second  have  shafts,  but  no  bows 
to  launch  them. 

"  How  about  the  Russians  ?" 

Everybody  remembers  how  neatly  Mr.  Beecher  caught  this 
envenomed  dart,  and,  turning  it  end  for  end,  drove  it  through 
his  antagonist's  shield  of  triple  bull's-hide.  "  Now  you 
know  what  we  felt  when  you  were  flirting  with  Mr.  Mason 
at  your  Lord  Mayor's  banquet."  A  cleaner  and  straighter 
"  counter  "  than  that,  if  we  may  change  the  image  to  one 
his  audience  would  appreciate  better,  is  hardly  to  be  found 
in  the  records  of  British  pugilism. 

The  orator  concluded  by  a  rather  sanguine  statement  of 
his  change  of  opinion  as  to  British  sentiment,  of  the  as- 
surance he  should  carry  back  of  the  enthusiasm  for  the 
cause  of  the  North,  and  by  an  exhortation  to  unity  of  action 
with  those  who  share  their  civilization  and  religion,  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel  and  the  happiness  of  mankind. 

The  audience  cheered  again,  Professor  Newman  moved 
a  warm  vote  of  thanks,  and  the  meeting  dissolved,  wiser 
and  better,  we  hope,  for  the  truths  which  had  been  so  boldly 
declared  before  them. 

What  is  the  net  result,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  voluntary  embassy  ?  So  far  as  he  is  concerned, 
it  has  been  to  lift  him  from  the  position  of  one  of  the  most 
popular  preachers  and  lecturers,  to  that  of  one  of  the  most 


THE   MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.  429 

popular  men  in  the  country.  Those  who  hate  late  phi- 
lanthropy admire  his  courage.  Those  who  disagree  with 
him  in  theology  recognize  him  as  having  a  claim  to  the 
title  of  Apostle  quite  as  good  as  that  of  John  Eliot,  whom 
Christian  England  sent  to  heathen  America  two  centuries 
ago,  and  who,  in  spite  of  the  singularly  stupid  question- 
ings of  the  natives,  and  the  violent  opposition  of  the 
sachems  and  powwows,  or  priests,  succeeded  in  reclaiming 
large  numbers  of  the  copper-colored  aborigines. 

The  change  df  opinion  wrought  by  Mr.  Beecher  in  En- 
gland is  far  less  easy  to  estimate;  indeed,  we  shall  never 
have  the  means  of  determining  what  it  may  have  been. 
The  organs  of  opinion  which  have  been  against  us  will 
continue  their  assaults,  and  those  which  have  been  our 
friends  will  continue  to  defend  us.  The  public  men  who 
have  committed  themselves  will  be  consistent  in  the  right 
or  in  the  wrong,  as  they  may  have  chosen  at  first.  To  know 
what  Mr.  Beecher  has  effected,  we  must  not  go  to  Exeter 
Hall  and  follow  its  enthusiastic  audience  as  they  are  swayed 
hither  and  thither  by  his  arguments  and  appeals;  we  must 
not  count  the  crowd  of  admiring  friends  and  sympathizers 
whom  he,  like  all  personages  of  note,  draws  around  him: 
the  fire-fly  calls  other  fire-flies  about  him,  but  the  great 
community  of  beetles  goes  blundering  round  in  the  dark 
as  before.  Mr.  Cobden  has  given  us  the  test  in  a  letter 
quoted  by  Mr.  Beecher  in  the  course  of  his  speech  at  the 
Brooklyn  Academy.  "  You  will  carry  back,"  he  says,  "an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  a  state  of  feeling  in  this  coun- 
try among  what,  for  [want  of]  a  better  name,  I  call  the 
ruling  class.  Their  sympathy  is  undoubtedly  strongly  for 
the  South,  with  the  instinctive  satisfaction  at  the  prospect 
of  the  disruption  of  the  great  Republic.  It  is  natural 
enough."  "But,"  he  says,  "  our  masses  have  an  instinctive 
feeling  that  their  cause  is  bound  up  in  the  prosperity  of 
the  States, — the  United  States.  It  is  true  that  they  have 
not  a  particle  of  power  in  the  direct  form  of  a  vote;  but 
when  millions  in  this  country  are  led  by  the  religious  mid- 
dle class,  they  can  go  and  prevent  the  governing  class  from 
pursuing  a  policy  hostile  to  their  sympathies." 


43°  r A  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

This  power  of  the  non-voting  classes  is  an  idea  that  gives 
us  pause.  It  is  one  of  those  suggestions,  like  Lord  Brou- 
gham's of  the  "unknown  public,"  which,  in  a  single  phrase, 
and  a  sentence  or  two  of  explanation,  tell  a  whole  history. 
This  is  the  class  John  Bunyan  wrote  for  before  the  bishops 
had  his  Allegory  in  presentable  calf  and  gold-leaf, — before 
England  knew  that  her  poor  tinker  had  shaped  a  pictured 
urn  for  her  full  of  such  visions  as  no  dreamer  had  seen 
since  Dante.  This  is  the  class  that  believes  in  John  Bright 
and  Richard  Cobden  and  all  the  defenders  of  true  Ameri- 
can principles.  It  absorbs  intelligence  as  melting  ice  ren- 
ders heat  latent;  there  is  no  living  power  directly  generated 
with  which  we  can  move  pistons  and  wheels,  but  the  first 
step  in  the  production  of  steam-force  is  to  make  the  ice 
fluid.  No  intellectual  thermometer  can  reveal  to  us  how 
much  ignorance  or  prejudice  has  melted  away  in  the  fire 
of  Mr.  Beecher's  passionate  eloquence,  but  by-and-by  this 
will  tell  as  a  working-force.  The  non-voter's  conscience 
will  reach  the  Privy  Council,  and  the  hand  of  the  ignorant, 
but  Christianized  laborer  trace  its  own  purpose  in  the  let- 
ters of  the  royal  signature. 

We  are  living  in  a  period,  not  of  events  only,  but  of 
epochs.  We  are  in  the  transition-stage  from  the  miocene 
to  the  pliocene  period  of  human  existence.  A  new  heaven 
is  forming  over  our  head  behind  the  curtain  of  clouds 
which  rises  from  our  smoking;  battle-fields.  A  new  earth  is 
shaping  itself  under  our  feet  amidst  the  tremors  and  con- 
vulsions that  agitate  the  soil  upon  which  we  tread.  But 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  surprise  in  the  order  of  Nature. 
The  kingdom  of  God,  even,  cometh  not  with  observation. 

The  visit  of  an  overworked  clergyman  to  Europe  is  not 
in  appearance  an  event  of  momentous  interest  to  the  world. 
The  fact  that  he  delivered  a  few  speeches  before  British 
audiences  might  seem  to  merit  notice  in  a  local  paper  or 
two,  but  is  of  very  little  consequence,  one  would  say,  to 
the  British  nation,  compared  to  the  fact  that  Her  Majesty 
took  an  airing  last  Wednesday,  or  of  much  significance  to 
Americans,  by  the  side  of  the  fact  that  his  Excellency, 
Governor  Seymour,  had  written  a  letter  recommending  the 


THE  MINISTER  PLENIPOTENTIARY.  431 

Union  Fire  Company  always  to  play  on  the  wood-shed 
when  the  house  is  in  flames. 

But,  in  point  of  fact,  this  unofficial  visit  of  a  private 
citizen — in  connection  with  these  addresses  delivered  to 
miscellaneous  crowds  by  an  envoy  not  extraordinary  and 
a  minister  nullipotentiary,  for  all  that  his  credentials  showed 
— was  an  event  of  national  importance.  It  was  much 
more  that  this;  ,it  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of 
things  in  the  relations  of  nations  to  each  other.  It  is  but 
a  little  while  since  any  graceless  woman  who  helped  a 
crowned  profligate  to  break  the  commandments  could  light 
a  national  quarrel  with  the  taper  that  sealed  her  billets- 
doux  to  his  equerries  and  grooms,  and  kindle  it  to  a  war 
with  the  fan  that  was  supposed  to  hide  her  blushes.  More 
and  more,  by  virtue  of  advancing  civilization  and  easy  in- 
tercourse between  distant  lands,  the  average  common  sense 
and  intelligence  of  the  people  begin  to  reach  from  nation 
to  nation.  Mr.  Beecher's  visit  is  the  most  notable  expres- 
sion of  this  movement  of  national  life.  It  marks  the  nisus 
formativus  which  begins  the  organization  of  that  unwritten 
and  only  half  spoken  public  opinion  recognized  by  Mr. 
Cobden  as  a  great  underlying  force  even  in  England.  It 
needs  a  little  republican  pollen-dust  to  cause  the  evolution 
of  its  else  barren  germs.  The  fruit  of  Mr.  Beecher's  visit 
will  ripen  in  due  time,  not  only  in  direct  results,  but  in 
opening  the  way  to  future  moral  embassies,  going  forth 
unheralded,  unsanctioned  by  State  documents,  in  the  sim- 
ple strength  of  Christian  manhood,  on  their  errands  of 
truth  and  peace. 

The  Devil  had  got  the  start  of  the  clergyman,  as  he  very 
often  does,  after  all.  The  wretches  who  have  been  for 
three  years  pouring  their  leperous  distillment  into  the  ears 
of  Great  Britain  had  preoccupied  the  ground,  and  were 
determined  to  silence  the  minister,  if  they  could.  For  this 
purpose  they  looked  to  the  heathen  populace  of  the  nom- 
inally Christian  British  cities.  They  covered  the  walls 
with  blood-red  placards,  they  stimulated  the  mob  by  in- 
flammatory appeals,  they  filled  the  air  with  threats  of  riot 
and  murder.     It  was  in  the  midst  of  scenes  like  these  that 


43 2  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  single,  solitary  American  opened  his  lips  to  speak  in 
behalf  of  his  country. 

The  danger  is  now  over,  and  we  find  it  hard  to  make 
real  to  our  imagination  the  terrors  of  a  mob  such  as 
swarms  out  of  the  dens  of  Liverpool  and  London.  We 
know  well  enough  in  this  country  what  Irish  mobs  are. 
The  Old  Country  exports  them  to  us  in  pieces,  ready  to 
put  together  on  arriving,  as  we  send  houses  to  California. 
Ireland  is  the  country  of  shillalahs  and  broken  crowns,  of 
Donnybrook  fairs,  where  men  with  whisky  in  their  heads 
settle  their  feuds  or  work  off  their  sprightliness  with  the 
arms  of  Nature,  sometimes  aided  by  the  least  dangerous 
of  weapons.  But  England  is  the  land  of  prize-fights,  of 
scientific  brutality,  which  has  flourished  under  the  patron- 
age of  her  hereditary  legislators  and  other  "  Corinthian  " 
supporters.  The  pugilistic  dynasty  came  in  with  the 
House  of  Brunswick,  and  has  held  divided  empire  with 
it  ever  since.  The  Briton  who  claims  Chatham's  language 
as  his  mother-tongue  may  appropriate  the  dialect  of  the 
ring  as  far  more  truly  indigenous  than  the  German-French 
of  his  every-day  discourse.  Of  the  three  Burkes  whose 
names  are  historical,  the  orator  is  known  to  but  a  few  hun- 
dred thousands.  The  prize-fighter,  with  his  interesting 
personal  infirmity,  is  the  common  property  of  the  mill- 
ions, and  would  have  headed  the  list  in  celebrity,  but  for 
that  other  of  the  name  who  added  a  new  invention  to  the 
arts  of  industry  and  enriched  the  English  language  with  a 
term  which  bids  fair  to  outlive  the  reputation  of  his  illus- 
trious namesake.  Around  the  professors  and  heroes  of 
the  art  of  personal  violence  are  collected  the  practitioners 
of  various  callings  less  dignified  by  the  manly  qualities 
they  demand.  The  Gangs  of  Three  that  waylay  the  soli- 
tary pedestrian, — the  Choker  in  the  middle,  next  the  vic- 
tim who  is  to  be  strangled  and  cleaned  out, — the  larger 
guilds  of  Hustlers  who  bonnet  a  man  and  beat  his  breath 
out  of  him  and  empty  his  pockets  before  he  knows  what 
is  the  matter  with  him,— the  Burglars,  with  their  "jim- 
mies" in  their  pockets, — the  fighting  robbers,  with  their 
brass  knuckles, — the  whole  set  in  a  vast  thief-constituency, 


THE   MINISTER   PLENIPOTENTIARY.  433 

thick  as  rats  in  sewers, — these  were  the  disputants  whom 
the  emissaries  of  the  Slave  Power  called  upon  to  refute 
the  arguments  of  the  Brooklyn  clergyman. 

It  was  not  pleasant  to  move  in  streets  where  such  human 
rattlesnakes  and  cobras  were  coiling  and  lying  in  wait. 
Great  cities  are  the  poison-glands  of  civilization  every- 
where >  but  the' secretions  of  those  hideous  crypts  and 
blind  passages  that  empty  themselves  into  the  thorough- 
fares of  English  towns  are  so  deadly,  that,  but  for  her 
penal  colonies,  England,  girt  by  water,  as  the  scorpion 
with  flame,  would  perish,  self-stung,  by  her  own  venom. 
The  legates  of  the  great  Anti-Civilization  have  colonized 
England,  as  England  has  colonized  Botany  Bay.  They 
know  the  venal  ruffianism  of  the  fist  and  bludgeon,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  press.  Fortunately,  they  are  short  of  funds, 
or  Mr.  Beecher  might  have  disappeared  after  the  manner 
of  Romulus,  and  never  have  come  to  light,  except  in  the 
saintly  fashion  of  relics, — such  as  white  finger-rings  and 
breast-pins,  like  those  which  some  devotees  of  the  South- 
ern mode  of  worship  are  said  to  have  been  fond  of  wear- 
ing. 

From  these  dangers,  which  he  faced  like  a  man,  we  wel- 
come him  back  to  a  country  which  is  proud  of  his  courage 
and  ability  and  grateful  for  his  services.  The  highest  and 
lowest  classes  of  England  cannot  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
free  North.  No  dynasty  can  look  the  fact  of  successful,  tri- 
umphant self-government  in  the  face  without  seeing  a 
shroud  in  its  banner  and  hearing  a  knell  in  its  shouts  of 
victory.  As  to  those  lower  classes  who  are  too  low  to  be 
reached  by  the  life-giving  breath  of  popular  liberty,  we 
cannot  reach  them  yet.  A  Christian  civilization  has  suf- 
fered them,  in  the  very  heart  of  its  great  cities,  to  sink 
almost  to  the  level  of  Du  Chaillu's  West-African  quadru- 
niana.  But  the  thoughtful,  religious  middle  class  of  Great 
Britain,  with  their  enlightened  leaders  and  their  conscien- 
tious followers  among  the  laboring  masses,  have  listened 
and  will  always  listen  to  the  voice  of  any  true  and  ade- 
quate representative  of  that  new  form  of  human  society 
now  in   full  course  of  development   in    Republican    North 

28 


434  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

America.  They  have  never  listened  to  a  nobler  and  more 
thoroughly  national  speaker  than  the  minister,  clothed 
with  full  powers  from  Nature  and  bearing  the  authentic 
credentials  from  his  Divine  Master,  to  whom,  on  his  return 
from  his  successful  embassy,  we  renew  our  grateful  wel- 
come. 


SPEECHES   IN    ENGLAND. 


Reports,  Published  by  the  Union  and  Emancipation 
Society,  Manchester,  in  1863. 


NOTE. 

[Prefacing  the  Original  Volume.] 

I  have  been  asked  to  revise  the  speeches  recently  deliv- 
ered by  me  in  Great  Britain,  and  to  allow  them  to  be 
published  together. 

In  compliance  with  that  request,  I  have  partially  revised 
the  speeches  delivered  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall,  Manchester, 
in  the  City  Hall,  Glasgow,  and  in  the  Free  Church  Assem- 
bly Hall,  Edinburgh;  the  others  not  at  all. 

I  must  leave  them  with  all  the  imperfections  incidental 
to  speeches  delivered  under  circumstances,  in  several  cases, 
not  favorable  to  literary  excellence  or  reportorial  correct- 
ness. 

To  avoid  any  mistake  hereafter,  I  specify  those  speeches 
which,  in  addition  to  the  above,  I  permit  to  be  published; 
and  this  I  deem  necessary  on  account  of  one  of  my  morning 
addresses  having  been  so  inaccurately  reported  (uninten- 
tionally, I  believe)  as  to  misrepresent  what  I  did  say  and 
attribute  to  me  that  which  I  did  not  say. 

The  speech  in  the  Philharmonic  Hall,  Liverpool,  I  leave 
as  a  curiosity.  It  may  relieve  the  reading  of  the  others,  to 
follow  the  course  of  a  speech  delivered  under  difficulties. 

The  speeches  delivered  in  Exeter  Hall,  and  at  the  several 
Breakfast  Meetings  in  London,  Manchester,  and  Liverpool, 
must  remain  as  they  are  published  in  the  newspapers,  only 
with  the  caution  that  they  are  not  verbatim  reports. 

H.  W.   BEECHER. 

Liverpool,  October  30,  1863. 


SPEECH    IN    MANCHESTER. 

October  9,  1863. 


On  Friday  evening,  October  9th,  1863,  a  meeting  was  held  in 
the  Free  Trade  Hall,  Manchester,  England,  according  to  an- 
nouncement, "  to  welcome  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  on  his 
public  appearance  in  this  country."  The  hall  was  crowded,  and 
there  were  probably  6,000  persons  present.  It  was  supposed,  from 
the  paper  war  of  placards  for  the  previous  fortnight,  that  the 
meeting  might  be  disturbed  by  partisans  of  the  Confederate  cause. 
Arrangements  had,  therefore,  been  made  for  the  prompt  suppres- 
sion of  disorder;  and  notices  to  that  effect  were  posted  about  the 
room.  The  chair  was  taken,  at  half-past  six,  by  Mr.  Francis 
Taylor.  At  the  same  time  the  entrance  of  Mr.  Beecher,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Bazley,  M.  P.,  and  some  prominent  members  of  the 
Union  and  Emancipation  Society,  was  the  signal  for  enthusiastic 
and  repeated  cheering. 

After  the  reading  of  sundry  letters  of  regret  from  Mr.  John 
Bright  and  others,  and  some  apt  remarks  by  the  chairman,  a  wel- 
coming Address  by  the  Society  was  read,  supported  handsomely 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Bazley,  M.  P.,  and  seconded  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Est- 
court,  a  gentleman  to  whose  earnest  friendship  and  untiring  ef- 
forts Mr.  Beecher  owed  much  during  this  visit  to  England,  in 
organized  arrangements  for  several  of  his  addresses  and  a  con- 
stant personal  loyalty  and  advocacy.  In  the  course  of  his  brief 
remarks  Mr.  Estcourt  said  : 

He  was  reminded  by  the  peculiar  sounds  in  different  parts  of 
the  hall,  that  other  than  friends  were  in  attendance,  and  as  the 
city  had  been  placarded  with  bills  containing  an  invitation  to  the 
citizens  to  attend  this  meeting  in  large  numbers  and  give  our  es- 
teemed guest  a  "disgusting  reception,"  he  judged  that  the  dis- 
cordant noises  were  the  acknowledgment  of  these  publicly  invited 
persons  that  they  had  responded  to  the  call,  and  were  prepared  to 
show  the  refinement  of  their  manners  by  giving  to  a  stranger  to 
them,  but  a  friend  to  humanity,  the  polite  but  novel  reception, 
characterized  by  themselves  as  "disgusting";  he  trusted,  however, 
that  those  gentlemen  would  see  that  it  would  be  better  to  avoid 


43^  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

giving  that  sort  of  reception.  He  had  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  those  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  who  were  now  fight- 
ing for  constitutional  government,  and  free  speech,  and  personal, 
civil,  social,  political,  and  religious  freedom,  ought  to  have  the 
moral  support,  and  he  believed  they  had,  of  every  intelligent  and 
well  informed  Englishman.  [Loud  applause]  He  could  not  say 
how  long  it  would  take  to  convert  and  enlighten  the  unenlightened 
and  uninformed  portion  of  the  community,  who,  in  establishing 
the  Southern  Slaveholding  Association,  had  publicly  acknowl- 
edged one  of  their  objects  to  be  to  obtain  "  correct  information  ;  " 
but  inasmuch  as  the  Union  and  Emancipation  Society  was  estab- 
lished for  the  very  purpose  of  supplying  such  information,  he 
promised  to  all  applicants  that  which  they  sought,  and  hoped 
they  would  be  diligent  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  he 
sincerely  trusted  that  before  the  year  was  out  this  class  of  the 
community  would  be  sailing  with  them  in  one  boat,  in  an  intelli- 
gent English  career,  in  favor  of  a  liberty  which  was  the  un- 
doubted right  of  every  man.  [Loud  applause.']  The  meeting  was 
not  asked  to  indorse  every  word  Mr.  Beecher  had  said,  but  to 
manifest  by  its  welcome,  that  everything  he  had  done  in  promot- 
ing the  extension  of  the  broad  principles  of  liberty,  had  its  hearty 
approval.  [Applause.]  The  mode  of  doing  this  must  be  left  to 
Mr.  Beecher  himself,  and  he  [Air.  Estcourt]  was  quite  sure  there 
was  not  an  Englishman  in  that  crowded  hall  who  did  not  sym- 
pathize and  wholly  approve  of  a  manly,  moral,  good  man,  wherever 
he  was  found,  whether  he  be  an  American,  an  Englishman,  or  the 
citizen  of  any  other  nation.  [Applause.]  He  therefore,  believing 
Mr.  Beecher  to  be  such  a  man,  with  the  greatest  pleasure  seconded 
the  adoption  of  the  address. 

The  Chairman  then  put  the  resolution,  and  thousands  of  hands 
were  thrust  up  high  above  the  heads  of  the  dense  audience. 
After  an  interval  of  loud  cheers,  the  Chairman  put  the  contrary, 
and  amidst  peals  of  derisive  laughter  and  cheers  a  few  hands  were 
held  up. 

The  Chairman :  I  declare  the  resolution  carried  by  an  over- 
whelming majority. 

Mr.  Beecher  then  turned  to  the  audience  to  speak,  but  for  sev- 
eral minutes  he  was  prevented  by  deafening  cheers,  followed  by 
a  few  hisses,  which  only  provoked  a  renewed  outburst  of  applause. 

Mr.  Beecher  then  spoke: — 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies,  and  gentlemen,  the  address  which 
you  have  kindly  presented  to  me  contains  matters  both 
personal  and  national.     [Interruption.]     My  friends,  we  will 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  439 

have  a  whole  night  session  but  we  will  be  heard.  [Loud 
cheers.]  I  have  not  come  to  England  to  be  surprised  that 
those  men  whose  cause  cannot  bear  the  light  are  afraid  of 
free  speech.  [Cheers.]  I  have  had  practice  of  more  than 
twenty-five  years  in  the  presence  of  tumultuous  assemblies 
opposing  those  very  men  whose  representatives  now  at- 
tempt to  forestall  free  speech.  [Hear.]  Little  by  little,  I 
doubt  not,  I  shall  be  permitted  to  speak  to-night.  [Hear.] 
Little  by  little  I  have  been  permitted  in  my  own  country 
to  speak,  until  at  last  the  day  has  come  there,  when  noth- 
ing but  the  utterance  of  speech  for  freedom  is  popular. 
[Cheers.] 

You  have  been  pleased  to  speak  of  me  as  one  connected 
with  the  great  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  I  covet 
no  higher  honor  than  to  have  my  name  joined  to  the  list 
of  that  great  company  of  noble  Englishmen  from  whom 
we  derived  our  doctrines  of  liberty.  [Cheers.]  For  al- 
though there  is  some  opposition  to  what  are  here  called 
American  ideas,  what  are  these  American  ideas  ?  They 
are  simply  English  ideas  bearing  fruit  in  America.  We 
bring  back  American  sheaves,  but  the  seed-corn  we  got  in 
England — [hear];  and  if,  on  a  larger  sphere,  and  under  cir- 
cumstances of  unobstruction,  we  have  reared  mightier 
harvests,  every  sheaf  contains  the  grain  that  has  made  Old 
England  rich  for  a  hundred  years.  [Great  cheering.]  I  am 
also  not  a  little  gratified  that  my  first  appearance  to  speak 
on  secular  topics  in  England  is  in  this  goodly  town  of 
Manchester,  for  I  would  rather  have  praise  from  men  who 
understand  the  quality  praised,  than  from  those  who  speak 
at  hazard  and  with  little  knowledge  of  the  thing  praised. 
[Hear.]  And  where  else,  more  than  in  these  great  central 
portions  of  England,  and  in  what  town  more  than  Man- 
chester, have  the  doctrines  of  human  rights  been  battled 
for,  and  where  else  have  there  been  gained  for  them  nobler 
victories  than  here  ?  [Cheers.]  It  is  not  indiscriminate 
praise  therefore:  you  know  what  you  talk  about.  You  have 
had  practice  in  these  doctrines  yourselves,  and  to  be  praised 
by  those  who  are  illustrious  is  praise  indeed.     [Cheers.] 

Allusion  has  been  made  by  one  of  the  gentlemen — a  cau- 


44°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

tionary  allusion,  a  kind  of  deference  evidently  paid  to  some 
supposed  feeling — an  allusion  has  been  made  to  words  or 
deeds  of  mine  that  might  be  supposed  to  be  offensive 
to  Englishmen.  [Hear.]  I  cannot  say  how  that  may  be. 
I  am  sure  that  I  have  never  thought,  in  the  midst  of  this 
mighty  struggle  at  home,  which  has  taxed  every  power 
and  energy  of  our  people  —  ["Oh,"  and  cheers] —  I  have 
never  stopped  to  measure  and  to  think  whether  my  words 
spoken  in  truth  and  with  fidelity  to  duty  would  be  liked 
in  this  shape  or  in  that  shape  by  one  or  another  person 
either  in  England  or  America.  [Cheers.]  I  have  had  one 
simple,  honest  purpose,  which  I  have  pursued  ever  since  I 
have  been  in  public  life,  and  that  was  with  all  the  strength 
that  God  has  given  to  me  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the 
poor  and  of  the  weak  in  my  own  country.  [Cheers.]  And 
if,  in  the  height  and  heat  of  conflict,  some  words  have  been 
over  sharp,  and  some  positions  have  been  taken  heedlessly, 
are  you  the  men  to  call  one  to  account  ?  [Hear.]  What 
if  some  exquisite  dancing  master,  standing  on  the  edge  of 
a  battle,  where  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  swung  his  axe, 
criticised  him  by  saying  that  "  his  gestures  and  postures 
violated  the  proprieties  of  polite  life."  [Laughter.]  When 
dandies  fight  they  think  how  they  look,  but  when  men 
fight  they  think  only  of  deeds.     [Cheers.] 

But  I  am  not  here  either  on  trial  or  on  defense.  [Hear, 
hear.]  It  matters  not  what  I  have  said  on  other  occasions 
and  under  different  circumstances.  Here  lam  before  you, 
willing  to  tell  you  what  I  think  about  England,  or  any 
person  in  it.  [Cheers.]  Let  me  say  one  word,  however,  in 
regard  to  this  meeting,  and  the  peculiar  gratification 
which  I  feel  in  it.  The  same  agencies  which  have  been  at 
work  to  misrepresent  good  men  in  our  country  to  you, 
have  been  at  work  to  misrepresent  to  us  good  men  here; 
and  when  I  say  to  my  friends  in  America  that  I  have 
attended  such  a  meeting  as  this,  received  such  an  address, 
and  beheld  such  enthusiasm,  it  will  be  a  renewed  pledge 
of  amity.  [Cheers.]  I  have  never  ceased  to  feel  that  war, 
or  even  unkind  feelings  between  two  such  great  nations, 
would   be  one   of    the    most   unpardonable  and   atrocious 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  441 

offenses  that  the  world  ever  beheld — [cheers] — and  I  have 
regarded  everything,  therefore,  which  needlessly  led  to 
those  feelings  out  of  which  war  comes,  as  being  in  itself 
wicked.  [Cheers.]*  The  same  blood  is  in  us.  [Cheers.] 
We  are  your  children,  or  the  children  of  your  fathers  and 
ancestors.  You  and  we  hold  the  same  substantial  doc- 
trines. We  have  the  same  mission  amongst  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  Never  were  mother  and  daughter  set  forth  to 
do  so  queenly  a  thing  in  the  kingdom  of  God's  glory  as 
England  and  America.  [Cheers.]  Do  you  ask  why  we  are 
so  sensitive,  and  why  have  we  hewn  England  with  our 
tongue  as  we  have  ?  I  will  tell  you  why.  There  is  no  man 
who  can  offend  you  so  deeply  as  the  one  you  love  most. 
[Loud  cheers.]  Men  point  to  France  and  Napoleon,  and 
say  he  has  joined  England  in  all  that  she  has  done,  and 
why  are  the  press  of  America  silent  against  France,  and 
why  do  they  speak  as  they  do  against  England?  It  is  be- 
cause we  love  England.     [Cheers.] 

I  well  remember  the  bitterness  left  by  the  war  of  our 
Independence,  and  the  outbreak  of  the  flame  of  1812  from 
its  embers.  To  hate  England  was  in  my  boyhood  almost 
the  first  lesson  of  patriotism;  but  that  result  of  conflict 
gradually  died  away  as  peace  brought  forth  its  proper 
fruits:  interests,  reciprocal  visits,  the  interchanges  of 
Christian  sympathy,  and  co-operative  labors  in  a  common 
cause  lessened  and  finally  removed  ill-feelings.  In  their 
place  began  to  arise  affection  and  admiration.  For  when 
we  searched  our  principles,  they  all  ran  back  to  rights 
wrought  out  and  established  in  England;  when  we  looked 
at  those  institutions  of  which  we  were  most  proud,  we  be- 
held that  the  very  foundation  stones  were  taken  from  the 
quarry  of  your  history;  when  we  looked  for  those  men 
that  had  illustrated  our  own  tongue,  orators,  or  eloquent 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  they  were  English;  we  borrowed 
nothing  from  France,  but  here  a  fashion  and  there  a  ges- 
ture or  a  custom:  while  what  we  had  to  dignify  humanity 
— that  made  life  worth  having — were  all  brought  from 
Old  England.  [Cheers.]  And  do  you  suppose  that  under 
such    circumstances,    with    this    growing    love,    with    this 


442  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

growing  pride,  with  this  gladness  to  feel  that  we  were 
being  associated  in  the  historic  glory  of  England,  it  was 
with  feelings  of  indifference  that  we  beheld  in  our  midst 
the  heir-apparent  to  the  British  throne?  \Cheers^\  There 
is  not  reigning  on  the  globe  a  sovereign  who  commands 
our  simple,  unpretentious,  and  unaffected  respect,  as  does 
your  own  beloved  Queen.  \Loud  chcersl\  I  have  heard 
multitudes  of  men  say  that  it  was  their  joy  and  their 
pleasure  to  pay  respect  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  even  if  he 
had  not  won  personal  sympathy,  that  his  mother  might 
know  that  through  him  the  compliment  was  meant  to  her. 
[Loud  cheers?^  It  was  an  unarranged  and  unexpected 
spontaneous  and  universal  outbreak  of  popular  enthusiasm; 
it  began  in  the  colonies  of  Canada,  the  fire  rolled  across 
the  border,  all  through  New  England,  all  through  New 
York  and  Ohio,  down  through  Pennsylvania  and  the 
adjacent  States;  nor  was  the  element  quenched  until  it 
came  to  Richmond.  I  said,  and  many  said — the  past  of 
enmity  and  prejudice  is  now  rolled  below  the  horizon  of 
memory:  a  new  era  is  come,  and  we  have  set  our  hand  and 
voices  as  a  sacred  seal  to  our  cordial  affection  and  co- 
operation with  England.  \Cheers.~\  Now  (whether  we 
interpreted  it  aright  or  not,  is  not  the  question)  when  we 
thought  England  was  seeking  opportunity  to  go  with  the 
South  against  us  of  the  North,  it  hurt  us  as  no  other 
nation's  conduct  could  hurt  us  on  the  face  of  the  globe; 
and  if  we  spoke  some  words  of  intemperate  heat,  we 
spoke  them  in  the  mortification  of  disappointed  affection. 
[C/ieers.~\  It  has  been  supposed  that  I  have  aforetime 
urged  or  threatened  war  with  England.  Never!  This  I 
have  said — and  this  I  repeat  now,  and  here — that  the 
cause  of  constitutional  government  and  of  universal  lib- 
erty as  associated  with  it  in  our  country  was  so  dear,  so 
sacred,  that  rather  than  betray  it  we  would  give  the  last 
child  we  had — that  we  would  not  relinquish  this  conflict 
though  other  States  rose,  and  entered  into  a  league  with 
the  South — and  that,  if  it  were  necessary,  we  would  main- 
tain this  great  doctrine  of  representative  government  in 
America  against  the  armed  world — against  England  and 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  443 

France.  [Great  cheering,  followed  by  some  disturbance,  in  ref- 
erence to  which  the  Chairman  rose  and  cautioned  an  individual 
under  the  gallery  whom  he  had  observed  persisting  in  interrup- 
tion^ 

Let  me  be  permitted  to  say  then,  that  it  seems  to  me  the 
darker  days  of  embroilment  between  this  country  and 
America  are  past.  [Cheers.~\  The  speech  of  Earl  Russell 
at  Blairgowrie,  the  stopping  of  those  armed  ships,  and  the 
present  attitude  of  the  British  government  [renewed  cheer- 
ing] will  go  far  towards  satisfying  our  people.  Understand 
me;  we  do  not  accept  Earl  Russell's  doctrine  of  belligerent 
rights  nor  of  neutrality,  as  applied  to  the  action  of  the 
British  government  and  nation  at  the  beginning  of  our 
civil  war,  as  right  doctrine,  but  we  accept  it  as  an  accom- 
plished fact.  We  have  drifted  so  far  away  from  the  time 
when  it  was  profitable  to  discuss  the  questions  of  neu- 
trality or  belligerency,  and  circumstances  with  you  and 
with  us  are  so  much  changed  by  the  progress  of  the  war, 
that  we  now  only  ask  of  the  government  strict  neutrality 
and  of  the  liberty-loving  people  of  England  moral  sym- 
pathy. Nothing  more !  We  ask  no  help,  and  no  hin- 
drance. [Resinned  cheers.]  If  you  do  not  send  us  a  man, 
we  do  not  ask  for  a  man.  If  you  do  not  send  us  another 
pound  of  powder,  we  are  able  to  make  our  own  powder. 
[Laughter.]  If  you  do  not  send  us  another  musket  nor 
another  cannon,  we  have  cannon  that  will  carry  five  miles 
already.  [Laughter.]  We  do  not  ask  for  material  help. 
We  shall  be  grateful  for  moral  sympathy;  [cheers]  but  if 
you  cannot  give  us  moral  sympathy  we  shall  still  endeavor 
to  do  without  it.  All  that  we  say  is,  let  France  keep 
away,  let  England  keep  hands  off;  if  we  cannot  manage 
this  rebellion  by  ourselves,  then  let  it  be  not  managed  at 
all.     [Cheers.] 

We  do  not  allow  ourselves  to  doubt  the  issue  of  this 
conflict.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time.  For  such  inesti- 
mable principles  as  are  at  stake, — of  self-government,  of 
representative  government,  of  any  government  at  all,  of 
free  institutions  rejected  because  they  inevitably  will  bring 
liberty  to  slaves  unless  subverted; — of  national  honor,  and 


444  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

fidelity  to  solemn  national  trusts, — for  all  these  war  is 
waged,  and  if  by  war  these  shall  be  secured,  not  one  drop 
of  blood  will  be  wasted,  not  one  life  squandered.  The 
suffering  will  have  purchased  a  glorious  future  of  incon- 
ceivable peace  and  happiness  !  Nor  do  we  deem  the  result 
doubtful.  The  population  is  in  the  North  and  West.  The 
wealth  is  there.  The  popular  intelligence  of  the  country 
is  there.  There  only  is  there  an  educated  common  people. 
[Cheers.']  The  right  doctrines  of  civil  government  are  with 
the  North.  [Cheers,  and  a  voice >"  Where's  the  justice  t"  It 
will  not  be  long,  before  one  thing  more  will  be  with  the 
North — Victory.  [Loud  and  enthusiastic  rounds  of  cheers?^ 
Men  on  this  side  are  impatient  at  the  long  delay;  but  if 
we  can  bear  it,  can't  you?  [Laughter^]  You  are  quite  at 
ease  ["Not  yet"];  we  are  not.  You  are  not  materially 
affected  in  any  such  degree  as  many  parts  of  our  own  land 
are.  [Cheers.]  But  if  the  day  shall  come  in  one  year, 
in  two  years,  or  in  ten  years  hence,  when  the  old  stars  and 
stripes  shall  float  over  every  State  of  America, — [loud 
cheers,  and  some  disturbance  from  one  or  two] — O,  let  him  [the 
chief  disturber]  have  a  chance.  [Laughter^]  I  was  saying, 
when  interrupted  by  that  sound  from  the  other  side  of  the 
hall,  that  if  the  day  shall  come,  in  one  or  five  or  ten  years, 
in  which  the  old  honored  and  historic  banner  shall  float 
again  over  every  State  of  the  South;  if  the  day  shall  come 
when  that  which  was  the  accursed  cause  of  this  dire  and 
atrocious  war — slavery — shall  be  done  away — [cheers];  if 
the  day  shall  have  come,  when  through  all  the  Gulf  States 
there  shall  be  liberty  of  speech,  as  there  never  has  been — 
[cheers] — when  there  shall  be  liberty  of  the  press,  as  there 
never  has  been;  when  men  shall  have  common  schools  to 
send  their  children  to,  which  they  never  have  had  in  the 
South;  if  the  day  shall  come  when  the  land  shall  not  be 
parceled  into  gigantic  plantations,  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
rich  oligarchs—  [loud cheers];  but  shall  be  divided  to  honest 
farmers,  every  man  owning  his  little — [renewed  cheers];  in 
short,  if  the  day  shall  come  when  the  simple  ordinances, 
the  fruition  and  privileges,  of  civil  liberty,  shall  prevail  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States; — it  will  be  worth  all   the 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  445 

dreadful  blood,  and  tears,  and  woe.  [Loud  cheers.]  You 
are  impatient;  and  yet  God  dwelleth  in  eternity,  and  has 
an  infinite  leisure  to  roll  forward  the  affairs  of  men,  not  to 
suit  the  hot  impatience  of  those  who  are  but  children  of  a 
day,  and  cannot  wait  or  linger  long,  but  according  to  the 
infinite  circle  on  which  He  measures  time  and  events!  He 
expedites  or  retards  as  it  pleases  him;  and  yet  if  He  heard 
our  cries  or  prayers,  not  thrice  would  the  months  revolve 
but  peace  would  come.  Yet  the  strong  crying  and  prayers 
of  millions  have  not  brought  peace,  but  only  thickening 
war.  We  accept  the  Providence;  the  duty  is  plain. 
[Cheers  and  interruption^] 

I  repeat,  the  duty  is  plain.  [Cheers.']  So  rooted  is  this 
English  people  in  the  faith  of  liberty,  that  it  were  an 
utterly  hopeless  task  for  any  minion  or  sympathizer  of  the 
South  to  sway  the  popular  sympathy  of  England,  if  this 
English  people  believed  that  this  was  none  other  than  a 
conflict  between  liberty  and  slavery.  It  is  just  that.  [Loud 
cheers.]  The  conflict  may  be  masked  by  our  institutions. 
Every  people  must  shape  public  action  through  their  laws 
and  institutions.  We  often  cannot  reach  an  evil  directly, 
but  only  circuitously,  through  the  channels  of  law  and 
custom.  It  is  none  the  less  a  contest  for  liberty  and 
against  slavery,  because  it  is  primarily  a  conflict  for  the 
Union.  It  is  by  that  Union,  vivid  with  liberty,  that  we  have 
to  scourge  oppression  and  establish  liberty.  Union,  in  the 
future,  means  justice,  liberty,  popular  rights.  Only  slavery 
has  hitherto  prevented  Union  from  bearing  such  fruit. 

Slavery  was  introduced  into  our  country  at  a  time,  and  in 
a  manner,  when  neither  England  nor  America  knew  well 
what  were  the  results  of  that  atrocious  system.  It  was  igno- 
rantly  received  and  propagated  on  our  side;  little  by  little  it 
spread  through  all  the  thirteen  States  that  then  were:  for 
slavery  in  the  beginning  was  in  New  England,  as  really  as 
now  it  is  in  the  Southern  States.  But  when  the  great  strug- 
gle for  our  independence  came  on,  the  study  of  the  doctrines 
of  human  rights  had  made  such  progress  that  the  whole 
public  mind  began  to  think  it  was  wrong  to  wage  war  to 
defend  our  rights,  while  we  were  holding  men  in  slavery, 


446  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

depriving  them  of  theirs.  It  is  an  historical  fact,  that  all 
the  great  and  renowned  men  that  flourished  at  the  period 
of  our  revolution  were  abolitionists.  Washington  was; 
so  was  Benjamin  Franklin;  so  was  Thomas  Jefferson;  so 
was  James  Monroe;  so  were  the  principal  Virginian  and 
Southern  statesmen,  and  the  first  abolition  society  ever 
founded  in  America  was  founded  not  in  the  North,  but  in 
the  Middle  and  a  portion  of  the  Southern  States.  Before 
the  War  of  Independence,  slavery  was  decaying  in  the 
North,  from  moral  and  physical  causes  combined.  It 
ceased  in  New  England  with  the  adoption  of  our  constitu- 
tion [1787].  It  has  been  unjustly  said  that  they  sold  their 
slaves,  and  preached  a  cheap  emancipation  to  others.  Slav- 
ery ceased  in  Massachusetts  as  follows:  When  suit  was 
brought  for  the  services  of  a  slave,  the  Chief  Justice  laid 
down  as  law,  that  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
pronounced  all  men  "equal,"  and  equally  entitled  to  "life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  was  itself  a  bill  of 
emancipation,  and  he  refused  to  yield  up  that  slave  for 
service.  At  a  later  period  New  York  passed  an  Emanci- 
pation Act.  It  has  been  said  that  she  sold  her  slaves.  No 
slander  was  ever  greater.  The  most  careful  provision  was 
made  against  sale.  No  man  traveling  out  of  the  State  of 
New  York  after  the  passing  of  the  Emancipation  Act  wras 
permitted  to  have  any  slave  with  him,  unless  he  gave 
bonds  for  his  re-appearance  with  him.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  slaves  were  emancipated  without  compensation  on 
the  spot,  to  take  effect  gradually  class  by  class.  But  after 
a  trial  of  half  a  score  of  years  the  people  found  this  grad- 
ual emancipation  was  intolerable.  [Hear,  /u*ar.~\  It  was 
like  gradual  amputation.  They  therefore,  by  another  act 
of  legislation,  declared  immediate  emancipation  \Jiear\  and 
that  took  effect;  and  so  slavery  perished  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  [C/wers.]  Substantially  so  it  was  in  New 
Jersey,  and  in  Pennsylvania;  never  was  there  an  example 
of  States  that  emancipated  slaves  more  purely  from  moral 
conviction  of  the  wrong  of  slavery. 

I  know  that  it  is  said  that  Northern  capital  and  Northern 
ships  were  employed  in  the  slave  trade.     To  an  extent  it 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  447 

was  so.  But  is  there  any  community  that  lives,  in  which 
there  are  not  miscre'ants  who  violate  the  public  conscience? 
[Cheers.]  Then  and  since,  the  man  who  dared  to  use  his 
capital  and  his  ships  in  this  infamous  traffic  hid  himself, 
and  did  by  agents  what  he  was  ashamed  to  be  known  to 
have  done  himself.  [Hear.]  Any  man  in  the  North  who 
notoriously  had  part  or  lot  in  a  trade  so  detested,  would 
have  been  branded  with  the  mark  of  Cain.  [Cheers.]  It  is 
true  that  the  port  of  New  York  has  been  employed  in  this 
infernal  traffic,  but  it  was  because  it  was  under  the  influence 
either  of  that  "  Democratic  "  party  that  was  then  unfortu- 
nately in  alliance  with  the  Southern  slavery — [hear,  hear] — 
or  because  it  was  under  the  dark  political  control  of  the 
South  itself.  For  when  the  South  could  appoint  our  mar- 
shals,— could,  through  the  national  administration,  control 
the  appointment  of  every  Federal  officer,  our  collectors, 
and  every  custom-house  officer, — how  could  it  be  but  that 
slavery  flourished  in  our  harbors  ?  For  years  together  New 
York  has  been  as  much  controlled  by  the  South,  in  matters 
relating  to  slavery,  as  Mobile  or  New  Orleans !  But,  even 
so,  the  slave  trade  was  clandestine.  It  abhorred  the  light: 
it  crept  in  and  out  of  the  harbor  stealthily,  despised  and 
hated  by  the  whole  community.  Is  New  York  to  be  blamed 
for  demoniac  deeds  done  by  her  limbs  while  yet  under  pos- 
session of  the  devil  ?  She  is  now  clothed,  and  in  her  right 
mind.  [Cheers.]  There  was  one  Judas;  is  Christianity 
therefore  a  hoax  ?  [Hear.]  There  are  hissing  men  in  this 
audience;  are  you  not  respectable?  [Cheers  and lateghter.] 
The  folly  of  the  few  is  that  light  which  God  casts  to 
irradiate  the* wisdom  of  the  many.     [Hear.] 

And  let  me  say  one  word  here  about  the  Constitution  of 
America.  It  recognizes  slavery  as  a  fact;  but  it  does  not 
recognize  the  doctrine  of  slavery  in  any  way  whatever.  It 
was  a  fact;  it  lay  before  the  ship  of  state,  as  a  rock  lies  in 
the  channel  of  the  ship  as  she  goes  into  harbor;  and  be- 
cause a  ship  steers  round  a  rock,  does  it  follow  that  that 
rock  is  in  the  ship  ?  [Hear,  hear.]  And  because  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  made  some  circuits  to  steer 
round  that  great  fact,  does  it  follow  that  therefore  slavery 


448  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

is  recognized  in  the  Constitution  as  a  right  or  a  system  ? 
[No^]  See  how  carefully  that  immortal  document  worded 
itself.  In  the  slave  laws  the  slave  is  declared  to  be — what? 
Expressly,  and  by  the  most  repetitious  phraseology,  he  is 
denuded  of  all  the  attributes  and  characteristics  of  man- 
hood, and  is  pronounced  a"  chattel."  \_Shame.~\  Now,  you 
have  just  that  same  word  in  your  farming  language  with 
the  h  left  out,  "cattle."  [Hear,  hear.]  And  the  difference 
between  cattle  and  chattel  is  the  difference  between  quad- 
ruped and  biped.  [Laughter.]  So  far  as  animate  property 
is  concerned,  and  so  far  as  inanimate  property  is  concerned, 
it  is  just  the  difference  between  locomotive  property  and 
stationary  property.  [/fear,  /war.]  The  laws  in  all  the 
Slave  States  stand  on  the  radical  principle  that  a  slave  is  not 
for  purposes  of  law  any  longer  to  be  ranked  in  the  category 
of  human  beings,  but  that  he  is  a  piece  of  property,  -and  is 
to  be  treated  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  a  piece  of  prop- 
erty; and  the  law  did  not  blush,  nor  do  the  judges  blush 
nowadays  who  interpret  that  law.  [Hear.]  But  how 
does  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  when  it  speaks 
of  these  same  slaves,  name  them  ?  Does  it  call  them  chat- 
tels or  slaves  ?  Nay,  it  refused  even  the  softer  words  serf 
and  servitude.  Conscientiously  aware  of  the  dignity  of  man, 
and  that  service  is  not  opposed  to  the  grandeur  of  his  nat- 
ure, it  alludes  to  the  slaves  barely  as  persons  (not  chattels) 
held  to  service  (not  servitude).  [Hear  and  e/ieers.]  Go  to 
South  Carolina,  and  ask  what  she  calls  slaves,  and  her  laws 
reply  "  They  are  things;"  but  the  old  capitol  at  Washington 
sullenly  reverberates,  "No,  persons.'"  [Cheers.]  Goto 
Mississippi,  the  State  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  her  funda- 
mental law  pronounces  the  slave  to  be  only  a  "  thing;  " 
and  again,  the  Federal  Constitution  sounds  back,  "  Per- 
sons!" Go  to  Louisiana  and  its  constitution,  and  still  that 
doctrine  of  devils  is  enunciated — it  is  "  chattel,"  it  is 
"  thing."  Looking  upon  those  for  whom  Christ  felt  mortal 
anguish  in  Gethsemane,  and  stretched  himself  out  for  death 
on  Calvary,  their  laws  call  them  "things"  and  "chattels;" 
and  still  in  tones  of  thunder  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  says  "  Persons!  "     The  Slave  States,  by  a  definition, 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  449 

annihilate   manhood;  the   Constitution,  by  a  word,  brings 
back  the  slave  to  the  human  family.     [Cheers.] 

What  was  it  then,  when  the  country  had  advanced  so  far 
towards  universal  emancipation  in  the  period  of  our  na- 
tional formation,  that  stopped  this  onward  tide?  Two 
things,  commercial  and  political.  First,  the  wonderful  de- 
mand for  cotton  throughout  the  world,  precisely  when, 
from  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  it  became  easy  to 
turn  it  to  service.  Slaves  that  before  had  been  worth  from 
three  to  four  hundred  dollars  began  to  be  worth  six  hun- 
dred dollars.  That  knocked  away  one-third  of  adherence 
to  the  moral  law.  Then  they  became  worth  seven  hundred 
dollars,  and  half  the  law  went  [cheers  and  laughter]  ;  then 
eight  or  nine  hundred  dollars,  and  then  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  moral  law  [cheers  and  laughter]  ;  then  one  thou- 
sand or  twelve  hundred  dollars,  and  slavery  became 
one  of  the  beatitudes.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  The  other 
cause,  which  checked  the  progress  of  emancipation  that 
had  already  so  auspiciously  begun,  was  political.  It  is 
very  singular,  that,  in  what  are  called  the  "compromises" 
of  the  Constitution,  the  North,  while  attempting  to  prevent 
advantage  to  slavery,  gave  to  the  slave  power  the  peculiar 
advantage  which  it  has  had  ever  since.  In  Congress  the 
question  early  arose,  How  should  the  revenue  be  raised  in 
the  United  States?  For  a  long  time  it  was  proposed,  and 
there  was  an  endeavor,  to  raise  it  by  a  tax  upon  all  the  cul- 
tivated land  in  the  different  States.  When  this  was  found 
unjust  and  unequal,  the  next  proposal  was  to  raise  taxes 
on  the  "  polls,"  or  heads  of  the  voters,  in  the  different 
States.  That  was  to  be  the  basis  of  the  calculation  upon 
which  taxes  should  be  apportioned.  Now  when  that  ques- 
tion came  up,  it  was  said  that  it  was  not  right  to  levy  Fed- 
eral taxes  upon  the  Indians  in  Georgia,  who  paid  no  taxes 
to  the  Georgian  state  exchequer.  So  the  North  consented; 
but  in  making  up  the  list  of  men  to  be  taxed,  and  exclud- 
ing the  Indians,  it  insisted  that  the  slaves  should,  neverthe- 
less, be  included.  That  is  to  say.  if  Georgia  was  to  pay  to 
the  Federal  exchequer  in   proportion  to   her  population,  it 

was  the  interest  of  the  North  that  her  population  should 
29 


45°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

be  swelled  by  counting  all  her  slaves.  There  was  a  long 
debate  on  this  subject;  and  not  to  detain  you  with  all  the 
turns  on  this  matter,  the  two  things  were  coupled  together 
at  last — representation  and  taxation,  [//car.]  Their  eyes 
being  fixed  solely  upon  the  assessment  of  taxes,  it  was 
agreed  that  five  slaves  should  count  as  three  men,  and  that 
it  was  supposed  would  give  some  advantage  to  the  North 
against  slavery.  But  in  a  very  few  years  the  government 
ceased  to  raise  taxation  by  "  poll,"  and  raised  it  by  tariff. 
Thenceforward,  as  representatives  had  to  be  chosen  in  the 
same  way,  and  as  five  slaves  counted  as  three  white  men, 
the  South  has  had  the  advantage;  and  it  has  come  to  this 
point,  that  while  in  the  North  representatives  represent 
men,  in  the  South  representatives  stand  for  men  and  prop- 
erty together. 

I  want  to  drop  a  word  as  an  egg  for  you  to  brood  over. 
It  will  illustrate  the  policy  of  the  South.  The  proposition 
to  make  a  government  undeniably  National,  as  distinct 
from  a  mere  Confederacy,  came  from  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina.  The  North,  having  more  individuality,  was 
jealous  of  yielding  up  the  rights  of  the  separate  States; 
but  the  South,  with  the  love  of  power  characteristic  of  the 
Normans,  wanted  to  have  a  National  government  in  dis- 
tinction to  a  Union  of  several  states.  In  result,  when  the 
national  government  was  established,  the  South  came  into 
power;  and  for  fifty  years  everything  that  the  South  said 
should  be  done  has  been  done,  and  whatever  she  said 
should  not  be  done  has  not  been  done.  The  institutions  of 
America  were  shaped  by  the  North;  but  the  policy  of  her  gov- 
ernment, for  half  a  hundred  years,  by  the  South.  All  the 
aggression  and  filibustering,  all  the  threats  to  England  and 
tauntings  of  Europe,  all  the  bluster  of  war  which  our  gov- 
ernment has  assumed,  have  been  under  the  inspiration  and 
under  the  almost  monarchical  sway  of  the  Southern  oli- 
garchy. [Loud  cheering .]  And  now,  since  Britain  has  been 
snubbed  by  the  Southerners,  and  threatened  by  the  South- 
erners, and  domineered  over  by  the  Southerners — [_"iW] 
— yet  now  Great  Britain  has  thrown  her  arms  of  love 
around  the  Southerners  and  turns  from  the   Northerners. 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  45 1 


\ 


['W0."]  She  don't  ?  [Cheers^]  I  have  only  to  say  that  she 
has  been  caught  in  very  suspicious  circumstances.  [Laugh- 
ter.] I  so  speak,  perhaps  as  much  as  anything  else,  for 
this  very  sake — to  bring  out  from  you  this  expression — to 
let  you  know  whatw  know,  that  all  the  hostility  felt  in  my 
country  towards  Great  Britain  has  been  sudden,  and  from 
supposing  that  you  sided  with  the  South,  and  sought  the 
breaking  up  of  our  country;  and  I  want  you  to  say  to 
me,  and  through  me  to  my  countrymen,  that  those  irrita- 
tions against  the  North,  and  those  likings  for  the  South, 
that  have  been  expressed  in  your  papers,  are  not  the  feel- 
ings of  the  great  mass  of  your  nation.  [Great  cheering, 
■the  audience  rising.]  Those  cheers  already  sound  in  my  ears 
as  the  coming  acclamations  of  friendly  nations — those 
waving  handkerchiefs  are  the  white  banners  that  sym- 
bolize peace  for  all  countries.  [Cheers.]  Join  with  us  then, 
Britons.  [Cheers.]  From  you  we  learnt  the  doctrine  of 
what  a  man  was  worth;  from  you  we  learnt  to  detest  all 
oppressions;  from  you  we  learnt  that  it  was  the  noblest 
thing  a  man  could  do  to  die  for  a  right  principle. 
[Cheers.]  And  now,  when  we  are  set  in  that  very  course, 
and  are  giving  our  best  blood  for  the  most  sacred  princi- 
ples, let  the  world  understand  that  the  common  people  of 
Great  Britain  support  us.      [Cheers.] 

You  have  been  pleased  to  say  in  this  address  that  I  have 
been  one  of  the  "pioneers."  No.  I  am  only  one  of  their 
eldest  sons.  The  Birneys,  the  Baileys,  the  Rankins,  the 
Dickeys,  the  Thorns  of  the  West,  the  Garrisons,  the 
Quincys,  the  Slades,  the  Welds,  the  Stewarts,  the  Smiths, 
the  Tappans,  the  Goodalls  of  the  East,  and  unnamed  hun- 
dreds more,  these  were  indeed  pioneers.  I  unloosed  the 
shoe-latchets  of  the  pioneers,  and  that  is  all:  I  was  but 
little  more  than  a  boy:  I  bear  witness,  that  the  hardest 
blows  and  the  most  cruel  sufferings  were  endured  by  men, 
before  I  was  thrust  far  enough  into  public  life  to  take  any 
particular  share;  and  I  do  not  consider  myself  entitled  to 
rank  amongst  the  pioneers.  They  were  better  men  than  I. 
Those  noble  men  did  resist  this  downward  tendency  of 
the  North.     They  were  rejected  by  society.     To  be  called 


452  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

an  abolitionist  excluded  a  man  from  respectable  society 
in  those  days.  To  be  called  an  abolitionist  blighted  any 
man's  prospects  in  political  life.  To  be  called  an  aboli- 
tionist marked  a  man's  store, — his  very  customers  avoided 
him  as  if  he  had  the  plague.  To  be  called  an  abolitionist 
in  those  days  shut  up  the  doors  of  confidence  from  him  in 
the  church;  where  he  was  regarded  as  a  disturber  of  the 
peace.  Nevertheless,  the  witnesses  for  liberty  maintained 
their  testimony.  [Loud chccrs.~\  Little  by  little,  they  reached 
the  conscience, — they  gained  the  understanding.  And  as, 
when  old  Luther  spoke,  thundering  in  the  ears  of  Europe 
the  long  buried  treasures  of  the  Bible,  there  were  hosts 
against  him,  yet  the  elect  few  gathered  little  by  little,  and 
became  no  longer  few;  just  so  did  many  a  Luther  among 
ourselves  thunder  forth  a  long  buried  truth  from  God,  the 
essential  right  of  human  liberty;  and  these  were  followed 
for  half  a  score  of  years,  until  they  began  to  be  numerous 
enough  to  be  an  influential  party  in  the  state  elections. 
[Cheers.]  In  1848,  I  think  it  was,  that  the  Buffalo  platform 
was  laid.  It  was  the  first  endeavor  in  the  Northern  States 
to  form  a  platform  that  should  carry  rebuke  to  the  slave- 
holding  ideas  in  the  North. 

Before  this,  however,  I  can  say  that,  under  God,  the 
South  itself  had  unintentionally  done  more  than  we,  to 
bring  on  this  work  of  emancipation.  [Hear,  hear.]  First 
they  began  to  declare,  after  the  days  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  that 
they  accepted  slavery  no  longer  as  a  misfortune,  but  as  a 
divine  blessing.  Mr.  Calhoun  adyanced  the  doctrine,  which 
is  now  the  marrow  of  secession,  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  general  government  not  merely  to  protect  the  local 
States  from  interference  but  to  make  slavery  equally  na- 
tional with  liberty  !  In  effect,  the  government  was  to  see 
to  it,  that  slavery  received  equivalents  for  every  loss  and 
disadvantage,  which,  by  the  laws  of  nature,  it  must  sustain 
in  a  race  against  free  institutions.  [Cheers.]  These  mon- 
strous doctrines  began  to  be  the  development  of-  future 
ambitions.  The  South,  having  the  control  of  government, 
knew  from  the  inherent  weakness  of  their  system,  that,  if 
it  were  confined,  it  was  like  huge  herds  feeding  on  small 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  453 

pastures,  that  soon  gnaw  the  grass  to  the  roots,  and  must 
have  other  pasture  or  die.  [Cheers.]  Slavery  is  of  such  a 
nature,  that  if  you  do  not  give  it  continual  change  of  feed- 
ing ground,  it  perishes.  [Renewed  cheering.]  And  then 
came  one  after  another  from  the  South  assertions  of  rights 
never  before  dreamed  of.  From  them  came  the  Mexican 
war  for  territory;  from  them  came  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  its  entrance  as  a  slave  state;  from  them  came  that  or- 
ganized rowdyism  in  Congress  that  browbeat  every  North- 
ern man  who  had  not  sworn  fealty  to  slavery;  that  filled 
all  the  courts  of  Europe  with  ministers  holding  slave  doc- 
trines; that  gave  the  majority  of  the  seats  on  the  bench  to 
slave-owning  judges;  and  that  gave,  in  fact,  all  our  chief 
offices  of  trust  either  to  slave-owners,  or  to  men  who  licked 
the  feet  of  slave-owners.  [Loud  cheers.]  Then  came  that 
ever- memorable  period  when,  for  the  very  purpose  of 
humbling  the  North,  and  making  it  drink  the  bitter  cup  of 
humiliation,  and  showing  to  its  people  that  the  South  was 
their  natural  lord,  was  passed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 
[Loud  hisses.]  There  was  no  need  of  that.  There  was  al- 
ready existing  just  as  good  an  instrument  for  so  infernal  a 
purpose  as  any  fiend  could  have  wished.  Against  that  in- 
famy my  soul  revolted,  and  these  lips  protested,  and  I 
defied  the  government  to  its  face  and  told  them  "  I  will 
execute  none  of  your  unrighteous  laws;  send  to  me  a  fugi- 
tive who  is  fleeing  from  his  master,  and  I  will  step  between 
him  and  his  pursuer."  [Loud  and  prolonged  cheers.]  Not 
once,  nor  twice,  have  my  doors  been  shut  between  oppres- 
sion and  the  oppressed;  and  the  church  itself  over  which 
I  minister  has  been  the  unknown  refuge  of  many  and  many 
a  one.     [Cheers.] 

But  whom  the  devil  entices  he  cheats.  Our  promised 
"  peace "  with  the  South,  which  was  the  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  paid  to  us,  turned  into  fire  and  burnt  the  hands 
that  took  it.  For,  how  long  was  it  after  this  promised 
peace  that  the  Missouri  compromise  was  abolished  in  an 
infamous  disregard  of  solemn  compact  ?  [Loud  cheers.]  It 
never  ought  to  have  been  made;  but  having  been  made,  it 
ought  never  to  have  been  broken  by  the  South.     [Cheers.] 


454  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

And  with  no  other  pretense  than  the  robber's  pretense  that 
might  makes  right,  they  did  destroy  it,  that  they  might 
carry  slavery  far  North.  That  sufficed.  That  alone  was 
needed  to  arouse  the  long  reluctant  patriotism  of  the 
North.  \_Chcers.~\  In  hope  that  time  would  curb  and  de- 
stroy slavery,  that  forbearance  would  lead  to  like  forbear- 
ance, the  North  had  suffered  insult,  wrong,  political 
treachery,  and  risk  to  her  very  institutions  of  liberty.  By 
the  abolition  of  this  compromise  another  slave  state  was 
immediately  to  have  been  brought  into  the  Union  to  bal- 
ance the  ever  growing  free  territories  of  the  Northwest. 
Then  arose  a  majesty  of  self-sacrifice  that  had  no  parallel 
before.  Instead  of  merely  protesting,  young  men  and 
maidens,  laboring  men,  farmers,  mechanics,  sped  with 
a  sacred  desire  to  rescue  free  territory  from  the  toils  of 
slavery;  and  emigrated  in  thousands,  not  to  better  their 
own  condition,  but  in  order  that,  when  this  territory  should 
vote,  it  should  vote  as  a  free  state.  [Loud  cheers.]  Never 
was  a  worse  system  of  cheating  practiced  than  the  perjury, 
intimidation,  and  prostituted  use  of  the  United  States 
army,  by  which  the  South  sought  to  force  a  vile  institu- 
tion upon  the  men  who  had  voted  almost  unanimously  for 
liberty  and  against  slavery  in  Kansas.  [Hear.]  But  at 
last  the  day  of  utter  darkness  had  passed,  and  the  gray 
twilight  was  on  the  morning  horizon.  At  length  (for  the 
first  time,  I  believe,  in  the  whole  conflict  between  the  South 
and  the  North)  the  victory  went  to  the  North,  and  Kansas 
became  a  free  state.     [Cheers.] 

Now  I  call  you  to  witness,  that  in  a  period  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years  of  constant  conflicts  at  every  single 
step  the  South  gained  the  political  advantage,  with  the 
single  exception  of  Kansas.  What  was  the  conduct  of  the 
North?  Did  it  take  any  steps  for  secession?  Did  it  threaten 
violence?  So  sure  were  the  men  of  the  North  of  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  that  which  was  Right,  provided  free  speech 
was  left  to  combat  error  and  wrong,  that  they  patiently 
bided  their  time.  By  this  time  the  North  was  cured  alike 
of  love  for  slavery  and  of  indifference.  By  this  time  a  new 
conscience  had  been  formed  in  the  North,  and  a  vast  ma- 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  455 

jority  of  all  the  Northern  men   at    length    stood    fair   and 
square  on  anti-slavery  doctrine.     [Cheers.] 

We  next  had  to  flounder  through  the  quicksands  of  four 
infamous  years  under  President  Buchanan,  in  which  sena- 
tors, sworn  to  the  constitution,  were  plotting  to  destroy  that 
constitution; — in  which  the  members  of  the  cabinet,  who 
drew  their  pay  month  by  month,  used  their  official  posi- 
tion, by  breach  of  public  trust  and  oath  of  allegiance,  to 
steal  arms,  to  prepare  fortifications,  and  make  ready  dis- 
ruption and  war.  The  most  astounding  spectacle  that  the 
world  ever  saw  was  then  witnessed — a  great  people  paying 
men  to  sit  in  the  places  of  power  and  office  to  betray  them. 
[If ear,  hear.]  During  all  those  four  years  what  did  we  ? 
We  protested  and  waited,  and  said:  "God  shall  give  us 
the  victory.  It  is  God's  truth  that  we  wield,  and  in  his 
own  good  time,  He  will  give  us  the  victory."  [Great cheer- 
ing.] In  all  this  time  we  never  made  an  inroad  on  the 
rights  of  the  South.  [Cheers.]  We  never  asked  for  retali- 
atory law.  We  never  taxed  their  commerce,  or  touched 
it  with  our  little  finger.  We  envied  them  none  of  their 
manufactures;  but  sought  to  promote  them.  We  did  not 
attempt  to  abate,  by  one  ounce,  their  material  prosperity; 
we  longed  for  their  prosperity.  [Cheers.]  Slavery  we 
always  hated;  the  Southern  men  never.  [Cheers.]  They 
were  wrong.  And  in  our  conflicts  with  them  we  have  felt 
as  all  men  in  conflict  feel.  We  were  jealous,  and  so  were 
they.  We  were  in  the  right  cause;  they  in  the  wrong. 
We  were  right,  or  liberty  is  a  delusion;  they  were  wrong, 
or  slavery  is  a  blessing.  [Cheers.]  We  never  envied  them 
their  territory;  and  it  was  the  faith  of  the  whole  North, 
that,  in  seeking  for  the  abatement  of  slavery,  and  its  final 
abolition,  we  were  conferring  upon  the  South  itself  the 
greatest  boon  which  one  nation — or  part  of  a  nation — 
could  confer  upon  another.  That  she  was  to  pass  through 
difficulties  in  her  transition  to  free  labor,  I  had  no  doubt; 
but  it  was  not  in  our  heart  to  humble  her,  but  rather  to 
help  and  sympathize  with  her.  I  defy  time  and  history  to 
point  to  a  more  honorable  conduct  than  that  of  the  free 
North  towards  the  South  during  all  these  days. 


45  6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

In  i860,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected.  [Cheers.]  I  ask  you 
to  take  notice  of  the  conduct  of  the  two  sides  at  this  point. 
For  thirty  years  we  had  been  experiencing  sectional  defeats 
at  the  hands  of  the  Southerners.  For  thirty  years  and 
more  we  had  seen  our  sons  proscribed  because  loyal  to  lib- 
erty, or  worse  than  proscribed — suborned  and  made  sub- 
servient to  slaver}'.  [Cheers.]  We  had  seen  our  judges 
corrupt,  our  ministers  apostate,  our  merchants  running 
headlong  after  gold  against  principle;  but  we  maintained 
fealty  to  the  law  and  to  the  constitution,  and  had  faith  in 
victory  by  legitimate  means.  But  when,  by  the  means 
pointed  out  in  the  constitution,  and  sanctified  by  the  usage 
of  three-quarters  of  a  century,  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  fair  open 
field  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States,  did  the 
South  submit  ?  [Cries  of  uJVo,"  and  cheers.]  No  offense 
had  been  committed — none  threatened;  but  the  allegation 
was,  that  the  election  of  a  man  known  to  be  pledged  against 
the  extension  of  slavery  was  not  compatible  with  the  safety 
of  slavery  as  it  existed.  On  that  ground  they  took  steps  for 
secession.  Every  honest  mode  to  prevent  it,  all  patience 
on  the  part  of  the  North,  all  pusillanimity  on  the  part  of 
Mr.  Buchanan,  were  anxiously  employed.  Before  his  suc- 
cessor came  into  office,  he  left  nothing  undone  to  make 
matters  worse,  did  nothing  to  make  things  better.  The 
North  was  patient  then,  the  South  impatient.  Soon  came 
the  issue.  The  question  was  put  to  the  South,  and  with  the 
exception  of  Soitth  Carolina,  every  State  in  the  South  gave  a  pop- 
ular vote  against  secession;  and  yet,  such  was  the  jugglery  of 
political  leaders,  that  before  a  few  months  had  passed,  they 
had  precipitated  every  State  into  secession.  That  never 
could  have  occurred  had  there  been  in  the  Southern  States 
an  educated  common  people.  But  the  slave  power  cheats  the 
poor  whites  of  intelligence,  in  order  to  rob  the  poor  blacks. 
This  is  important  testimony  to  the  nature  and  tendency  of 
the  Union  and  Government  of  the  United  States;  and  re- 
veals clearly,  by  the  judgment  of  the  very  men  who  of  all 
others  best  know,  that  to  maintain  the  Union  is,  in  the  end, 
to  destroy  slavery.  It  justifies  the  North  against  the  slan- 
ders of  those  who  declare  that  she  is  not  fighting  for  liberty, 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  457 

but  only  for  the  Union — as  if  that  were  not  the  very  way 
to  destroy  slavery  and  establish  freedom  !  The  government 
of  the  United  States  is  such  that,  if  it  be  administered 
equitably,  in  the  long  run  it  will  destroy  slavery;  and  it 
was  the  foresight  of  this  which  led  the  South  to  its  precip- 
itate secession.     [Cheers^] 

Against  all  these  facts,  it  is  attempted  to  make  England 
believe  that  slavery  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  war. 
You  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  persuade  Noah  that 
the  clouds  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  flood;  it  is  the  most 
monstrous  absurdity  ever  born  from  the  womb  of  folly. 
[Cheers.]  Nothing  to  do  with  slavery  ?  It  had  to  do  with 
nothing  else.  [Cheers.]  Against  this  withering  fact — 
against  this  damning  allegation  —  what  is  their  escape  ? 
They  reply — the  North  is  just  as  bad  as  the  South.  Now 
we  are  coming  to  the  marrow  of  it.  If  the  North  is  as  bad 
as  the  South,  why  did  not  the  South  find  it  out  before  you 
did  ?  If  the  North  had  been  in  favor  of  oppressing  the 
black  man,  and  just  as  much  in  favor  of  slavery  as  the 
South,  how  is  it  that  the  South  has  gone  to  war  against 
the  North  because  of  their  belief  to  the  contrary  ?  Gen- 
tlemen, I  hold  in  my  hand  a  published  report  of  the  speech 
of  the  amiable,  intelligent  and  credulous  President,  I  be- 
lieve, of  the  (English)  Society  for  Southern  Independence. 
[Laughter!]  There  are  some  curiosities  in  it.  [Laughter.] 
That  you  may  know  that  Southerners  are  not  all  dead  yet, 
I  will  read  a  paragraph: — 

The  South  had  labored  hitherto  under  the  imputation,  and  it 
had  constantly  been  thrown  in  the  teeth  of  all  who  supported 
that  struggling  nation,  that  they  by  their  proceedings  were  tend- 
ing to  support  the  existence  of  slavery.  This  was  an  impression 
which  he  thought  they  ought  carefully  to  endeavor  to  remove — 
[cheers  and  laughter] — because  it  was  one  which  was  injurious  to 
their  cause — [cheers] — not  only  among  those  who  had  the  feeling 
of  all  Englishmen — of  a  horror  of  slavery — but,  also,  because  strong 
religious  bodies  in  this  country  made  a  point  of  it,  and  felt  it  very 
strongly  indeed. 

[Cheers.]  I  never  like  to  speak  behind  a  man's  back — I  like 
to  speak  to  men's  faces  what  I  have  to  say — and  I  could 
wish  that  the  happiness  had  been  accorded  to  me  to-night 


458  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  have  Lord  Wharncliffe  present,  that  I  might  address 
to  him  a  few  simple  Christian  inquiries.  [Cheers.]  For 
there  can  be  no  question  that  there  is  a  strong  impression 
that  the  South  has  "  supported  the  existence  of  slavery." 
[Cheers.]  Indeed,  on  our  side  of  the  water  there  are  many 
persons  that  affirm  it.  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  And,  as  his 
lordship  thinks  that  it  is  the  peculiar  duty  of  the  new  as- 
sociation to  do  away  with  that  sad  error,  I  beg  to  submit  to 
it,  that  in  the  first  place  it  ought  to  do  away  with  four 
million  slaves  in  the  South;  for  there  are  uncharitable  men 
living  who  think  that  a  nation  that  has  four  million  slaves 
has  at  least  some  "  tendency  "  to  support  slavery.  [Cheers.] 
And  when  his  lordship's  association  has  done  that,  it  might 
be  pertinent  to  suggest  to  him,  instantly  to  revise  the  new 
"  Montgomery  Constitution  "  of  the  South,  which  is  changed 
from  the  old  Federal  Constitution  in  only  one  or  two  points. 
The  most  essential  point  is  that  it  for  the  first  time  intro- 
duces and  legalizes  slavery  as  a  national  institution,  and  makes 
it  unconstitutional  ever  to  do  it  away.  Now,  I  submit,  that 
this  wants  polishing  a  little.  [Cheers^]  Then  I  would  also 
respectfully  lay  at  his  lordship's  feet — more  beautifully 
engrossed,  if  I  could,  than  is  this  address  to  me — the  speech 
of  Vice-President  Stephens  [hear,  hear],  in  which  he  de- 
clares that  all  nations  have  been  mistaken,  and  that  to 
trample  on  the  manhood  of  an  inferior  race  is  the  only 
proper  way  to  maintain  the  liberty  of  a  superior;  in  which 
he  lays  down  to  Calvary  a  new  lesson;  in  which  he  gives 
the  lie  to  the  Saviour  himself,  who  came  to  teach  us,  that 
by  as  much  as  a  man  is  stronger  than  another,  he  owes 
himself  to  that  other.  [Loud  cheers.]  Not  alone  are  Christ's 
blood-drops  our  salvation,  but  those  word-drops  of  sacred 
truth,  which  cleanse  the  heart  and  conscience  by  precious 
principles,  these  also  are  to  us  salvation;  and  if  there  be  in 
the  truths  of  Christ  one  more  eminent  than  another,  it  is, 
"  He  that  would  be  chief,  let  him  be  the  servant  of  all."  But 
this  audacious  hierarch  of  an  anti-Christian  gospel,  Mr. 
Stephens, — in  the  face  of  God,  and  to  the  ears  of  all  man- 
kind, in  this  day  of  all  but  universal  Christian  sentiment, 
pronounces  that   for  a   nation   to  have  manhood,  it  must 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  459 

crush  out  the  liberty  of  an  inferior  and  weaker  race.  And 
he  declares  ostentatiously  and  boastingly  that  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Southern  republic  is  on  that  corner  stone. 
[Loud  cheers,  "JVo,  no,"  and  renewed  cheers?^  When  next  Lord 
Wharncliffe  speaks  for  the  edification  of  this  English  peo- 
ple \laughter\  I  beg  leave  to  submit  that  this  speech  of 
Mr.  Stephens's  requires  more  than  a  little  polishing;  in  fact, 
a  little  scouring,  cleansing,  and  flooding.  \Apj>lause.~\  And 
if  all  the  other  crimson  evidences  that  the  South  is  uphold- 
ing slavery  are  to  be  washed  pure  by  the  new  association, 
not  Hercules  in  the  Augean  stable  had  such  a  task  before 
him  as  they  have  got.  \_Loud  cheers.~\  Lord  Wharncliffe 
may  bid  farewell  to  the  sweets  of  domestic  leisure  and  to 
the  interests  of  state.  All  his  amusement  hereafter  must 
be  derived  from  the  endeavor  to  purge  the  Southern  cause 
of  the  universal  conviction  that,  "  by  their  proceedings, 
they  are  tending  to  support  the  existence  of  slavery." 
[Loud  cheers.~\  But  there  is  another  paragraph  that  I  will 
read: — 

He  believed  that  the  strongest  supporters  of  slavery  were  the 
merchants  of  New  York  and  Boston.  He  always  understood, 
and  had  never  seen  the  statement  contradicted,  that  the  whole  of 
the  ships  fitted  out  for  the  transport  of  slaves  from  Africa  to 
Cuba  were  owned  by  Northerners. 

His  lordship,  if  he  will  do  me  the  honor  to  read  my  speech, 
shall  hear  it  contradicted  in  most  explicit  terms.  There 
have  been  enough  Northern  ships  engaged,  but  not  by  any 
means  all,  nor  the  most.  Baltimore  has  a  preeminence  in 
that  matter;  Charleston,  and  New  Orleans,  and  Mobile,  all 
of  them.  And  those  ships  fitted  out  in  New  York  were 
just  as  much  despised,  and  loathed,  and  hissed  by  the  hon- 
orable merchants  of  that  great  metropolis,  as  if  they  had 
put  up  the  black  flag  of  piracy.  [Loud  cheers?^  Does  it 
conduce  to  good  feeling  between  two  nations  to  utter 
slanders  such  as  these  ?     His  lordship  goes  on  to  say  that — 

In  the  Northern  States  the  slave  is  placed  in  even  a  worse 
position  than  in  the  South.  He  spoke  from  experience,  having 
visited  the  country  twice. 


460  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

I  am  most  surprised,  and  yet  gratified,  to  learn  that  Lord 
Wharncliffe  speaks  of  the  suffering  of  the  slave  from  ex- 
perience. {Laughter  and  cheers.]  I  never  was  aware  that 
he  had  been  put  in  that  unhappy  situation.  Has  he  toiled 
on  the  sugar  plantation  ?  Has  he  taken  the  night  for  his 
friend,  avoiding  the  day?  Has  he  sped  through  cane 
brakes,  hunted  by  hoiinds,  suffering  hunger,  and  heat,  and 
cold  by  turns,  until  he  has  made  his  way  to  the  far  North- 
ern States  ?  [Cheers.']  Has  he  had  this  experience  ?  It  is 
the  word  experience  I  call  attention  to.  If  his  lordship  says 
that  it  is  his  observation,  I  will  accept  the  correction. 
I  continue: — 

In  railway  carriages  and  hotels,  the  negroes  were  treated  as 
pariahs  and  outcasts  and  never  looked  upon  as  men  and  brothers, 
but  rather  as  dogs.     [Cheers.] 

In  all  railway  cars  where  Southerners  travel,  in  all  hotels 
where  Southerners'  money  was  the  chief  support,  this  is 
true.  But  I  concede  most  frankly,  that  there  has  been  oc- 
casion for  such  a  statement:  there  has  been  a  vicious  prej- 
udice in  the  North  against  the  negro.  It  has  been  part  of 
my  duty  for  the  last  sixteen  years  to  protest  against  it.  No 
decently  dressed  and  well-behaved  colored  man  has  ever 
had  molestation  or  question  on  entering  my  church,  and 
taking  any  seat  he  pleases;  not  because  I  had  influence 
with  my  people  to  prevent  it,  but  because  God  gave  me  a 
people  whose  own  good  sense  and  conscience  led  them 
aright  without  me.  But  from  this  vantage  ground  it  has 
been  my  duty  to  mark  out  the  unrighteous  prejudice  from 
which  the  colored  people  have  suffered  in  the  North;  and 
it  is  a  part  of  the  great  moral  revolution  which  is  going 
on,  that  the  prejudices  have  been  in  a  great  measure  van- 
quished, and  are  now  well  nigh  trodden  down.  In  the  city 
of  New  York  there  is  one  street  railroad  where  colored 
people  cannot  ride,  but  in  the  others  they  may,  and  in  all  the 
railroads  of  New  England  there  is  not  one  in  which  a  col- 
ored man  would  be  questioned.  I  believe  that  the  colored 
man  may  start  from  the  line  of  the  British  dominions  in 
the  North  and  traverse  all  New  England  and  New  York 
till  he  touches  the  waters  of  the  Western  lakes  and  never  , 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  461 

be  molested  or  questioned,  passing  on  as  any  decent  white 
man  would  pass.  But  let  me  ask  you  how  came  there  to 
be  these  prejudices  ?  They  did  not  exist  before  the  War 
of  Independence.  How  did  they  grow  up  ?  As  one  of 
the  accursed  offshoots  of  slavery.  Where  you  make  a  race 
contemptible  by  oppression,  all  that  belong  to  that  race 
will  participate  in  the  odium,  whether  they  be  free  or 
slave.  The  South  itself,  by  maintaining  the  oppres- 
sive institution,  is  the  guilty  cause  of  whatever  insult  the 
free  African  has  had  to  endure  in  the  North.  How  next 
did  that  prejudice  grow  strong  ?  It  was  on  account  of  the 
multitude  of  Irishmen  who  came  to  the  States.  [Cheers 
and  interruption^]  I  declare  my  admiration  for  the  Irish 
people,  who  have  illustrated  the  page  of  history  in  every 
department  of  society.  It  is  part  of  the  fruit  of  igno- 
rance, and,  as  they  allege,  of  the  oppression  which  they 
have  suffered — that  it  has  made  them  oppressors.  I  bear 
witness  that  there  is  no  class  of  people  in  America,  who 
are  so  bitter  against  the  colored  people,  and  so  eager  for 
slavery,  as  the  ignorant,  the  poor,  uninstructed  Irishmen. 
["Oh,"  and  "Hear"  and  "Three  cheers  for  old  Ireland."] 

But  although  there  have  been  wrongs  done  to  them  in 
the  North,  the  condition  of  the  free  colored  people  in  the 
North  is  unspeakably  better  than  in  the  South.  They 
own  their  wives  and  children.  [Hear,  hear.]  They  have 
the  right  to  select  their  place  and  their  kind  of  labor; 
their  rights  of  property  are  protected  just  as  much  as  ours 
are.  The  right  of  education  is  accorded  to  them.  There 
is  in  the  city  of  New  York  more  than  ten  million  of  dol- 
lars of  property  owned  by  free  colored  people.  [Hear.] 
They  have  their  own  schools;  they  have  their  own  churches; 
their  own  orators,  and  there  is  no  more  gifted  man,  and 
no  man  whose  superb  eloquence  more  deserves  to  be  lis- 
tened to,  than  Frederick  Douglass.  [Loud  cheers.]  Further: 
after  the  breaking  out  of  this  war,  the  good  conduct  of 
the  slaves  at  the  South  and  of  the  free  colored  people  at 
the  North  has  increased  the  kind  feelings  of  the  whites 
towards  them;  and  since  they  have  begun  to  fight  for  their 
rights  of  manhood,  a  popular  enthusiasm  for  them  is  aris- 


462  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ing.  [Loud  cheers.]  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  there  is  no 
place  on  the  earth  where  millions  of  colored  people  stand 
in  a  position  so  auspicious  for  the  future,  as  the  free  col- 
ored men  of  the  North  and  the  freed  slaves  of  the  South. 
[Cheers.] 

I  meant  to  have  said  a  good  deal  more  to  you  than  I 
have  said  or  than  I  shall  have  time  to  say.  ["Go  on."]  I 
have  endeavored  to  place  before  you  some  of  the  facts 
which  show  that  slavery  was  the  real  cause  of  this  war,  and 
that  if  it  had  to  be  legally  decided  whether  North  or  South 
were  guilty  in  this  matter,  there  could  be  no  question  be- 
fore any  honorable  tribunal,  any  jury,  any  deliberative 
body,  that  the  South,  from  beginning  to  end,  for  the  sake 
of  slavery,  has  been  aggressive,  and  the  North  patient. 
Since  the  war  broke  out,  the  North  has  been  more  and 
more  coming  upon  the  high  ground  of  moral  principle, 
t  until  at  length  the  government  has  decreed  emancipation. 
It  has  been  said  very  often  in  my  hearing,  and  I  have  read 
it  oftener  since  I  have  been  in  England — the  last  reading  I 
had  of  it  was  from  the  pen  of  Lord  Brougham — that  the 
North  is  fighting  for  the  Union,  and  not  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  African.  Why  are  we  fighting  for  the  Union, 
but  because  we  believe  that  the  Union  and  its  government, 
administered  notu  by  Northern  men,  will  work  out  the  eman- 
cipation of  every  living  being  on  the  continent  of  America? 
[Loud  cheering^]  If  it  be  meant  that  the  North  went  into 
this  war  with  the  immediate  object  of  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves,  I  answer  that  it  never  professed  to  do  that ;  but 
it  went  into  war  for  the  Union  with  the  distinct  and  ex- 
pressed conviction  on  both  sides,  that,  if  the  Union  were  main- 
tained, slavery  could  not  live  long.  [Cheers.]  Do  you  sup- 
pose that  it  is  wise  to  separate  the  interest  of  the  slave  from 
the  interest  of  the  other  people  on  the  continent,  and  to 
inaugurate  a  policy  which  takes  in  him  alone?  He  must 
stand  or  fall  with  all  of  us,  [hear,  hear,]  and  the  only 
sound  policy  for  the  North  is  that  which  shall  benefit  the 
North,  the  South,  the  blacks  and  the  whites.  [Cheers.]  We 
hold  that  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  as  expounded  in 
its  fundamental  principles  by  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 


SPEECH  IN  MANCHESTER.  463 

ence  and  the  Constitution,  is  the  very  best  way  to  secure  to 
the  African  ultimately  his  rights  and  his  best  estate.  The 
North  was  like  a  ship  carrying  passengers,  tempest  tossed, 
and  while  the  sailors  were  laboring,  and  the  captain  and 
officers  directing,  some  grumblers  came  up  from  amongst 
the  passengers  and  said,  "  You  are  all  the  time  working  to 
save  the  ship,  but  you  don't  care  to  save  the  passengers." 
I  should  like  to  know  how  you  would  save  the  passengers 
so  well  as  by  taking  care  of  the  ship. 

.[At  this  point  the  Chairman  read  to  the  meeting  a  telegram 
relative  to  the  seizure  and  detention  by  the  Government  of  the 
rams  prepared  for  the  Southerners  at  Liverpool.  The  effect  was 
startling.  The  audience  rose  to  their  feet,  while  cheer  after  cheer 
was  given.] 

Allow  me  to  say  this  of  the  colored  people,  our  citizens 
(for  in  New  York  colored  people  vote,  as  they  do  also  in 
Massachusetts  and  in  several  other  Northern  States  — 
Lord  Wharncliffe  notwithstanding):  it  is  a  subject  of 
universal  remark,  that  no  men  on  either  side  have  carried 
themselves  more  gallantly,  more  bravely,  than  the  colored 
regiments  that  have  been  fighting  for  their  government 
and  their  liberty.  My  own  youngest  brother  is  colonel  of 
one  of  those  regiments,  and  from  him  I  learn  many  most 
interesting  facts  concerning  them.  The  son  of  one  of  the 
most  estimable  and  endeared  of  my  friends  in  my  congre- 
gation was  the  colonel  of  the  regiment  which  scaled  the 
rampart  of  Fort  Wagner.  Colonel  Shaw  fell  at  the  head 
of  his  men — hundreds  fell — and  when  inquest  was  made 
for  his  body,  it  was  reported  by  the  Southern  men  in  the 
fort  that  he  had  been  "buried  with  his  niggers;"  and  on 
his  gravestone  yet  it  shall  be  written,  "  The  man  that  dared 
to  lead  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  out  of  their  oppression, 
died  with  them  and  for  them,  and  was  buried  with  them.'' 
[Cheers.]  On  the  Mississippi  the  conduct  of  the  Federal 
colored  regiments  is  so  good,  that,  although  many  of  the 
officers  who  command  them  are  Southern  born,  and  until 
recently  had  the  strongest  Southern  prejudices,  those  prej- 
udices are  almost  entirely  broken  down,  and  there  is  no 
difficulty  whatever  in  finding  officers,  Northern  or  South- 


464  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ern,  to  take  command  of  just  as  many  of  these  regiments 
as  can  be  raised.  It  is  an  honorable  testimony  to  the  good 
conduct  and  courage  of  these  long-abused  men,  whom  God 
is  now  bringing  by  the  Red  Sea  of  war  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt  and  into  the  land  of  promise.     [Cheers.] 

I  have  said  that  it  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  an- 
swer any  courteous  questions  that  might  be  proposed  to 
me.  If  I  cannot  answer  them  I  will  do  the  next  best 
thing, — tell  you  so.  [If ear.]  The  length  to  which  this 
meeting  has  been  protracted,  and'  the  very  great  con- 
viction that  I  seem  to  have  wrought  by  my  remarks  on 
this  Pentecostal  occasion  in  yonder  Gentile  crowd — [loud 
laughter] — admonish  me  that  we  had  better  open  some 
kind  of  "  meeting  of  inquiry."  [Renewed  laughter.]  It  will 
give  me  great  pleasure,  as  a  gentleman,  to  receive  ques- 
tions from  any  gentleman — [hear,  hear,] — and  to  give  such 
reply  as  is  in  my  power. 

Mr.  Beecher  remained  standing;  for  a  few  moments,  as  if  to  give 
the  opportunity  of  interrogation,  but  no  one  rising  to  question 
him,  he  sat  down  amidst  great  cheers.  The  speech  lasted  nearly 
two  and  a  quarter  hours. 


SPEECH   IN   GLASGOW. 

October  13,  1863. 


The  hour  appointed  for  the  opening  of  proceedings  was  seven 
o'clock,  and  long  before  that  time  the  hall  was  filled  to  excess  by 
a  crowd  that  waited  in  silence  till  the  entrance  of  the  speaker  of 
the  evening  on  the  platform,  accompanied  by  Bailie  Govan,  chair- 
man, and  a  number  of  clergymen  and  city  councilors. 

After  brief  introductory  remarks  by  Bailie  Govan  and 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  Mr.  Beecher  spoke: — 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies,  and  gentlemen:  No  one  who  has 
been  born  and  reared  in  Scotland  can  know  the  feeling 
with  which,  for  the  first  time,  such  a  one  as  I  have  visited 
this  land,  classic  in  song  and  in  history.  I  have  been  reared 
in  a  country  whose  history  is  brief.  So  vast  is  it,  that  one 
might  travel  night  and  day  for  all  the  week,  and  yet 
scarcely  touch  historic  ground.  Its  history  is  yet  to  be 
written;  yet  to  be  acted.  But  I  come  to  this  land,  which, 
though  small,  is  as  full  of  memories  as  the  heaven  is  of 
stars,  and  almost  as  bright.  \Applause^\  There  is  not  the 
most  insignificant  piece  of  water  that  does  not  make  my 
heart  thrill  with  some  story  of  heroism,  or  some  remem- 
bered poem;  for  not  only  has  Scotland  had  the  good  fort- 
une to  have  had  men  that  knew  how  to  make  heroic  his- 
tory, but  she  has  reared  those  bards  who  have  known 
how  to  sing  her  fame.  [Applause.]  And  every  steep  and 
every  valley,  and  almost  every  single  league  on  which  my 
feet  have  trod,  have  made  me  feel  as  if  I  was  walking  in  a 
dream.  I  never  expected  to  feel  my  eyes  overflow  with 
tears  of  gladness,  that  I  had  been  permitted  in  the  prime 
of  life  to  look  upon  dear  old  Scotland.  [Applause.']  For 
your  historians  have  taught  us  history,  your  poets  have 
been  the  charm  of  our  firesides,  your  theologians  have  en- 
riched our  libraries;  from  your  philosophers — Reid,  Brown, 
3° 


466  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  Stewart — we  have  derived  the  elements  of  our  phi- 
losophy, and  your  scientific  researches  have  greatly  stim- 
ulated the  study  of  science  in  our  land.  I  come  to  Scot- 
land, almost  as  a  pilgrim  would  to  Jerusalem,  to  see  those 
scenes  whose  story  had  stirred  my  imagination  from  my 
earliest  youth;  and  I  can  pay  no  higher  compliment  than 
to  say  that  having  seen  some  part  of  Scotland  I  am  satis- 
fied; and  permit  me  to  say  that  if,  when  you  know  me,  you 
are  a  thousandth  part  as  satisfied  with  me  as  I  am  with 
you,  we  shall  get  along  very  well  together.     [Applause.] 

And  yet,  although  I  am  not  of  a  yielding  mood  \a 
laugh],  nor  easily  daunted,  I  have  some  embarrassment  in 
speaking  to  you  to-night.  I  know  very  well  that  there  are 
not  a  few  things  which  prevent  me  doing  a  good  work 
among  you.  I  differ  greatly  from  many  of  you.  I  re- 
spect, although  I  will  not  adopt,  your  opinions.  I  can 
only  ask  as  much  from  you  for  myself.  I  am  aware  that 
a  personal  prejudice  has  been  diligently  excited  against 
me.  There  is  also  the  vastness  of  the  subject  on  which  I 
am  about  to  speak,  and  the  dissimilar  institutions  of  the 
two  countries,  which  stand  in  my  way.  There  are  also 
those  perplexities  which  arise  from  conflicting  statements 
made  to  you.  There  is  also  a  supposed  antagonism  be- 
tween British  and  American  interests.  Now  I  shall  not 
consider  any  of  these  points  to-night  except  the  first.  It 
is  not  a  pleasant  avenue  to  a  speech  for  a  man  to  walk 
through  himself.  [Laughter.]  But  since  every  pains  is 
taken  to  misrepresent  me,  let  me  once  for  all  deal  with 
that  matter. 

In  my  own  land  I  have  been  the  subject  of  misrepre- 
sentation and  abuse  so  long,  that  when  I  did  not  receive 
it,  I  felt  as  though  something  was  wanting  in  the  atmos- 
phere. [Laughter  and  applause.]  I  have  been  the  object  of 
misrepresentation  at  home,  simply  and  only  because  I  have 
been  arrayed  ever  since  I  had  a  voice  to  speak  and  a  heart 
to  feel — body  and  soul,  I  have  been  arrayed,  without  re- 
gard to  consequences  and  to  my  own  reputation  or  my 
own  ease,  against  that  which  I  consider  the  damning  sin 
of  my  country  and  the  shame  of  human   nature — slavery. 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  467 

[Great  applause.]  I  thought  I  had  a  right,  when  I  came  to 
Great  Britain,  to  expect  a  different  reception;  but  I  found 
that  the  insidious  correspondence  of  men  in  America  had 
poisoned  the  British  mind,  and  that  representations  had 
been  made  which  predisposed  men  to  receive  me  with  dis- 
like. And,  principally,  the  representations  were  that  I 
had  indulged  in  the  most  offensive  language,  and  had 
threatened  all  sorts  of  things,  against  Great  Britain.  Now 
allow  me  to  say  that,  having  examined  that  interesting  lit- 
erature, so  far  as  I  have  seen  it  published  in  British  news- 
papers, I  here  declare  that  ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred 
parts  of  those  things  that  I  am  charged  with  saying  I 
never  said  and  never  thought — they  are  falsehoods  wholly, 
and  in  particular.  [Great  appla use.]  Allow  me  next  to  say 
that  I  have  been  accustomed  freely,  and  at  all  times,  at 
home  to  speak  what  I  thought  to  be  sober  truth  both  of 
blame  and  of  praise  of  Great  Britain,  and  if  you  do  not 
want  to  hear  a  man  express  his  honest  sentiments  fear- 
lessly, then  I  do  not  want  to  speak  to  you.  [Applause.] 
If  I  never  spared  my  own  country  [hear,  hear],  if  I  never 
spared  the  American  church,  nor  the  government,  nor  my 
own  party,  nor  my  personal  friends,  did  you  expect  I 
would  treat  you  better  than  I  did  those  of  my  own  coun- 
try ?  [Applause.]  For  I  have  felt  from  the  first  that  I  hold 
a  higher  allegiance  than  any  I  owe  to  man — to  God,  and 
to  that  truth  which  is  God's  ordinance  in  human  affairs; 
and  for  the  sake  of  that  higher  truth,  I  have  loved  my 
country,  but  I  have  loved  truth  more  than  my  country. 
[Applause.]  I  have  heard  the  voice  of  my  Master,  saying, 
"If  any  man  come  unto  me  and  hate  not  father,  and 
mother,  and  brother,  and  sister,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also, 
he  is  not  worthy  of  me."  When  therefore  the  cause  of 
truth  and  justice  is  put  in  the  scale  against  my  own  coun- 
try, I  would  disown  country  for  the  sake  of  truth;  and 
when  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice  is  put  in  the  scale 
against  Great  Britain,  I  would  disown  her  rather  than  be- 
tray what  I  understood  to  be  the  truth.     [Applause.] 

We  are  bound  to  establish  liberty,  regulated  Christian  liberty, 
as  the  law  of  the  American  Continent.     This  is  our  destiny,  this 


468  -  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

is  that  towards  which  the  education  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion has  been  more  and  more  assiduously  directed  as  the 
peculiar  glory  of  America — to  destroy  slavery,  and  root  it 
out  of  our  land,  and  to  establish  in  its  place  a  discreet,  in- 
telligent, constitutional,  regulated,  Christian  liberty.  We 
have  accepted  this  destiny  and  this  task:  and  if  in  accom- 
plishing this  a  part  of  our  own  people  opposes  us,  we  shall 
go  right  against  our  people  to  that  destiny.  [Applause.] 
If  France  undertakes  to  interfere,  and  to  say  "  You  shall 
not,"  much  as  we  would  regret  to  be  at  war  with  any  na- 
tion on  the  globe,  or  with  France  in  particular,  who  be- 
friended us  in  our  early  struggles  and  trials,  still  the  cause 
of  liberty  is  dearer  to  us  than  any  foreign  alliance,  and  we 
shall  certainly  say  "Stand  off,  this  is  our  work,  and  must 
not  be  hindered."  If  they  bring  war  to  us,  they  shall  have 
war:  for  no  foreign  nation  shall  meddle  with  impunity 
with  our  domestic  struggle.  If  Great  Britain  herself,  tied 
to  us  by  so  many  interests,  endeared  by  so  many  historic 
associations, — to  whom  we  can  never  pay  the  debt  of  love 
we  owe  her  for  those  men  who  wrought  out,  in  fire  and 
blood,  those  very  principles  of  civil  liberty  for  which  we 
are  now  contending, — yet,  if  even  Britain  shall  openly  or 
secretly  seek  the  establishment  on  our  national  territory  of 
an  independent  slaveholding,  empire,  we  will  denounce 
her  word  and  deed; — and,  terrible  and  cruel  as  will  be  the 
necessity,  we  will,  if  we  must,  oppose  arms  to  arms.  If 
Great  Britain  is  for  slavery,  I  am  against  Great  Britain. 
[Cheers.]  If  Great  Britain  is  true  to  her  instincts,  and  the 
interests  of  her  illustrious  history,  and  to  her  own  docu- 
ments, laws,  and  institutions;  if  she  is  yet  in  favor  of  lib- 
erty, as  she  has  always  been  here  and  everywhere  in  the 
world,  I  am  for  Great  Britain;  and  shall  be  proud  of  my 
blood  and  boast  that  I  have  a  share  in  your  ancestral 
glory.  My  prayer  shall  be  that  Great  Britain  and  America, 
joined  in  religion  and  in  liberty,  may  march  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  the  great  enterprise  of  bearing  the  blessings 
of  religion  and  liberty  around  the  globe.     \_Chcers.~] 

The  Slave   States  may  be  divided  into  two  classes — the 
Farming   States    and   the   Plantation  States.       The  farm- 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  469 

ing  States  are  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Missouri,  and  parts  of  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina. 
The  lands  there  are  devoted  to  a  mixed  husbandry,  such 
as  of  corn  (or  maize),  wheat,  oats,  grass,  tobacco,  and  the 
grazing  of  herds  of  cattle.  The  farms  generally  are  not 
large.  In  those  States  slave-labor  is  not  profitable,  and 
cannot  be  so.  Slave-breeding  is  profitable,  but  not  the 
labor  of  slaves.  The  plantation  States  are  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
and  Arkansas — eight.  These  States  do  not  pursue  a 
mixed  husbandry.  They  raise  principally  cotton,  sugar, 
rice,  and  tobacco,  but  chiefly  the  two  great  staples — cot- 
ton and  sugar.  They  buy  the  principal  part  of  their  food, 
and  almost  all  manufactured  products.  The  pails  they 
carry  their  water  in  are  made  in  New  England;  their 
broom  handles,  their  pins,  glass,  stone,  iron,  and  tinware, 
and  all  their  household  furniture,  are  the  manufacture  of 
the  North.  There  are  some  local  exceptions,  but  what  I 
state  is  substantially  true  of  the  slave  States  of  the  extreme 
South.  Now,  consider  some  facts.  The  labor  of  slaves  in 
the  farming  States  does  not  pay.  Why?  Because  mixed 
farming  requires  much  more  skill  than  slaves  have.  Slave 
labor  must  always  be  applied  to  the  production  of  rude 
and  raw  material.  You  cannot  go  much  farther  than  that. 
Slave  labor  is  rarely  ever  skilled  labor;  that  would  require 
too  much  brain,  and  its  development  is  not  consistent 
with  the  condition  of  the  slave.  Moreover,  slaves  are  too 
costly.  In  the  farming  States  they  are  better  off,  and 
therefore  they  are  more  expensive;  for  a  man  is  expensive 
just  in  proportion  as  he  rises  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  as 
I  shall  show  you  more  at  length  in  a  moment.  The  object 
of  slavery  therefore  in  the  more  northerly  slave  States  is 
not  the  production  of  tobacco,  or  corn,  or  maize,  or  wheat, 
or  cattle,  or  dairy  products; — the  whole  profit  of  slavery  in 
the  Northern  slave  States  is  in  breeding  slaves,  [//ear,  hear, 
and sensation^  Virginia  has  raised  as  much  as  $24,000,000 
a  year  for  slaves  sold  South.  I  will  read  you  the  testimony 
of  a  gentleman  from  the  slave  States.  The  editor  of  the 
Virginia  Times,   in    1836,  made  a  calculation   that    120,000 


47°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

slaves  went  out  of  the  State  during  the  year,  that  80,000  of 
them  went  with  their  owners  who  removed,  leaving  40,000 
who  were  sold,  at  an  average  price  of  $600,  amounting  to 
$24, 000,000.  You  cannot  understand  anything  about  slavery 
until  you  are  admitted  into  the  secrets  of  raising  slaves  as 
colts  and  calves  are  raised  for  market,  and  begin  to  see 
the  inside  of  this,  the  most  detestable  and  infernal  system 
that  the  sun  ever  shone  upon. 

But  you  may  say  that  this  is  so  only  in  Virginia.  I  ask 
your  attention  to  the  words  of  Henry  Clay.  In  1829  he 
said  before  the  Colonization  Society,  "  It  is  believed  that 
nowhere  in  the  farming  portions  of  the  United  States 
would  slave-labor  be  generally  employed  if  the  proprietors 
were  not  tempted  to  raise  slaves  by  the  high  prices  of  the 
Southern  market."  That  is  Mr.  Clay's  testimony,  a  Ken- 
tuckian,  a  slaveholder;  and  certainly  he  ought  to  know. 
Political  reasons  also  help  to  keep  up  slavery  in  these 
States,  and  some  personal  reasons  of  which  I  shall  not 
speak.  These  Northern  slave  States  would  emancipate 
their  slaves  if  it  were  not  that  the  cotton  States  give  them 
a  market.  Gentlemen,  you  abhor  the  African  slave  trade. 
Let  me  tell  you  that  the  domestic  slave  trade  of  America 
is  unspeakably  worse.  Bred  amidst  churches,  refinements, 
and  comparative  civilization,  they  are  capable  of  a  thou- 
sand pangs  more  of  suffering  at  ruthless  separations  than 
if  they  were  yet  but  savages.  I  call  your  attention  to  a 
few  propositions  then,  in  reference  to  slavery  as  it  exists 
in  the  extreme  Southern  States. 

And  first,  the  system  of  slavery  requires  ignorance  in  the 
slave,  and  not  alone  intellectual  but  moral  and  social  ig- 
norance. Anybody  who  is  a  slaveholder  will  find  that 
there  are  reasons  which  will  compel  him  to  keep  slaves  in 
ignorance,  if  he  is  going  to  keep  them  at  all.  Not  because 
intelligence  is  more  difficult  to  govern;  for  with  an  intelli- 
gent people  government  is  easier.  The  more  you  develop 
a  man's  intellect,  the  more  you  make  him  capable  of  self- 
government;  and  the  more  you  keep  him  in  ignorance,  the 
more  is  he  the  subject  of  arbitrary  government.  Virtue 
and  intelligence  compel  leniency  of  government;  but  ig- 


*     SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  471 

norance  and  vice  compel  tyranny  in  government.  These 
things  follow  a  natural  law.  The  slave  would  not  be  less 
easily  governed,  if  he  were  educated.  If  the  slaveholder 
taught  him  to  read  and  write,  if  he  made  him  to  know 
what  he  ought  to  know  as  one  of  God's  dear  children,  the 
South  would  not  be  so  much  endangered  by  insurrection 
as  she  is  now.  There  is  nothing  so  terrible  as  explosive 
ignorance.  Men  without  an  idea,  striking  blindly  and 
passionately,  are  the  men  to  be  feared.  Even  if  the  slaves 
were  educated,  they  would  be  better  slaves.  What  is  the 
reason  then  that  slaves  must  be  kept  in  ignorance?  .The 
real  reason  is  one  of  expense.  In  order  to  make  slave-labor 
profitable,  you  must  reduce  the  cost  of  the  slave;  for  the 
difference  between  the  profit  and  the  loss  turns  upon  the 
halfpenny  per  pound.  If  the  price  of  slaves  goes  up,  and  cot- 
ton goes  down  a  shade  in  price,  in  ordinary  times  the  plant- 
ers lose.  The  rule  is  therefore,  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the 
man;  and  the  slave  to  be  profitable  must  be  simply  a  work- 
ing creature.  What  does  a  man  cost,  that  is  a  slave  ?  Just  a 
little  meal  and  a  little  pork,  a  small  measure  of  the  coarsest 
cloth  and  leather,  that  is  all  he  costs.  Because  that  is  all 
he  needs — the  lowest  fare  and  the  scantiest  clothing.  He 
is  a  being  with  two  hands  and  two  feet,  and  a  belly.  That 
is  all  there  is  of  a  profitable  slave.  But  every  new  develop- 
ment within  him  which  religion  shall  make — the  sense  of 
fatherhood,  the  wish  for  a  home,  the  desire  to  rear  his 
children  well,  the  wish  to  honor  and  comfort  his  wife,  every 
taste,  every  sentiment,  every  aspiration,  will  demand  some 
external  thing  to  satisfy  it.  His  being  augments.  He  de- 
mands more  time.  He  strives  to  organize  that  little  kingdom 
in  which  every  human  being  has  a  right  to  be  king,  in  which 
love  is  crowned, — the  family  !  It  is  this  that  makes  an 
educated  slave  too  expensive  for  profit.  Profitable  slave- 
holding  requires  only  so  much  intelligence  as  will  work 
well,  and  only  so  much  religion  as  will  make  men  patient 
under  suffering  and  abuse.  More  than  that — more  con- 
science, more  ambition,  more  divine  ideas  of  human  nature, 
of  men's  dignity,  of  household  virtue,  of  Christian  refine- 
ment, only  make  the  slave  too  costly  in  his  tastes. 


472  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES.     • 

Not  only  does  the  degradation  of  the  slave  pass  over  to 
his  work,  but  it  affects  all  labor,  even  when  performed  by 
free  white  men.  Throughout  the  South  there  is  the  most 
marked  public  disesteem  of  honest  homely  industry.  It  is 
true  that  in  the  mountainous  portions  of  the  southwest, 
North  Carolina,  Northern  Georgia,  Eastern  Tennessee,  and 
Western  Virginia,  where  slaves  are  few,  and  where  a  hardy 
people  for  the  most  part  perform  their  own  agricultural 
labors,  there  is  less  discredit  attached  to  homely  toil  than 
in  the  rich  alluvial  districts  where  sugar  and  cotton  cult- 
ure demand  exclusive  slave  labor.  But  even  in  the  most 
favored  portions  of  the  South,  manual  labor  is  but  barely 
redeemed  from  the  taint  of  being  a  slave's  business,  and 
nowhere  is  it  honored  as  it  is  in  the  great  and  free  North. 
Whereas,  in  the  richer  and  more  influential  portions  of  the 
South,  labor  is  so  degraded  that  men  are  ashamed  of  it. 
It  is  a  badge  of  dishonor.  The  poor  and  shiftless  whites, 
unable  to  own  slaves,  unwilling  to  work  themselves,  live 
in  a  precarious  and  wretched  manner,  but  a  little  removed 
from  barbarism,  relying  upon  the  chase  for  much  of  their 
subsistence,  and  affording  a  melancholy  spectacle  of  the 
condition  into  which  the  reflex  influence  of  slavery  throws 
the  neighboring  poor  whites.  Having  turned  their  own 
industry  over  to  slaves,  and  established  the  province  and 
duties  of  a  gentl'eman  to  consist  in  indolence  and  politics, 
it  is  not  strange  that  they  hold  the  people  of  the  North  in 
great  contempt.  The  North  is  a  vast  hive  of  universal  in- 
dustry. Idleness  there  is  as  disreputable  as  is  labor  in 
the  South.  The  child's  earliest  lesson  is  faithful  industry. 
The  boy  works,  the  man  works.  Everywhere  through  all 
the  North  men  earn  their  own  living  by  their  own  industry 
and  ingenuity.  They  scorn  to  be  dependent.  They  revolt 
at  the  dishonor  of  living  upon  the  unrequited  labor  of 
others.  Honest  labor  is  that  highway  along  which  the 
whole  body  of  the  Northern  people  travel  towards  wealth 
and  usefulness.  From  Northern  looms  the  South  is 
clothed.  From  their  anvils  come  all  Southern  implements 
of  labor;  from  their  lathes  all  modern  ware;  from  their 
lasts  Southern  shoes.     The  North  is   growing  rich  by  its 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  473 

own  industry.  The  small  class  of  slaveholders  in  the 
South  have  precarious  wealth,  but  at  the  expense  of  the 
vast  body  of  poor  whites,  who  live  from  hand  to  mouth  all 
their  days.  No  wonder  then,  that  Southerners  have  been 
wont  to  deride  the  free  workmen  of  the  North.  Governor 
Hammond  only  gave  expression  to  the  universal  contempt 
of  Southern  slaveholders  for  work  and  workmen,  when  he 
called  the  Northern  laborer  the  "  mudsill  of  society"  and 
stigmatized  the  artisan  as  the  "  greasy  mechanic."  The 
North  and  the  South  alike  live  by  work;  the  North  by 
their  own  work,  the  South  by  that  of  their  slaves  !  Which 
is  the  more  honorable  ?  I  have  a  right  to  demand  of  the 
workmen  of  Glasgow  that  they  should  refuse  their  sym- 
pathy to  the  South,  and  should  give  their  hearty  sympathy 
to  those  who  are,  like  themselves,  seeking  to  make  work 
honorable,  and  to  give  to  the  working  man  his  true  place 
in  society.  Disguise  it  as  they  will,  distract  your  attention 
from  it  as  they  may,  it  cannot  be  concealed,  that  the 
American  question  is  the  working  mans  question,  all  over 
the  world  !  The  slave  master's  doctrine  is  that  capital 
should  own  labor — that  the  employers  should  own  the  em- 
ployed. This  is  Southern  doctrine  and  Southern  practice. 
Northern  doctrine  and  Northern  practice  is  that  the 
laborer  should  be  free,  intelligent,  clothed  with  full  cit- 
izen's rights,  with  a  share  of  the  political  duties  and 
honors.  The  North  has  from  the  beginning  crowned 
labor  with  honor.  Nowhere  else  on  earth  is  it  so  honora- 
ble. The  free  States  of  the  North  and  West,  in  America, 
are  the  paradise  of  laborers.  One  of  the  predisposing 
causes  of  the  present  conflict  was  the  extraordinary  con- 
trast of  the  riches  of  the  North  and  the  unthriftiness  of 
the  South,  resulting  from  their  respective  doctrines  of 
labor  and  the  laborer  ! 

It  would  seem  as  if  Providence  had  demonstrated  the 
wastefulness  and  mischiefs  of  every  kind  of  despotism  in 
church  and  in  state,  save  one — despotism  of  work.  For  a 
grand  and  final  contrast  between  the  sin  and  guilt  of 
labor-oppression,  and  the  peace  and  glory  of  free-labor,  he 
set  apart  the  Western  continent.     That  the  trial  might  be 


474  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

above  all  suspicion,  to  the  right  he  gave  the  meager  soil, 
the  austere  climate,  short  summers,  long  and  rigorous 
winters.  To  the  wrong  he  gave  fair  skies,  abundant  soils, 
valleys  of  the  tropics  teeming  with  almost  spontaneous 
abundance.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  work  has  made 
New  England  a  garden,  while  Virginia  is  a  wilderness. 
The  free  North  is  abundantly  rich,  the  South  bankrupt  ! 
Every  element  of  prosperous  society  abounds  in  the 
North,  and  is  lacking  in  the  South.  There  is  more  real 
wealth  in  the  simple  little  State  of  Massachusetts  than  in 
any  ten  Southern  States.  In  the  free  States  everything 
flourishes,  in  the  slave  States  everything  languishes.  I 
point  to  the  North  and  say,  behold  the  testimony  of  Prov- 
idence for  free  labor  !  I  point  to  the  South,  and  say,  be- 
hold the  legitimate  results  of  slave-labor  !  Oppression  is 
as  accursed  in  the  field  as  it  is  upon  the  throne.  It  is  as 
odious  before  God  under  the  slave-driver's  hat,  as  under 
the  prince's  crown,  or  the  priest's  miter.  All  the  world 
over,  slavery  is  detestable,  and  bears  the  curse  of  God 
everywhere  ! 

The  South  has  complained  bitterly  of  this  indisputable 
superiority  of  the  North  in  the  elements  of  national  wealth 
and  general  prosperity.  It  has  been  charged  to  class  legis- 
lation, to  Yankee  shrewdness  at  the  expense  of  honesty, 
and  to  downright  advantage  taken  by  Northern  commerce. 
The  facts,  are,  however,  that  the  legislation  of  the  country 
has  been  controlled  for  fifty  years  by  Southern  influence. 
No  class  legislation  was  possible  except  in  her  own  favor. 
The  North,  so  far  from  cheating  the  South,  has  itself  been 
obliged  largely  to  make  up  the  wastes  and  squanderings 
of  the  improvident  slave-system.  Southern  bankruptcies 
have  every  ten  years  carried  home  to  Northern  creditors 
the  penalty  of  complicity  with  slave-labor.  Besides  this, 
the  South  has  contributed  less  and  received  more  from  the 
Federal  Government,  than  the  North.  The  peculiar  nature 
of  society  under  such  industry  and  institutions  made  the 
functions  of  Government  oppressive  and  expensive.  Yet, 
with  every  partiality  and  favor  of  Government,  and  with 
the  North  for  fifty  years   almost   submissive  to  her  will  in 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  475 

public  matters,  the  statesmen  of  the  South  beheld  with 
dismay  the  mighty  growth  of  the  free  States  and  the  rela- 
tive weakness  of  the  slave  States.  To  maintain  equipol- 
lence,  new  territory  must  be  acquired,  and  new  States 
brought  into  the  Union,  that  the  fatal  weakness  resulting 
from  slavery  in  the  older  States  might  be  compensated  by 
the  extent  of  the  South,  and  by  the  number  of  votes  in  the 
Congress, — controlling  legislation  in  their  interest. 

Out  of  this  radical  conflict  of  free  labor  and  slave-labor, 
have  sprung  naturally  the  elements  of  this  war.  In  the 
race,  slavery  has  crippled  itself.  It  therefore  seeks  to 
escape  from  institutions  and  influences  that  expose  its 
folly,  that  reveal  its  degradation  and  poverty,  and  would 
inevitably,  in  due  time,  revolutionize  and  destroy  it.  Not 
only  is  it  true  that  the  workingmen  of  England  have  an 
interest  in  this  conflict,  as  a  political  struggle;  but,  as  a 
conflict  between  the  two  grand  systems — Slave  labor  and 
Free  labor — it  addresses  itself  to  every  laboring  man  on  the 
globe.  If  the  North  succeed  and  slavery  be  crushed,  labor- 
ing men,  all  the  world  over,  will  be  benefited.  The  Amer- 
ican conflict  is  but  one  form  of  that  contest  which  is  going 
on  in  all  nations.  Men  that  live  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brow  are  aspiring  to  more  education,  to  a  larger  sphere  of 
influence,  to  some  share  of  political  power,  to  some  joint 
fruition  of  that  wealth  which  they  help  to  create.  They 
ought  to  know  their  fellows.  They  ought  to  recognize  in 
every  land  who  are  striving  for  them  and  who  against.  It 
is  monstrous  that  British  workmen  should  help  Southern 
slaveholders  to  degrade  labor.  Are  there  not  enough 
already  to  crush  the  poor  and  helpless  laborers  of  the 
world,  without  English  workingmen,  too,  joining  the  rebel 
gang  of  oppressors  ?  Every  word  for  the  South  is  a  blow 
against  the  slave  !  Every  stroke  aimed  at  the  slave  re- 
bounds upon  the  European  laborer  !  Join  the  slave-owner 
in  making  labor  compulsory  and  dishonorable,  and  the 
slave-owner  will  unite  with  European  extortioners  in  grind- 
ing the  poor  operatives  here  !  The  North  is  truly  fighting 
the  battle  of  the  laborer  everywhere.  The  North  honors 
work.     When  the   laborer  is  educated,  all  doors  are  open 


47 6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  him,  and  it  depends  on  his  own  powers  and  disposition 
whether  he  shall  be  a  drudge  or  an  honored  citizen.  It 
will  be  a  burning  shame  for  British  workmen  to  side 
against  their  own  friends  ! 

Consider  now,  for  a  moment,  what  were  our  respective 
divisions  when  this  war  broke  out  which  has  fused  all  par- 
ties into  one  in  the  North  and  one  in  the  South.  We  are 
not  to  expect  parties  formed  methodically  to  suit  any  phi- 
losophical or  ethical  theory.  Such  arrangements  never 
happen  in  a  land  so  large,  so  diverse  in  population,  so  free 
in  the  operation  of  opinions,  and  swayed  by  so  many  mo- 
tives. Slavery  had  long  exerted  a  grave  influence  upon 
the  condition  of  the  country  before  it  was  recognized  in 
politics.  Indeed,  the  first  sign  of  the  entrance  of  this  vexed 
question  into  active  politics  was  seen  in  the  anxious  en- 
deavors of  all  parties  to  exclude  it.  The  early  anti-slavery 
men  found  themselves  shut  out  from  all  parties,  from 
ecclesiastical  bodies,  from  every  organization  of  society. 
They  gathered  adherents  outside  of  all  moral  and  civil 
institutions.  But  nothing  could  long  keep  out  a  topic 
which  was  forced  upon  the  North  by  the  unwise  and  arro- 
gant legislation  of  the  South.  At  length  the  subject  took 
complete  possession  of  politics,  and  divided  the  whole 
public  into  parties.  But  I  shall  consider  the  division  of 
opinions,  rather  than  of  parties,  which  are  seldom  homo- 
geneous. 

There  were  three  degrees  of  opinion.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  for  independence  the  term  Abolitionist  was  applied 
to  such  men  as  Franklin,  John  Jay,  and  others,  who  united 
in  societies  for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery.  These 
societies  died  out,  and  the  name  was  almost  forgotten,  till 
revived  about  1830,  and  applied,  then  and  since,  exclusively 
to  Mr.  Garrison  and  his  school.  These  reformers  regarded 
slavery  as  so  established,  and  the  institutions  of  the  country 
as  so  controlled  by  its  advocates,  that  all  remedy  was  hope- 
less, and  they  urged  an  utter  separation  from  the  South,  as  the 
only  way  of  freeing  the  North  from  the  guilt  and  contam- 
ination of  slavery.  There  was  no  political  difference  be- 
tween Mr.  Garrison's  disunion   and  Mr.  Davis's  secession. 


SPEECH  IX  GLASGOW.  477 

But  the  moral  difference  was  world  wide.  The  disunionists 
of  the  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  school  were  seeking 
to  promote  liberty  and  to  weaken  slavery.  Mr.  Davis  and 
his  followers  are  seeking  to  strengthen  slavery  and  to 
restrict  liberty.  But  the  Abolitionists,  though  a  heroic 
band,  sought  a  right  thing  by  a  wrong  method.  Their 
party  was  never  large,  but  their  direct  and  indirect  influ- 
ence was  great. 

Another  section  was  represented  by  the  great  body  of 
moral  and  intelligent  men  in  the  North  who  held  that 
slavery  should  be  limited  to  its  present  territory;  that,  since 
it  existed  by  State  laws  and  not  by  national  laws,  it  should 
be  restricted  to  those  States  in  which  it  was  found  de  facto; 
that  Congress  should  leave  it  where  it  was,  but  defend  the 
Territories  from  its  incursions;  that  the  Government  should 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  men  who  loved  liberty  more  than 
slavery;  that  our  courts  should  be  purged  of  judges  ap- 
pointed to  serve  Southern  interests.  It  was  believed,  and 
I  was  of  this  faith  myself,  that,  were  slavery  rigorously 
confined  to  existing  bounds,  and  the  institutions  of  the 
nation  arrayed  on  the  side  of  liberty,  gradually  natural 
laws,  with  commercial  changes  and  the  exigencies  of  polit- 
ical economy,  would  work  out  a  system  of  emancipation. 
These  views  were  held  by  the  North  both  in  a  latent  and 
an  active  form,  by  men  who  were  widely  different  in  pol- 
itics, and  who  sought  different  and  even  conflicting  methods 
of  enforcing  them. 

The  third  section  was  represented  by  that  class  of  men 
which  exists  in  every  land  without  moral  convictions  in 
public  affairs,  who  regard  politics  as  a  game,  and  who  look 
only  at  interest  as  the  end  of  parties.  To  such  were  added 
vast  numbers  of  ignorant  immigrants.  With  a  partial  and 
honorable  exception  in  favor  of  the  Germans,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  great  body  of  immigrants  flying  from  foreign  hard- 
ships and  oppression  joined  the  pro-slavery  party  in  America, 
and  arranged  themselves  against  the  negro.  This  has 
been  the  peculiar  and  chief  difficulty  of  the  North  in  polit- 
ical efforts.  We  owe  to  Europe,  but  chiefly  to  Great 
Britain,  those  hindrances  that  so   long  paralyzed  political 


47 8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

effort,  and  divided  the  action  of  the  North.  It  will  be  seen 
by  this  brief  view,  that  the  Northern  movement  proposed 
no  violence  nor  any  precipitate  action.  We  relied  on  the 
inherent  superiority  of  free  labor  to  develop  our  embryo 
territories,  and  hoped  that,  with  time  and  patience,  moral 
influences,  following  the  operation  of  great  natural  laws, 
would  waste  away  slavery,  without  violence  or  revolution, 
and  with  benefit  to  both  the  bond  and  the  free.  The  key- 
note of  Northern   policy  was    No  more   Slave  States — 

No  MORE  LEGISLATION  IN  FAVOR  OF  SLAVERY.       Let  it  die   by 

its  own  inherent  diseases  ! 

Now  let  me  speak  of  the  South.  What  have  been  the 
divisions  of  the  South  ?  There  have  been  two  tendencies 
there;  a  more  moderate  and  a  more  extreme  party.  The 
former  attempted  to  maintain  the  South  on  the  basis  of 
slavery;  by  the  multiplication  of  new  States;  by  the  ac- 
quisition of  territories,  and  so  directing  the  Government 
as  to  fortify  slavery  till  it  should  stretch  across  the  conti- 
nent from  ocean  to  ocean.  That  has  been  the  object  of  the 
earlier  and  main  party  of  the  South.  The  second  was  the 
South  Carolina  party,  who  date  from  Mr.  Calhoun's  time. 
This  party  meant  to  break  off  from  the  Union  as  soon  as 
they  were  strong  enough.  Just  as  long  as  anything  was 
to  be  gained  by  staying,  so  long  they  meant  to  stay;  but 
as  soon  as  nothing  more  was  to  be  gained,  they  meant  to 
go.  They  included  the  former  plan,  but  more  also.  They 
designed,  first,  separate  national  existence  as  the  ultimate 
aim  of  the  Southern  States;  and  secondly,  the  inclusion  of 
the  tropics  of  America  in  a  gigantic  cotton-growing  slave 
empire.  They  meant,  ere  long,  to  seize  Mexico  and  Cen- 
tral America;  to  include  the  vast  central  American  trop- 
ical Oceanica,  and  spread  slavery  over  all.  They  proudly 
said — Cotton  is  king  !  and  if  we  have  cotton  and  the  means 
of  raising  it,  we  can  control  the  destiny  of  the  globe  ! 
They  meant  also  to  re-open  the  African  slave-trade  for  the 
purpose  of  cheapening  negroes,  who  are  the  most  expen- 
sive item  of  labor.  In  South  Carolina  this  scheme  was 
unblushingly  and  openly  advocated:  and  if  I  had  lived  in 
the  South  and  been  a  slaveholder,  I  should  have  been  of 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  479 

that  party.  What  !  an  advocate  of  the  African  slave- 
trade  ?  Yes,  I  should  !  The  day  that  I  make  up  my  mind 
to  keep  slaves,  I  shall  have  to  keep  them  ignorant;  and  if 
I  live  in  the  cotton  States,  I  am  not  likely  to  pay  Virginia, 
under  a  home-tariff,  a  thousand  dollars  for  a  slave  that  I  can 
import  from  Africa  for  three  hundred  dollars.  The  fact  is, 
the  law  that  makes  the  foreign  slave-trade  piracy  is  nothing 
but  a  high  tariff  in  favor  of  the  slave-breeding  States;  and 
the  States  that  do  not  breed  slaves,  say, — That  tariff  must 
be  taken  off;  if  Africa  can  produce  the  material  cheaper 
than  Virginia,  we  must  have  the  advantage  of  it.  I  de- 
clare too,  that  the  inter-state  slave-trade  of  America  is  in 
many  most  important  respects  more  cruel  than  the  rough- 
est part  of  the  African  slave-trade.  To  bring  up  men  un- 
der the  gospel;  to  bring  up  women  with  some  of  the  tender 
susceptibilities  of  womanhood,  and  more  than  half  their 
blood  white  blood, — to  rear  them  in  your  household,  and 
then, — if  bankruptcy  threatens,  or  exigencies  press,  to  call 
out  your  valuable  slaves  from  a  Virginian  plantation  and 
sell  them  to  the  slave-master,  to  manacle  them, — to  drive 
in  gangs  men  reared  under  the  sound  of  the  bell  of  the 
Christian  Church, — who  have  acquired  something  of  re- 
finement in  their  masters'  families — to  carry  them  down 
South  in  droves  of  fifties  and  hundreds,  as  is  done  on  every 
great  street  and  road  of  the  northern  line  of  Slave  States, 
— is,  I  say,  more  infernal,  more  wicked,  by  as  much  as  these 
northern-bred  slaves  are  more  tender,  susceptible,  and  in- 
telligent, than  the  poor  half-imbruted  African.  If  God 
sends  one  bolt  at  the  ship  that  brings  slaves  from  Africa, 
double-shotted  thunders  are  aimed  at  every  gang-master 
that  drives  them  from  the  Northern  slave  States  to  the 
Southern.  [Afplausei\  It  was  perfectly  natural  that  South 
Carolina  should  include  in  its  project  of  aggrandizement 
the  opening  of  the  African  slave-trade;  and  every  freeman 
in  Great  Britain  that  goes  for  the  South,  really  goes  for  the 
opening  of  that  trade.  \Cheers  and  hisses. ~\  When  you  put 
a  drunken  engineer  to  drive  a  train,  you  may  not  mean  to 
come  to  any  harm,  but  when  you  are  in  that  train  you 
cannot  help  yourselves.     It  is  just  the  same  here.      You  do 


4 So  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

not  mean  the  slave-trade,  but  they  do;  and  all  that  they  ask 
of  you  is — "  Be  blind."     [Laughter  and  applause] 

This  Southern  plan  thus  includes  the  opening  of  the 
slave-trade  for  the  sake  of  cheapening  negroes,  and  the 
secession  threw  the  control  of  the  whole  South  into  the 
hands  of  these  extremists.  You  may  not  be  aware  that 
when  secession  was  proposed,  after  the  election  of  Lincoln, 
every  State  by  its  popular  vote  went  against  secession, 
except  South  Carolina.  Well,  that  might  have  seemed  a 
fatal  obstacle.  Not  at  all.  The  leaders  of  this  extreme 
party  immediately  began  to  work  upon  the  legislatures 
either  to  call  conventions  or  to  act  as  conventions,  and  pass 
secession  acts.  The  States  were  carried  out  of  the  Union 
into  secession  notwithstanding  the  vote  of  the  people  not 
many  months  before.  How  was  it  that  Tennessee  was 
carried  out  ? — how  was  Alabama  carried  out  ? — how  was 
even  such  a  State  as  Georgia  carried  out  against  such  a 
man  as  Mr.  Stephens,  the  vice-president  of  the  Confederacy 
— a  man  who,  though  on  the  wrong  side,  is  the  best  man,  I 
think,  in  the  whole  Southern  States  of  America  \applause\ 
and — if  it  were  not  for  the  accursed  surrounding  of  slavery 
— is  as  true  and  far  sighted  a  statesman  as  we  have  ever  had 
in  America.  How  did  they  carry  out  these  States  by  their 
legislatures  ?  They  said  to  the  members  of  the  legislatures 
throughout  the  South,  "  The  North  never  stood  in  a  fair 
stand-up  fight.  It  was  always  anxious  about  its  mills  and 
stores  and  its  money.  They  will  rouse  up  at  first,  but 
whenever  it  comes  to  the  last,  and  we  threaten  fire  and 
bloodshed,  they  always  knuckle  under."  Well,  I  am 
ashamed  to  say  there  was  too  much  truth  in  this.  Com- 
mercial interest  on  one  side,  and  a  desire  for  peace  and 
love  of  the  Union  on  the  other,  had  always  led  the  North 
to  yield  to  Southern  threats.  But  that  was  ended.  A  new 
spirit  had  arisen.  The  North  now  for  the  first  time  thor- 
oughly believed  that  the  South  aimed  to  nationalize  slavery.  The 
North  never  had  believed  that  it  was  worth  while  to  agi- 
tate the  controversy,  until  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the 
South  in  Kansas  brought  the  North  to  its  consciousness. 
Since  then  it  has  been  true  as  steel.     Well,  the  South  said, 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  481 

"  The  North  will  not  willingly  see  us  go  out  of  the  Union 
— that  is  a  mere  ruse  on  our  part:  we  will  go  out  by  '  seces- 
sion,' and  say,  We  will  come  back  if  you  give  us  new 
guaranties.  Even  if  they  will  not  do  that,  there  will  be  no 
war;  for  the  North  will  not  fight  us."  With  these  argu- 
ments the  legislatures  were  won,  and  the  secession  was 
accomplished  in  the  greater  number  of  the  Slave  States. 
The  upper  classes  thought  that  secession  was  only  a  polit- 
ical trick,  through  which  they  were  to  go  back  into  a  re- 
constructed Union,  with  new  guaranties  inserted  for  the 
nationalization  of  slavery  and  for  its  extension  all  over  the 
continent. 

But  at  this  time  there  happened  to  be  more  or  less  of 
conference  between  friends  in  the  North  and  friends  in 
the  South,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  consummation  would 
be  prevented.  Virginia  had  refused  persistently  to  pass 
the  secession  ordinance.  The  convention  that  was  by 
the  popular  vote  elected  in  Virginia  was  known  to  be 
immensely  in  favor  of  remaining  in  the  Union.  It  was 
necessary  that  something  should  be  done  to  prevent  Vir- 
ginia standing  out  with  the  North;  and  it  was  done.  The 
gang  of  slave-drivers  in  Richmond  intimidated  the  mem- 
bers of  the  convention.  When  the  history  shall  be  written, 
the  fact  will  appear,  that  numbers  of  convention  members 
were  made  afraid  for  their  lives.  They  were  told  almost 
in  so  many  words,  "  You  shall  never  leave  Richmond 
alive,  if  you  fail  to  vote  secession."  It  was  voted,  but 
secretly,  and  it  was  not  known  in  Virginia  for  weeks.  I 
was  myself  a  fellow-passenger  with  one  man,  who  was 
making  a  circuitous  journey  throughout  the  North  to  get 
home  alive  to  his  farm  in  the  Western  part  of  Virginia,  be- 
cause he  had  been  true,  and  refused  to  vote  for  secession, 
even  secretly.  It  was  to  commit  the  South,  to  fire  the 
wavering,  and  arouse  the  sectional  blood,  that  orders  were 
sent  by  telegraph  from  Washington  by  the  Southern  con- 
spirators who  were  lurking  there — "  Open  your  batteries 
on  Fort  Sumter."  And  they  fired  at  that  glorious  old 
flag,  which  had  carried  the  honor  of  the  American   name 

round  the  globe,  in  order  that  they   might   take   Virginia 
31 


482  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

out  of  the  Union,  and  compel  the  North  to  submit  either 
to  a  degrading  compromise,  or  to  the  independence  of  the 
South.     That  is  the  history  of  the  matter.     \Applause^\ 

Now  let  me  speak  of  the  North.  O,  how  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  the  North  !  I  have  stood  on  the  summit 
of  the  noblest  mountains  in  Switzerland:  I  have  seen 
whatever  that  country  had  to  show  me  of  mountain  peak, 
of  more  than  royal  mountains  of  clouds,  of  glaciers:  I 
have  seen  the  beauties  of  Northern  Italy:  I  have  seen  the 
glories  of  the  ocean:  I  have  seen  whatever  Nature  has  to 
show  of  her  sublimity  on  land  and  on  sea:  but  the  grand- 
eur of  the  uprising  of  the  Northern  people,  when  the 
thunder  of  the  first  cannon  rolled  through  their  valleys 
and  over  their  hills,  was  something  beyond  all  these;  nor 
do  I  expect,  till  the  judgment  day  fills  me  with  wondering 
awe,  to  see  such  a  sight  again.  There  had  been  a  secret 
agreement  with  a  portion  of  the  Democratic  leaders  in  the 
North,  that  they  were  to  side  with  the  South,  and  paralyze 
Northern  resistance.  But  with  stern  unanimity  the  public 
voice  denounced  complicity  with  the  South  as  a  treason 
worthy  of  death.  The  astounding  outburst  of  patriotic 
feeling  terrified  even  such  men  as  the  two  Woods,  and 
they  made  haste  to  join  the  rolling  tide.  No  rainbow  was 
ever  so  decked  with  color  as  was  Broadway  with  flags. 
Bunting  went  up  in  the  market.  [Laughter ■.]  High  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  "  Democratic  "  and  "  Republican,"  men 
that  had  been  for  the  South,  and  men  that  had  been  for 
the  North,  found  themselves  in  company.  It  is  said  that 
misery  makes  one  acquainted  with  strange  bedfellows,  but 
patriotism  makes  even  stranger  transformations.  I  found 
men  that  were  ready  to  mob  me  yesterday  for  my  anti- 
slavery  agitations,  were  ready  to  denounce  me  to-day  be- 
cause I  was  not  anti-slavery  enough.  Propelled  by  this 
universal  feeling,  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
began — to  do  what  ?  To  defend  the  laws  and  the  consti- 
tution. If  they  had  failed  to  do  this,  if  when  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  country  was  threatened  by  this  rebellion 
they  had  faltered,  not  Judas,  not  the  meanest  traitor  that 
has  ever  been  execrated  through  all  time,  would  have  sur- 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  483 

passed  them  in  ignominy.  [Cheers.]  I  have  been  asked, 
would  it  not  have  been  better  to  negotiate  ?  What !  with 
cannon  balls  firing  right  into  your  midst  !  [Hear,  hear.'] 
The  other  side  was  using  powder  and  balls,  and  you  pro- 
pose to  us  wad  and  paper  !  The  day  for  talking  was  gone 
by  forever.  They  had  talked  too  much  already.  It  was 
then  the  day  for  action.     [Cheers.] 

Men  in  England,  Scotland,  or  Ireland,  ask  me,  Why  did 
you  not  consent  to  let  them  go,  since  the  whole  Southern 
economy  is  so  opposed  to  Northern  ?  Only  on  the  single 
matter  of  slavery  is  there  any  antagonism.  If  that  were 
to  be  an  increasing  and  perpetual  evil,  many  men  would 
assent  to  separation  who  now  do  not.  But  we  believe  it 
to  be  a  removable  evil.  The  nature  of  our  institutions  is 
against  it.  The  laws  of  nature  are  against  it.  The  con- 
science of  the  nation,  the  public  sentiment  of  Christendom, 
are  against  it.  The  real  and  general  interest  of  the  South 
itself  is  opposed  to  it.  Free  labor  in  place  of  slave  labor 
would  be  the  greatest  boon  that  could  be  conferred  upon 
the  Southern  States.  Men  that  profit  by  slavery  are  but  a 
handful;  all  the  rest  suffer  from  its  deadly,  wasting  nat- 
ure. If  then  a  limit  can  be  placed  to  its  growth,  and  it 
can  be  subjected  to  the  unobstructed  influences  of  natural, 
moral,  and  civil  laws,  it  will  quickly  begin  to  decay  and 
give  place  to  a  healthier  system.  Already  the  tendency  had 
in  many  sections  been  established;  and,  as  it  was  this  fer- 
vent hope  of  a  peaceful  ending  of  slavery  that  disinclined 
thousands  of  conscientious  men  in  the  North  to  meddle 
with  it,  so  now  it  is  the  same  wish  to  see  slavery  ended 
that  leads  them  to  refuse  their  consent  to  a  separation, 
which  not  only  dismembers  the  nation,  but  gives  a  new 
lease  of  life  to  slavery,  and  opens  for  it  a  dark  empire  full 
of  sorrow  and  tears  and  blood  within,  of  quarrels  and  wars 
without,  an  empire  of  belligerent  mischiefs  to  all.  When 
I  am  asked,  Why  not  let  the  South  go  ?  I  return  for  an 
answer  a  question.  Be  pleased  to  tell  me  what  part  of  the 
British  Islands  you  are  willing  to  let  go  from  under  the 
crown  when  its  inhabitants  secede  and  set  up  for  independ- 
ence ?     If  you  say  ten  or  fifteen  States,  with  twelve  millions 


484  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  inhabitants,  are  not  to  be  compared  to  the  county  of 
Kent, — I  say,  they  are  to  be  compared  to  Kent.  For  that 
county  bears  a  greater  proportion  to  the  square  miles  of 
the  British  Islands  than  the  rebellious  States  do  to  the 
whole  territory  of  the  Union.  But  the  right  or  wrong  of 
such  rebellions  are  not  questions  in  arithmetic.  Numbers 
do  not  change  civil  obligations.  Secession  was  an  appeal 
from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet.  It  was  not  a  noble  minority 
defying  usurpation  or  despotism  in  the  assertion  of  funda- 
mental rights.  It  was  a  despotism,  which,  when  put  to 
shame  by  the  will  of  a  free  people,  expressed  through  the 
ballot-box,  rushed  into  rebellion  as  the  means  of  perpetu- 
ating slavery.  Northern  sentiment,  and  great  natural 
laws,  were  preparing  the  way  for  the  emancipation  of  four 
million  of  slaves:  thereupon  eight  million  whites  broke 
allegiance  and  withdrew  from  a  free  government  in  order 
to  maintain  this  slave  system;  and  that  is  praised,  in 
Great  Britain,  as  a  heroic  struggle  for  independence  ! 
Whose  independence,  the  white  man's  or  the  black  man's  ? 
Unreflecting  men  are  deceived  by  the  instances  of  colonics 
in  the  past,  such  as  the  American  colonies,  breaking  off 
from  the  parent  Government,  and  asserting  their  independ- 
ence. A  remote  colony,  an  outlying  and  separate  territory, 
whose  autonomy  is  already  practically  established,  and 
whose  connection  with  the  home  government  is  not  inti- 
mate, territorial,  adjacent,  but  only  political, — is  not  to 
be  compared  with  home  territory,  geographically  touching 
the  country  along  its  whole  line.  This  is  not  cutting  off  a 
foot,  or  a  hand.  It  is  cutting  across  the  body  right  under 
the  heart.  The  line  of  fracture  proposed  by  the  South  is 
not  a  stone's  throw  from  the  national  capital.  France 
might  consent  to  let  Algiers  go,  but  would  she  let  a  north 
and  south  line  be  run  touching  the  city  of  Paris  on  the 
east,  and  separating  all  the  territory  east  from  her  domin- 
ions? Great  Britain  might  suffer  the  Canadas  to  secede 
from  the  crown;  but  would  she  suffer  an  east  and  west 
line  to  be  run  along  the  edge  of  London,  and  all  the  terri- 
tory south  of  it  to  pass  into  hostile  hands?  Yet  this  is 
the  very  case  of    America.     Secession    accomplished  will 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  485 

leave  Washington  toppling  on  the  edge  of  the  Southern 
abyss,  in  whose  lurid  future  loom  the  elements  of  quarrel, 
collision,  and  terrific  war.  In  asserting  the  integrity  of 
our  territory  under  the  national  Government,  we  shut  that 
door,  through  which  threaten  to  come  just  such  storms  as 
have  for  hundreds  of  years  past  deluged  Europe  with 
blood.  Better  a  single  gigantic  struggle  now  than  a 
hundred  years  of  intermittent  wars,  ending  in  treacherous 
truces,  and  breaking  out  again  at  every  decade  in  fierce 
conflict. 

I  shall  now  refer  to  the  astonishing  pretense  made  in 
England  that  this  war  has  nothing  to  do  with  slavery  ! 
Never  has  the  South  asserted  this.  The  interest  of  slavery 
was  the  very  ground  alleged  for  rebellion,  and  the  justifi- 
cation put  in  for  it.  Slavery  having  been  adopted  as  the 
central  principle  of  Southern  political  economy, — her  poli- 
tics having  for  thirty  years  avowedly  and  indisputably 
moved  around  that  center, — all  her  quarrels  with  the 
North  having  been  about  slavery,  directly  or  indirectly, — 
the  issues  of  the  last  Presidential  election  having  been 
issues  made  upon  this  very  question  of  slavery, — all  her 
principal  statesmen  having  made  interferences  with  slavery 
wrongs  at  the  hands  of  the  North  (wrongs  in  the  past  or 
feared  in  the  future),  the  very  reason  of  rebellion, — the 
whole  interior  history  of  America  for  seventy  years  hav- 
ing been  wound  up  on  this  spool, — what  amazing  impu- 
dence do  they  manifest,  who,  calculating  on  the  ignorance 
of  the  British  public,  dare  to  affirm,  that  slavery  has  nothing 
to  do  with  this  war  !  Slavery  has  been  the  very  alphabet 
of  the  war.  Every  letter  of  its  history  has  been  taken 
from  the  font  of  slavery.  The  whole  black  literature  01 
the  war  has  been  drawn  from  slavery  !  To  be  sure  there 
is  a  division  of  opinion  in  America,  whether  the  fire-eaters 
of  the  South,  or  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North,  are  most 
to  blame  for  making  slavery  the  occasion  of  the  war;  but 
not  a  sane  man  on  our  whole  continent  can  be  found  deny- 
ing that  slavery  is  the  root  of  it !  You  cannot  point  to  a 
war  either  in  ancient  or  modern  times,  that  has  turned  so 
much  upon   fundamental   principles  as   this   one   between 


486  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  North  and  the  South.  There  is  the  South  with  her 
gigantic  system  of  slavery,  and  there  is  the  North  with 
her  freedom,  her  free  soil,  free  labor,  free  speech,  and  her 
free  press;  and  the  question  is,  which  of  these  two  shall 
govern  the  American  continent?  [Applause.]  The  North  pre- 
ferred to  settle  this  question  by  discussion,  by  moral  in- 
fluence, by  legal  and  constitutional  means;  but  the  South 
threw  down  the  gauntlet,  refused  a  convention,  and  fired 
on  the  old  flag;  and  now  her  minions  are  whining  and  cry- 
ing in  England  because  the  North  will  make  war  !  If  they 
did  not  like  blows,  why  did  they  strike  them  ?  I  will  ad- 
mit that  the  South  are  as  gallant  a  people  as  ever  lived;  I 
will  admit  that  when  they  shall  come  back  to  the  Union, 
as  they  will — [applause,  and  cries  of  "Never"  and  waving  of 
handkerchief s\  —  they  will  come  back — \a  voice,  "Never."] — - 
Perhaps  you  will  not,  but — [laughter] — they  will.  ["Never." 
A  voice,  "They  are  Anglo-Saxon  and  will  never  come  back." 
Why,  if  I  thought  that  this  thing  was  to  be  fought  out  here,  I 
would  say  it  over  and  over  again  till  daylight  broke;  but  not 
your  breath  denying  or  mine  affirming  will  alter  the  issue. 
The  Grants,  the  Rosecranses,  the  Bankses,  must  do  that. 
[Hisses.]  But  when  the  South  shall  come  back  into  the 
Union  ["Never"],  we  shall  honor  them  more  than  ever 
we  did,  for  their  good  management  and  courage.  [Ap- 
plause.] There  are  some  things  that  men  may  pay  too 
much  to  find  out;  but  if  the  South,  by  paying  the  blood 
of  thrice  ten  thousand  of  her  sons,  finds  out  that  liberty  is 
better  than  slavery,  she  will  not  have  paid  a  drop  too 
much.     [Applause.] 

The  triumph  of  the  North  in  this  conflict  will  be  the 
triumph  of  free  institutions,  even  if  the  Northern  people 
and  Government  could  be  proved  to  have  been  delinquent, 
in  every  individual  and  in  every  public  officer.  Large  as 
is  our  country,  independent  in  opinions,  and  hitherto  di- 
vided in  sentiment  about  slavery, — never  was  any  people 
so  sincere,  so  religiously  earnest,  as  is  now  the  North. 
But,  what  if  its  people  were  insincere,  its  president  a 
trickster,  his  emancipation  proclamation  a  hollow  pre- 
tense ?     What  if  the  North  were  as  cruel  to  colored   peo- 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  487 


pie  as  slavery  is  ?  All  that  would  not  change  the  inevita- 
ble fact,  that  the  triumph  of  the  North  carries  with  it  her 
free  institutions  all  over  the  continent !  //  is  awar  of  Prin- 
ciples and  of  Institutions.  The  victory  will  be  a  victory  of 
Principles  and  of  Institutions.  This  is  avowed  by  the 
South  as  well  as  by  us.  If  the  North  prevails,  she  carries 
over  the  continent  her  pride  of  honest  work,  her  free  pub- 
lic schools,  her  homestead  law,  which  gives  to  every  man 
who  will  occupy  it  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land;  her 
free  press,  her  love  and  habit  of  free  speech,  her  untiring 
industry,  her  thrift,  frugality,  and  morality,  and  above  all 
her  democratic  ideas  of  human  rights,  and  her  Old  En- 
glish notions  of  a  commonwealth,  transmitted  to  her  from 
Sydney,  Hampden,  Vane,  Milton;  and  not  least,  her  free 
churches  with  their  vast  train  of  charities  and  beneficences  ! 
These  results  do  not  depend  upon  the  will  of  individuals. 
They  go  with  the  society,  the  civilization,  the  ineradicable 
nature  of  those  Northern  democratic  institutions  which 
are  in  conflict  with  Southern  despotic  institutions.  If  then 
any  one  says,  I  cannot  give  my  sympathy  to  the  Northern 
cause,  because  the  people  of  the  North  are  just  as  bad  as 
the  people  of  the  South,  I  first  utterly  deny  the  fact,  but 
next,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  I  for  a  moment  yield  it, 
and  reply  that  the  institutions  of  the  North  are  not  so  bad 
as  the  institutions  of  the  South,  even  if  the  people  are. 
This  is  a  war  of  institutions,  not  simply  of  races.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  look  into  the  motives  of  her  individual 
citizens.  Look  into  the  spirit  and  structure  of  Northern 
society.  Look  at  her  history  and  see  in  the  vast  Western 
States  what  is  the  result  of  the  ascendency  of  her  ideas. 
Look  into  those  great  natural  laws  which  have  generated 
and  controlled  her  civilization  ! 

But  I  return  to  the  shameless  and  impudent  assertion 
that  the  North  is  not  sincere  in  this  conflict.  True,  the 
North  has  her  own  ways  of  managing  her  own  affairs. 
She  is  guided  by  the  genius  of  her  own  institutions,  and 
not  by  the  whims  of  unsympathizing  critics  three  thou- 
sand miles  off,  ignorant  of  her  ideas,  history,  institutions, 
emergencies,  and  difficulties.     But  there  has  never  before, 


488  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

since  time  began,  been  a  spectacle  like  that  in  America.  A 
million  men  have  been  on  foot  in  the  army  and  navy,  every 
man  a  volunteer,  the  best  blood  of  the  North,  her  workmen, 
her  farmers  and  artisans,  her  educated  sons,  lawyers,  doc- 
tors, ministers  of  the  gospel,  young  men  of  wealth  and 
refinement,  side  by  side  with  the  modest  sons  of  toil,  and 
every  man  a  volunteer!  They  have  come,  not  like  the  Goths 
and  Huns  from  a  wandering  life  or  inclement  skies,  to  seek 
fairer  skies  and  richer  soil;  but  from  homes  of  luxury, 
from  cultivated  farms,  from  busy  workshops,  from  literary 
labors,  from  the  bar,  the  pulpit,  and  the  exchange,  throng- 
ing around  the  old  national  flag  that  had  symbolized  lib- 
erty to  mankind,  all  moved  by  a  profound  love  of  country, 
and  firmly,  fiercely  determined  that  the  mother-land  shall 
not  be  divided,  especially  not  in  order  that  slavery  may 
scoop  out  for  itself  a  den  of  refuge  from  Northern  civili- 
zation, and  an  empire  to  domineer  over  all  the  American 
tropics !  It  is  this  sublime  patriotism  which,  on  every 
side,  I  hear  stigmatized  as  the  mad  rush  of  national  am- 
bition !  Has  then  the  love  of  country  run  so  low  in  Great 
Britain,  that  the  rising  of  a  nation  to  defend  its  territory, 
its  government,  its  flag,  and  all  the  institutions  over  which 
that  has  waved,  is  a  theme  for  cold  aversion  in  the  pulpit, 
and  sneers  in  the  pew?  Is  generosity  dead  in  England, 
that  she  will  not  admire  in  her  children  those  very  quali- 
ties which  have  made  the  children  proud  of  the  memories 
of  their  common  English  ancestors? 

But,  it  is  asked,  since  the  South  is  so  utterly  discordant 
with  the  North,  why  not  let  her  go,  and  have  peace  ?  Go  ! 
But  it  is  to  stay  that  they  are  fighting  !  If  their  white 
population  would  but  go  and  leave  to  us  and  to  the  negroes 
a  peaceful  territory,  we  might  be  willing;  but  it  is  a  rebell- 
ious population  asking  leave  to  organize  political  inde- 
pendence within  the  United  States  for  the  sake  of  threat- 
ening the  peace  of  the  whole  future  !  Our  trouble  is,  that 
if  we  give  them  leave  to  go,  they  will  stay.  [Laughter.] 
No  mountains  divide  the  North  from  the  South — they  run 
the  other  way.  No  cross  rivers  divide  them — they  run  the 
other  way.     No  latitudes  or  climates  divide  the  one  from 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  489 

the  other.  Don't  you  know  that  God  has  affianced  the  tor- 
rid and  the  temperate  zones  in  America  one  to  the  other, 
and  that  they  are  always  running  into  each  other's  arms  ? 
The  Gulf-streams  of  population  are  constantly  interchang- 
ing in  such  a  continent  as  ours.  There  is  no  division  line 
that  you  can  make,  except  a  merely  arbitrary  one.  There 
is  a  line  of  twelve  hundred  miles,  east  and  west,  which  you 
propose  in  your  division  to  make  the  fiery  line  of  a  slave 
empire.  Do  you  ask  us  to  such  a  bequest  of  peace  as  that  ? 
A  Southern  boundary  of  twelve  hundred  miles  long,  charged 
with  the  flames  and  thunder  of  war,  ready  to  explode  on 
any  occasion?  Well,  may  be — may  be — -you  could  lie  down 
on  a  powder  magazine,  with  a  thousand  tons  of  powder  in 
it,  and  a  fire  raging  within  an  inch  of  it,  but  /  could  not  ! 
Will  so  much  as  one  cause  of  quarrel  be  taken  out  of  the 
way  ?  Will  there  be  anything  that  will  stop  slaves  run- 
ning across,  and  the  South  being  irritated  because  we  har- 
bor them  ?  Of  course  we  should  harbor  them,  as  you  do 
in  Canada.  No  law  could  stop  it  then.  [C/ieers.]  The 
only  thing  that  ever  gave  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  a 
shadow,  a  vestige  of  power,  was  that  for  the  sake  of  peace 
many  in  the  North  consented,  somehow  or  other,  to  get 
rid  of  their  consciences.  I  never  did.  [Aj>j>/ause.~\  I  hated 
the  law.  I  trod  it  underfoot;  and  I  declared,  to  the  face 
of  the  magistrates  and  the  government,  that  I  would  break 
it  in  every  way  I  could.  And  I  did.  [C/ieers.]  Now  say, 
if  it  were  so,  when  there  were  motives  of  patriotism  to 
maintain  such  an  obnoxious  law,  what  would  it  be  when 
the  sections  were  rent  asunder?  If  separated,  would  the 
contrast  of  free  labor  and  slave-labor  be  less  exciting? 
Would  our  press  be  less  bold  in  its  proclamation  of  doc- 
trines of  liberty?  Would  not  parties  in  secret  league  with 
Southern  parties  torment  the  border  States  with  new  di- 
visions, and  make  impossible  that  peace  by  which  we  are 
to  be  bribed  to  cease  this  war?  Cruel  as  the  war  is,  yet  to 
stop  it  until  slavery  has  its  death-wound,  would  be  even 
more  cruel  !  When  the  surgeon  has  cut  half  the  cancer 
out,  is  that  man  the  friend  of  the  patient,  who,  seeing  the 
blood  and    hearing  the  groans,   should   persuade   him  to 


49°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

leave  the  operation  half  performed,  and  bind  up  the  can- 
cered  limb  ?  But,  you  ask,  How  long  shall  we  carry  vio- 
lence into  the  South  ?  I  will  ask  you  a  question  in  reply. 
If  in  the  purlieus  of  vice  in  old  Glasgow,  there  should  be 
a  ward  of  which  a  confederation  of  burglars  and  thieves 
had  taken  possession,  how  long  would  you  invade  it  with 
your  police  ?  [Laughter.]  Would  Glasgow  give  up  to  them 
or  would  they  have  to  give  up  to  Glasgow  ? 

We  may  now  understand  what  Southern  rebellion  means. 
There  seems  a  need  of  information  on  this  point  in  high 
places.  Earl  Russell,  in  replying  to  Mr.  Sumner's  argu- 
ments upon  rebellion,  reproached  him  with  inconsistency 
in  such  a  horror  of  rebellion,  America  being  the  child  of 
two  rebellions  !  Were  they  rebellious  against  liberty  to 
more  despotism;  or  against  oppression  to  more  freedom? 
The  English  rebellion  and  the  American  rebellion  were 
both  toward  greater  freedom  of  all  classes  of  men.  This 
rebellion  is  for  the  sake  of  holding  four  million  slaves  with 
greater  security,  and  less  annoyance  from  free  institutions! 
And  now  observe  !  The  South,  expressly  in  order  to  hold 
fast  her  four  million  slaves,  makes  war  against  what  the 
Confederate  vice-president,  Mr.  Stephens,  in  dissuading 
secession,  pronounced  to  be  "the  best,  freest,  justest,  most 
lenient  Government  that  the  sun  ever  shone  upon."  He 
declared  that  the  South  had  no  grievances;  and  since 
secession,  he  has  glorified  the  new  Confederation,  as  estab- 
lished with  "  slavery  as  its  corner-stone."  On  this  is  writ- 
ten in  lurid  letters  of  infernal  light,  "  The  only  foundation 
of  our  liberty  is  to  own  the  laborer  and  to  oppress  the 
slave."  When  such  a  body  of  insurgents  comes  to  ask  you 
to  recognize  its  independence,  do  you  think  it  just  and 
humane — is  it  according  to  the  instinct — is  it  according  to 
the  conscience  of  Great  Britain  to  say  "  That  nation  ought 
to  have  its  independence  "  ? 

And  now  let  me  say  one  word  more;  for  I  am  embold- 
ened by  your  courtesy.  You  now  see  what  it  means  to 
give  your  aid  and  succor  to  the  South.  \Cheers.~\  Why 
were  you  in  favor  of  giving  the  Hungarians  their  liberty? 
Because  they  said,  The  yoke  of  Austria  is  heavier  than  we 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  491 

can  bear;  and  you  sympathized  with  them  because  it  was  a 
step  toward  larger  liberty.  When  Greece  complained,  why 
did  the  nations  interfere  ?  It  was  to  give  her  more  liberty, 
not  less.  When  Italy  asked  help,  why  did  France — then 
guided  by  her  better  genius — give  her  armies  to  beat  back 
the  Austrians  and  give  Italy  her  sway  in  the  Northern  part 
of  that  beautiful  peninsula?  It  was  because  Italy  sighed 
for  the  sweets  of  liberty — that  which  is  the  right  of  every 
people  on  the  globe.  Why  to-day  does  every  man  wish 
that  the  Czar  may  be  baffled,  that  he  may  be  sent  back  to 
the  frozen  fastnesses  of  the  North,  and  that  Poland  may 
stand  erect  in  her  nationality?  [Cheers.]  Why?  It  is 
because  Poland  is  under  a  despotism  and  is  struggling  for 
independence  and  liberty.  [Applause.]  You  know  now 
what  I  think  about  sending  clothes,  arms,  powder,  ships, 
and  all  the  muniments  of  war,  or  supplies  of  any  kind,  to 
the  South.  I  do  not  stop  to  discuss  whether  it  is  legal  or 
illegal.  I  do  not  discuss  this  as  a  question  of  technical  law 
at  all.  I  lift  it  up  and  put  it  on  the  ground  of  moral  law. 
Between  two  parties,  one  of  whom  is  laboring  for  the  integ- 
rity and  sanctity  of  labor,  and  the  other  is  for  robbery,  the 
degradation  of  labor,  and  the  integrity  of  slavery, — I  say 
that  the  man  that  gives  his  aid  to  the  Slave  Power  is  allied 
to  it,  and  is  making  his  money  by  building  up  tyranny. 
[Hear,  and  cheers.]  Every  man  that  strikes  a  blow  on  the 
iron  that  is  put  into  those  ships  for  the  South,  is  striking  a 
blow  and  forging  a  manacle  for  the  hand  of  the  slave. 
[Applause  and  hisses.]  Every  free  laborer  in  old  Glasgow 
who  is  laboring  to  rear  up  iron  ships  for  the  South,  is  labor- 
ing to  establish  on  sea  and  on  land  the  doctrine  that  cap- 
ital has  a  right  to  own  "labor."  [Cheers  and  hisses.]  You 
are  false  to  your  own  principles,  to  your  own  interests,  to 
mankind,  and  to  the  great  working  classes.  You  have  no 
right,  for  the  sake  of  poor  pitiful  pelf,  to  go  against  the 
great  toiling  multitudes  of  Europe  that  are  lifting  up  their 
hands  for  more  education  and  more  liberty.  You  have  no 
right  to  betray  that  cause  by  allying  yourselves  with  des- 
pots who,  in  holding  slaves,  establish  the  doctrine  that 
might  makes  right.     [Applause.]     It  is  not  in  anger  that  I 


49 2  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

speak,  it  is  not  in  pettishness  or  in  vehemence.  It  is  the 
Day-of-Judgment  view  of  the  matter.  O  !  I  would  rather 
than  all  the  crowns  and  thrones  of  earth  to  have  the  sweet, 
assuring  smile  of  Jesus  when  he  says,  "Come,  welcome; 
inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  unto 
me."  And  I  would  rather  face  the  thunderbolt  than  stand 
before  him  when  he  says  on  that  terrible  day,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  not  unto  the  least  of  these  my  little  ones,  ye 
did  it  not  unto  me."  You  strike  God  in  the  face  when  you 
work  for  slaveholders.  Your  money  so  got  and  quickly 
earned  will  be  badly  kept,  and  you  will  be  poor  before  you 
can  raise  your  children,  and  dying  you  will  leave  a  memory 
that  will  rise  against  you  at  the  day  of  judgment.  By  the 
solemnity  of  that  judgment — by  the  sanctity  of  conscience 
— by  the  love  you  bear  to  humanity — by  your  old  heredi- 
tary love  of  liberty; — in  the  name  of  God  and  of  mankind, 
I  charge  you  to  come  out  from  among  them,  to  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  .unclean  and  filthy  lucre  made  by  pander- 
ing to  slavery. 

One  word  more.  I  protest,  in  the  name  of  all  that  there 
is  in  kindred  blood,  against  Great  Britain  putting  herself 
in  such  a  position  that  she  cannot  be  in  cordial  and  ever- 
during  alliance  with  the  free  republic  in  America.  [Ap- 
plause.] I  declare  to  you  that  it  is  a  monstrous  severance 
of  your  only  natural  alliance,  for  Great  Britain  to  turn 
aside  from  free  America  and  seek  close  relations  with  des- 
potism !  You  owe  youselves  to  us,  and  we  owe  ourselves 
to  you.  You  ought  to  live  at  peace  with  France — you 
ought  to  study  their  reciprocal  interest  and  they  yours. 
But  after  all,  while  you  should  be  in  Christian  peace  with 
France,  I  tell  you  it  is  unnatural  for  England  to  be  in 
closer  alliance  with  France  than  America,  [//ear,  and  dis- 
approbation.] Nevertheless,  like  it  or  dislike  it,  so  it  is  !  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  truly  unnatural  for  America,  when  she 
would  go  into  a  foreign  alliance  to  seek  her  alliance  with 
Russia,  [//ear,  and  applause^]  O,  why  don't  you  hiss  now  ? 
[Laughter.']  I  declare  that  America  should  study  the  pros- 
perity of  Russia,  as  of  every  nation  of  the  globe;  but 
when  she  gives  her  heart  and  hand  in  alliance,  she  owes  it 


SPEECH  IN  GLASGOW.  493 

to  Great  Britain.  [App/ause.]  So  !  you  want  to  hear  that ! 
And  when  Great  Britain  turns  to  find  one  that  she  can  lean 
on — can  go  to  with  all  her  heart — one  of  her  own — we  are 
her  eldest-born,  strongest — to  us  she  must  come.  \Ap- 
p/ausc]  A  war  between  England  and  America  would  be 
like  murder  in  the  family — unnatural — monstrous  beyond 
words  to  depict.  Now,  then,  if  that  be  so,  it  is  our  duty  to 
avoid  all  cause  and  occasion  of  offense.  [Hear,  hear.~\  But 
remember — remember — remember — we  are  carrying  out  our 
dead.  Our  sons,  our  brothers'  sons,  our  sisters'  children — 
they  are  in  this  great  war  of  liberty  and  of  principle.  We 
are  taxing  all  our  energies.  You  are  at  peace;  and  if  in  the 
flounderings  of  this  gigantic  conflict  we  accidentally  tread 
on  your  feet,  are  we  or  you  to  have  most  patience  ?  When 
the  widowed  mother  sits  watching  the  shortening  breath 
of  her  child,  hovering  between  life  and  death, — it  may  be 
that  the  rent  has  not  been  paid, — it  may  be  that  her  fuel 
has  not  yet  been  settled  for;  but  what  would  you  think  of 
that  landlord  or  of  that  provision  dealer  who  would  send 
a  warrant  of  distress  when  the  funeral  was  going  out  of 
the  door,  and  arrest  her  when  she  was  walking  to  the  grave 
with  her  first-born  son.  Even  a  brute  would  say,  "Wait — 
wait  !  "  Yet  it  was  in  the  hour  of  our  mortal  anguish,  that 
when,  by  an  unauthorized  act,  one  of  the  captains  of  our 
navy  seized  a  British  ship  for  which  our  Government  in- 
stantly offered  all  reparation,  that  a  British  army  was 
hurried  to  Canada.  I  do  not  undertake  to  teach  the  law 
that  governs  the  question;  but  this  I  do  undertake  to  say, 
and  I  will  carry  every  generous  man  in  this  audience  with 
me,  when  I  affirm  that  if  between  America,  bent  double 
with  the  anguish  of  this  bloody  war,  and  Great  Britain, 
who  sits  at  peace,  there  is  to  be  forbearance  on  either  side, 
it  should  be  on  your  side.     [Applause.] 

Here  then  I  rest  my  cause  to-night,  asking  every  one  of 
you  to  unite  with  me  in  praying  that  God,  the  arbiter  of 
the  fates  of  nations,  would  so  guide  the  issue  that  those  who 
struggle  for  liberty  shall  be  victorious;  and  that  God,  who 
sways  the  hearts  of  nations,  may  so  sway  the  hearts  of 
Great  Britain  and  America  that  not  to  the  remotest  period 


494  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  time  shall  there  be  dissension,  but  golden  concord  be- 
tween them,  for  their  own  sakes  and  for  the  good  of  the 
whole  world.     [Great  cheering.] 

Several  questions  having  been  put  and  answered,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
George  Jeffery  moved  and  Councilor  Alexander  seconded  a  reso- 
lution expressive  of  approbation  of  Mr.  Beecher's  able  and  un- 
compromising advocacy  of  the  rights  of  the  slave  to  freedom,  and 
thanking  him  for  the  very  admirable  and  eloquent  address  de- 
livered that  evening,  which  was  carried  amid  great  and  prolonged 
cheering. 


SPEECH   IN    EDINBURGH. 
October  14,  1863. 


Long  before  the  hour  fixed  for  the  meeting,  all  the  entrances 
to  the  hall  were  besieged  by  large  masses  of  people;  and  the  rush 
for  places  was  so  great  that  a  few  minutes  after  the  opening  of  the 
doors  every  available  seat  was  taken  possession  of.  Crowds  of 
people  still  continued  to  pour  into  the  hall,  and  the  passages  be- 
came crammed.  As  the  time  arrived  for  the  entrance  of  the 
chairman  and  Mr.  Beecher,  it  became  a  serious  question  how 
they  were  to  gain  admission  to  the  hall.  After  some  time,  how- 
ever, they  managed  to  reach  the  platform,  and  were  received  with 
loud  and  prolonged  cheers.  Some  of  the  gentlemen  for  whom 
seats  had  been  reserved  on  the  platform  also  gained  admission — 
some  by  the  passage,  and  others  by  climbing  to  the  Moderator's 
gallery  and  walking  along  the  ledge. 

The  Chairman,  Mr.  Duncan  M'Laren,  said:  "Ladies  and  Gen- 
tlemen: May  I  entreat  as  a  great  favor  that  the  utmost  quietness 
be  preserved,  because  I  have  often  observed  that  it  is  those  in  a 
large  meeting  who,  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  cry 
'  Peace,'  that  practically  make  all  the  noise.  Since  I  have  been 
made  Chairman,  every  one,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  be  quite  dis- 
posed to  give  up  a  little  of  his  personal  liberty  to  my  dictation  to- 
night. You  know  what  the  meeting  is  about.  The  advertisement 
tells  you  honestly  what  the  object  is  in  calling  you  together,  and 
therefore  there  is  no  person  here  present  who  has  any  right  to 
take  offense  at  anything  that  is  said  within  the  four  quarters  of  the 
hall.  The  objects  of  the  meeting  are  twofold — the  first  is  to  hear 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  That  means  that  we  are  to 
hear  him  express  his  own  opinions;  and  whether  or  no  these  opin- 
ions may  be  in  unison  with  your  opinions  or  with  mine,  that  is  a 
matter  of  which  the  meeting  has,  I  apprehend,  no  right  to  com- 
plain. We  are  greatly  indebted  to  him,  I  think,  for  responding 
to  the  call.  He  has  been  toiling  night  and  day,  I  may  say,  in 
Manchester,  Liverpool,  Glasgow,  and  other  towns;  and  he  has 
come  here  on  a  very  short  notice,  and  your  anxiety  to  hear  him 


496  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

has  been  such  that  you  almost  excluded  him I  feel 

that  in  this  question,  which  has  been  so  keenly  contested  in  this 
country,  there  may  be  great  difference  of  opinion  on  the  part  of 
the  persons  who  are  here  present.  I  entreat  that  whatever  differ- 
ence of  opinion  may  exist,  every  one  may  be  heard  fairly  and 
courteously,  and  if  the  resolution  which  is  proposed  to  the  meet- 
ing be  disapproved  of,  and  any  gentleman  comes  forward  to  the 
platform  to  move  an  amendment,  I  will  do  as  much  to  give  him  a 
hearing  for  his  speech,  if  within  the  scope  of  the  resolution,  as  I 
would  do  to  any  other  gentleman.  [Loud  cheers.]  I  am  most 
anxious  that  everything  should  be  done  in  such  a  straightforward 
manner  as  will  commend  itself  to  all  lovers  of  fair  play.  \CIieers.] 
I  may  just  state,  in  addition,  this  one  fact,  that  from  other  cir- 
cumstances we  have  been  honored  in  this  city  with  the  presence 
of  many  distinguished  foreigners,  and  among  these  three  or  four 
gentlemen  who  were  to  have  gone  by  the  six  o'clock  train  to- 
night in  order  to  get  to  Paris  to-morrow  morning.  They  kindly 
agreed  to  testify  their  detestation  of  slavery  by  attending  at  this 
meeting,  in  order  to  say  a  few  words  in  unison  with  what  I  have 
no  doubt  will  be  said  by  Mr.  Beecher.  These  are  M.  Gamier 
Pages,  M.  Desmarest,  and  M.  Henri  Martyn,  the  distinguished 
historian  of  France."  [Applause]  Mr.  M'Laren  concluded  by 
introducing  Mr.  Beecher  to  the  meeting. 

Mr.  Beecher,  on  coming  forward,  was  received  with  loud  and 
prolonged  cheers  and  some  hissing.  When  silence  had  been  re- 
stored, he  spoke : — 

I  should  regret  to  have  my  associations  of  this,  the  most 
picturesque  city  of  the  world,  disturbed  as  they  would  be 
if  I  thought  that  you  needed  so  much  preparatory  plead- 
ing to  persuade  you  to  hear  me.  [Loud  applause  and  laugh- 
ter.] I  have  lived  in  a  very  stormy  time  in  my  own  land, 
where  men  who  did  not  believe  in  my  sentiments  had 
pecuniary  and  political  interests  in  disturbing  meetings, 
but  neither  in  East,  nor  West,  nor  in  all  the  Middle  States, 
have  I  thought  it  necessary  to  ask  an  audience  to  hear  me 
— not  even  in  America,  the  country,  as  we  have  lately  been 
informed,  of  mobs  !  [Loud cheers  and  laughter.]  I  am  not 
to-night  a  partisan  seeking  for  proselytes.  I  have  no  other 
interests  to  serve  but  those  which  are  common  to  all  good 
men — the  interests  of  truth,  of  justice,  of  liberty,  and  of 
good  morals.     If  I  differ  with  you  in  the  way  in  which  they 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  497 

are  to  be  promoted,  what  then  ?  Cannot  you  hear  opin- 
ions that  you  do  not  believe  ?  I  am  so  firm  in  my  convic- 
tions that  I  can  bear  to  hear  their  opposites.  [Cheers.]  It 
is  not  then  so  much  to  persuade  you  to  my  views,  though 
I  should  be  glad  to  do  that,  as  it  is  to  give  a  full  and  frank 
expression  of  them,  supposing  that  there  are  many  here 
that  would  be  interested  in  a  statement  of  affairs,  as  they 
are  now  proceeding  on  the  continent  of  America, — if  for 
no  other  reason,  at  least  for  the  philosophic  interest  there 
must  be  in  these  passing  phenomena.  It  may  be  to  you 
but  a  simple  question  of  national  psychology;  it  may  be  to 
some  of  you  a  matter  of  sympathy;  but  whether  it  be  phil- 
osophic interest  or  whether  it  be  humanitarian  and  moral 
interest,  it  shall  be  my  business  to  speak,  for  the  most 
part,  of  what  I  know,  and  so  to  speak  that  you  shall  be  in 
no  doubt  whatever  of  my  convictions.  [Loud  cheers  and 
laughter ■.] 

America  has  been  going  through  an  extraordinary  revo- 
lution, unconsciously  and  interiorly,  which  began  when 
her  present  national  form  was  assumed,  which  is  now  de- 
veloping itself,  but  which  existed  and  was  in  progress  just 
as  much  before  as  now  that  it  is  seen.  The  earlier 
problem  was  how  to  establish  an  absolute  independence  in 
States  from  all  external  control.  Next  (and  this  is  the 
peculiar  interest  of  the  period  which  formed  our  Constitu- 
tion), how,  out  of  independent  States  to  form  a  Nation, 
yet  without  destroying  local  sovereignty.  The  period  of 
germination  and  growth  of  the  Union  of  the  separate  col- 
onies is  threefold.  The  first  colonies  that  planted  the 
American  shores  were  separate,  and  jealous  of  their  sep- 
arateness.  Sent  from  the  mother  country  with  a  strong 
hatred  of  oppression,  they  went  with  an  intense  individ- 
ualism, and  sought  to  set  up,  each  party,  its  little  colony, 
where  they  would  be  free  to  follow  their  convictions  and 
the  dictates  of  conscience.  [Loud applause.]  And  nothing 
is  more  characteristic  of  the  earlier  politics  of  the  colonists 
than  their  jealous  isolation,  for  fear  that  even  contact 
would    contaminate.     Two    or    three    efforts    were    made 

within  the  first  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  of  their  exist- 

32 


498  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ence  to  bring  them  together  in  Union.  Delegates  met  and 
parted,  met  again  and  parted.  Indian  wars  drove  them 
together.  It  became  by  external  dangers  necessary  that 
there  should  be  a  Union  of  those  early  colonies,  but  there 
was  a  fear  that  in  going  into  Union  they  would  lose  some- 
thing of  the  sovereignty  that  belonged  to  them  as  colo- 
nial States.  The  first  real  Union  that  took  place  was 
that  of  1643,  between  the  colonists  of  what  is  now  New 
England.  It  is  a  little  remarkable,  I  may  say  in  passing, 
that  the  fugitive  slave  clause  of  our  Constitution  is 
founded  almost  in  so  many  words  on  the  first  Articles  of 
Federation  that  were  made  in  1643  between  these  little 
New  England  colonies.  This  earliest  Union  was  the  type 
and  model  of  later  ones.  With  various  alternations  of 
fortune  the  country  grew,  but  maintained  a  kind  of  irregu- 
lar Union  as  exigencies  pressed  upon  it.  It  was  not  until 
1777,  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  while  the  colonies  were  at  full  war  with  the 
mother  country,  that  what  is  called  the  Articles  of  Fed- 
eration  were  adopted;  and  this  was  the  second  period  of 
Union,  when  the  Southern  States,  the  Middle  States,  and 
the  States  of  New  England  came  together  in  Federation, 
which  was  declared,  in  the  preamble,  to  be  perpetual. 
[C/icers.~\  But  about  ten  years  after  these  articles  were 
framed,  they  were  found  to  be  utterly  inadequate  for  the 
exigencies  of  the  times;  and  in  1787  the  present  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  was  adopted  by  convention,  and, 
at  different  dates  thereafter,  ratified  by  the  thirteen  States 
that  first  constituted  the  present  Union. 

Now,  during  all  this  period  of  the  first  Union  of  1643, 
the  second  Union  of  1777,  and  the  third  or  final  Union — 
the  present  one — of  1787,  there  is  one  thing  to  be  re- 
marked, and  that  is,  the  jealousy  of  State  independence. 
The  States  were  feeling  their  way  towards  nationality; 
and  the  rule  and  measure  of  the  wisdom  of  every  step  was, 
how  to  maintain  individuality  with  nationality.  That  was 
their  problem.  It  never  had  been  found  out  for  them. 
They  had  some  analogies,  but  these  were  only  analogies. 
In  that  wilderness,   for  the   first   time,  the   problem    was 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  499 

about  to  be  solved — How  can  there  be  absolute  independ- 
ence in  local  government  with  perfect  nationality  ?  Sla- 
very was  only  incidental  during  all  this  long  period;  but  in 
reading  from  contemporaneous  documents  and  debates 
that  took  place  in  conventions  both  for  Confederation  and 
for  final  Union,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  difficulties  which 
arose  were  difficulties  of  representation,  difficulties  of  tax- 
ation, difficulties  of  tariff  and  revenue;  and,  so  far  as  we 
can  find,  neither  North  nor  South  anticipated  in  the 
future  any  of  those  dangers  which  have  overspread  the 
continent  from  the  black  cloud  of  slavery.  The  dangers 
they  most  feared,  they  have  suffered  least  from:  the 
dangers  they  have  suffered  most  from,  they  did  not  at  all 
anticipate,  or  but  little.  But  the  Union  was  formed.  The 
Constitution,  defining  the  national  power  conferred  by  the 
States  on  the  Federal  Government,  was  adopted.  Thence- 
forward, for  fifty  years  and  more,  the  country  developed 
itself  in  wealth  and  political  power,  until,  from  a  con- 
dition of  feeble  States  exhausted  by  war,  it  rose  to  the 
dignity  of  a  first  class  nation. 

We  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  gradual  and  uncon- 
scious development  within  this  American  nation  of  two 
systems  of  policy,  antagonistic  and  irreconcilable.  Let  us 
look  at  the  South  first.  She  was  undergoing  unconscious 
transmutation.  She  did  not  know  it.  She  did  not  know 
what  ailed  her.  She  felt  ill — \laugkter~\ — put  her  hand  on 
her  heart  sometimes;  on  her  head  sometimes;  but  had  no 
doctor  to  tell  her  what  it  was,  until  too  late;  and  when 
told  she  would  not  believe.  \_Laughtcr  and  cheers.~\  For  it 
is  a  fact,  that  when  the  colonies  combined  in  their  final 
Union,  slavery  was  waning  not  only  in  the  Middle  and 
Northern  States  but  also  in  the  South  itself.  When  there- 
fore they  went  into  this  Union,  slavery  was  perishing, 
partly  by  climate  in  the  North,  and  still  more  by  the  con- 
victions of  the  people,  and  by  the  unproductive  character 
of  farm-slavery.  Slavery  is  profitable  only  by  breeding 
and  on  plantations.  In  the  North  it  never  was  very 
profitable,  though  somewhat  convenient  as  a  household 
matter;  for  if  you   can   get  a  good    chambermaid  and   a 


500  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

good  cook,  it  is  worth  while  to  keep  them.  [Laughter.] 
There  was  for  the  most  part  in  New  England  only  the 
shadow  of  slavery — household  slavery.  The  first  period  of 
the  South  was  the  wane  and  weakness  of  slavery.  Never- 
theless it  existed.  The  second  period  is  the  increase  of 
slavery,  and  its  apologetic  defense;  for,  with  the  invention 
of  the  cotton  gin,  an  extraordinary  demand  for  cotton 
sprang  up.  Slave  labor  began  to  be  more  and  more  in 
demand,  and  the  price  of  slaves  rose;  but  still  there  was  a 
number  of  years  within  my  remembrance — and  I  am  not  a 
patriarch — in  which  men  said,  "  Slavery  is  among  us;  we 
don't  know  how  to  get  rid  of  it;  we  accept  it  as  an  evil; 
we  wish  we  had  a  better  system,  but  it  is  a  misfortune  and 
not  a  fault."  I  remember  the  apologetic  period.  Then 
came  the  next  period,  one  of  revolution  of  opinion  as  to 
the  inferior  races  of  the  South,  a  total  and  entire  change 
in  the  doctrines  of  the  South  on  the  question  of  human 
rights  and  human  nature.  It  dates  from  Mr.  Calhoun. 
From  the  hour  that  Mr.  Calhoun  began  to  teach,  there 
commenced  a  silent  process  of  moral  deterioration.  I  call 
it  a  retrogression  in  morals — an  apostasy.  Men  no  longer 
apologized  for  slavery:  they  learned  to  defend  it;  to  teach 
that  it  was  the  normal  condition  of  an  inferior  race;  that 
the  seeds  and  history  of  it  were  in  the  Word  of  God;  that 
the  only  condition  in  which  a  republic  can  be  prosperous, 
is,  where  an  aristocracy  owns  the  labor  of  the  community. 
That  was  the  doctrine  of  the  South,  and  with  that  doctrine 
there  began  to  be  ambitious  designs,  not  only  for  the 
maintenance  but  the  propagation  of  slavery.  This  era 
of  propagation  and  aggression  constitutes  the  fourth  and 
last  period  of  the  revolution  of  the  South.  They  had 
passed  through  a  whole  cycle  of  changes.  These  changes 
followed  certain  great  laws.  No  sooner  was  the  new 
philosophy  set  on  foot,  than  the  South  recognized  its 
legitimacy  and  accepted  it  with  all  its  inferences  and 
inevitable  tendencies.  They  gave  up  wavering  and  mis- 
givings, adopted  the  institution — praised  it,  loved  it,  de- 
fended it,  sought  to  maintain  it,  burned  to  spread  it. 
During  the  last  fifteen  years,  I  believe  you  cannot  find  a 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  501 

voice,  printed  or  uttered,  in  the  cotton  States  of  the  South, 
which  deplored  slavery.  All  believed  in  and  praised  it, 
and  found  authority  for  it  in  God's  Word.  Politicians 
admired  it,  merchants  appreciated  it,  the  whole  South 
sang  paeans  to  the  new  found  truth,  that  man  was  born  to 
be  owned  by  man.  [Loud  cheers^  This  change  of  doc- 
trine made  it  certain  that  the  South  would  be  annoyed 
and  irritated  by  a  Constitution  which,  with  all  its  faults, 
still  carried  the  God-given  principle  of  human  rights, 
which  were  not  to  be  taken  by  man  except  in  punishment 
for  crime.  That  Constitution,  and  the  policy  which  went 
with  it  at  first,  began  to  gnaw  at,  and  irritate,  and  fret  the 
South,  after  they  had  adopted  slavery  as  a  doctrine.  How 
could  they  live  in  peace  under  a  Constitution  that  all  the 
time  declared  the  manhood  of  men  and  the  dignity  of 
freedom  ?  It  became  necessary  that  they  should  do  one 
of  two  things:  either  give  up  slavery,  or  appropriate  the 
government  to  themselves,  and  in  some  way  or  other 
drain  out  of  the  Constitution  this  venom  of  liberty,  and 
infuse  a  policy  more  in  harmony  with  Southern  ideas. 
They  took  the  latter  course.  They  contrived  to  possess 
themselves  of  the  government;  and  for  the  last  fifty  years 
the  policy  of  the  country  has  been  Southern.  Was  a 
tariff  wanted  ?  It  was  made  a  Southern  tariff.  Was  a 
tariff  oppressive  ?  The  Southerners  overthrew  it.  Was  a 
tariff  wanted  again  ?  The  Southern  policy  declared  it  to 
be  necessary,  and  it  was  passed.  Was  more  territory 
wanted  ?  The  South  must  have  its  way.  Was  any  man 
to  obtain  a  place?  If  the  South  opposed  it,  he  had  no 
chance  whatever.  For  fifty  years  most  of  the  men  who 
became  judges,  who  sat  in  the  Presidential  chair  and  in 
the  Courts,  had  to  base  their  opinions  on  slavery  or  on 
Southern  views.  All  the  filibustering,  all  the  intimidations 
of  foreign  Powers,  all  the  so-called  snubbing  of  European 
Powers,  happened  during  the  period  in  which  the  policy 
of  the  country  was  controlled  by  the  South.  May  I  be 
permitted  to  look  on  it  as  a  mark  of  victorious  Christianity, 
that  England  now  loves  her  worst  enemy,  and  is  sitting 
with  arms  of  sympathy  round  her  neck  ?     [Loud  cheers^\ 


502  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

There  was  at  the  same  time  a  revolution  going  on  in 
the  North  unconsciously.  The  first  period  of  revolution 
begun  in  the  North  was  what  might  be  called  the  founda- 
tion-laying. Material  wealth  began  to  be  amassed,  manu- 
facturing and  farm-labor  flourished,  schools  were  multi- 
plied, colleges  were  rising.  It  was  a  period  in  which  the 
North  was  developing  and  consolidating  its  power.  Then, 
for  many  years — and  it  is  a  count  of  about  thirty  years 
ago — the  North  began  to  be  assailed  by  bold  prophets  of 
the  truth,  and  a  crusade  was  commenced  against  slavery. 
[C/ieers.]  I  was  then  a  boy,  but  old  enough  to  be  a  spec- 
tator and  a  sympathizer.  Those  men,  for  the  most  part, 
have  gone  down  into  their  graves — their  names  not  yet 
honored  as  they  will  be;  for  the  day  is  coming,  when 
round  their  names,  and  the  names  of  all  who  have  been 
faithful  to  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty,  there  will  be  hung 
garlands,  and  they  shall  be  clothed  with  honor;  but  around 
the  brows  of  those  who  have  betrayed  their  country  to 
despotism  shall  shine  lurid  light  in  flame  that  shall  con- 
sume. \Cheers^\  The  man  who  was  an  abolitionist  when 
I  was  twenty-one  years  of  age  might  bid  farewell  to  any 
hopes  of  political  advancement;  and  the  merchant  who 
held  these  opinions  was  soon  robbed  of  customers.  As 
far  as  I  remember,  there  was  nothing  in  the  world  that  so 
ruined  a  man — not  crime  itself  was  so  fatal  to  a  man's 
standing  in  the  country — as  to  be  known  to  hold  abolition 
sentiments.  The  churches  sought  to  keep  the  question  of 
slavery  out;  so  did  the  schools  and  colleges;  so  did  synods 
and  conventions;  but  still  the  cause  of  abolition  pro- 
gressed; and  still,  as  is  always  the  case  with  everything 
that  is  right,  though  the  men  who  held  those  sentiments 
were  scoffed  at,  though  such  men  as  Garrison  were  dragged 
through  the  streets  with  halters  round  their  necks,  yet,  the 
more  it  was  spoken  of  and  canvassed,  the  more  the  cause 
prospered,  because  it  was  true.  [Ck&ers.^  The  insanity  at 
last  abated;  for  the  command  came  from  on  high,  sa}dng 
to  the  evil  spirit  concerning  the  North:  "I  command  thee 
to  come  out  of  her."  Then  the  nation  wallowed  on  the 
ground,  and  foamed  at  the  mouth;  but   the  unclean  spirit 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  503 

passed  out,  and  she  became  clean.  The  more  some  people 
wanted  to  keep  down  this  subject  and  keep  out  the  air,  the 
more  God  forced  the  subject  on  their  minds.  If  you  let  a 
steam  engine,  when  it  is  full  of  steam,  hiss  at  the  rivets, 
with  the  scape  valve  open,  it  cannot  explode;  but  if  the 
steam  is  shut  up,  and  the  valve  closed,  it  will  be  still  for  a 
moment,  and  then,  like  thunder,  it  will  go  off  !  So  it  was 
in  regard  to  this  subject.  Those  who  discussed  it,  became 
convinced  of  its  truth;  but  those  who  would  not  permit  it 
to  be  spoken  of,  and  shut  it  up,  brought  on  explosion. 
[Laughter  and  cheer s.] 

About  this  time  the  South  began  to  take  such  steps  as 
more  and  more  brought  the  North  into  a  rightful  frame  of 
mind.  The  first  conflict  that  arose  between  the  South  and 
the  North  was  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  the  new  State 
of  Missouri  in  1818.  \Hear.J\  The  North  contended  that 
there  should  be  no  more  slave  States — the  doctrine  that  is 
now  reviving  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Republican  Party.  It 
was  the  original  doctrine  and  conviction  that  slavery  might 
be  tolerated  where  it  was,  but  that  no  more  States  should  be 
admitted.  When  Missouri  knocked  at  the  door,  there  were 
those  who  opposed  its  admission  as  a  slave  State,  but  by 
Southern  management  and  intimidation  Henry  Clay  per- 
suaded the  North  to  a  compromise.  Now  when  there  is 
no  difference  in  principle,  but  only  conflicting  interests,  a 
compromise  is  honorable  and  right,  but  when  antagonistic 
principles  are  in  question,  I  believe  compromises  to  be 
bargains  with  the  devil, — who  is  never  cheated.  \_Loud 
laughter  and  cheers.']  The  North  gave  up  her  principles  and 
admitted  the  Missouri  State  with  slavery  as  an  exception, 
and  by  the  compromise  obtained  a  line  of  latitude  that 
should  limit  slavery.  Above  the  latitude  of  360  3c/  all 
States,  except  Missouri,  were  to  be  free;  south  of  that  line 
there  might  be  slave  States.  By  this  concession,  however, 
they  gave  up  the  whole  principle,  as  such  compromises 
always  must. 

Then  came  the  next  conflict.  The  policy  of  the  North 
and  the  policy  of  the  South  again  jarred  against  each 
other.     The   North   was   striving,   according  to   the  spirit 


504  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  the  Constitution  and  the  expressed  convictions  of  the 
fathers  of  the  country,  the  founders  of  the  Union,  to  carry 
out  the  doctrines  of  liberty.  The  South  became  ambi- 
tious, and  having  possession  of  the  Government,  aimed  to 
enforce  their  ideas  of  slavery  upon  the  whole  continent. 
Hence,  admission  of  Texas  and  the  war  with  Mexico  for 
the  sake  of  territory.  Next  were  seized  the  regions  of 
New  Mexico  and  California.  These  were  added  to  the 
Union  not  by  the  North,  but  by  the  South.  Then  came 
the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill,  which  the  North  accepted  finally,  as  children  take  med- 
icine, when  the  silver  spoon  is  forced  into  their  teeth,  and 
they  are  almost  choked  to  make  them  take  it.  {Laughter.] 
Then  came  the  only  abolition  that  I  ever  heard  the  South 
were  in  favor  of — the  abolition  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise. What  that  was,  I  have  just  been  telling  you.  But 
now  the  South  suddenly  found  out  that  the  compromise 
was  unconstitutional  and  void.  They  claimed  to  abolish 
the  compromise  and  have  slave  States  north  of  the  line  of 
360  3c/.  The  North,  although  incensed  and  indignant, 
yet  from  love  for  the  Union  of  the  States,  gave  up  their 
own  convictions  and  their  proper  line  of  duty.  After  the 
abolition  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  it  was  declared  by 
the  South  that  the  doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty  should 
be  established — a  doctrine  to  the  effect  that  when  the  ad- 
mission of  a  State  was  determined  on,  it  should  come  in  a 
slave  State  or  a  free  State,  according  to  the  vote  of  its 
population.  The  South  carried  this  measure,  and  the  mo- 
ment they  carried  it  they  attempted  to  get  Kansas  intro- 
duced as  a  slave  State;  but  the  Northern  men  were  too 
quick  for  them  [laughter  and  af>f>/ause\  for  they  sent  such  a 
superabundant  population  into  Kansas,  that  they  soon 
lifted  the  white  banner  without  a  black  star  upon  it. 
[Cheers.]  The  instant  this  was  done,  the  South  turned 
round  and  said,  "  Popular  sovereignty  is  not  constitu- 
tional or  expedient.  [Laughter  and applause '.]  The  States 
applying  for  admission  shall  not  have  the  liberty  of  saying 
whether  they  will  come  in  free  or  slave."  This  was  the 
work  of  Mr.  Slidell  [hisses'],  now  Minister  for  the  Southern 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  505 

States  in  Paris.  [Hisses  and  slight  applause.]  I  wish  he  were 
in  this  hall  to  hear  you  hissing.      [Cheers.] 

By  this  time  the  North  had  become  thoroughly  roused 
and  indignant.  They  had  at  length  opened  their  eyes,  and 
reluctantly  began  to  see  that  the  South  meant  nothing  short 
of  forcing  slavery  over  the  whole  continent.  The  North 
thereupon  grew  firmer,  and  in  1856  nominated  Fremont, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  they  were  no  longer  to 
be  browbeaten  by  slavery.  He  failed  of  election;  but 
failed  in  the  noblest  way,  by  the  cheats  of  his  opponents. 
The  State  that  gave  us  Buchanan  to  be  a  burden  for  four 
years,  was  the  State  in  which  the  cheating  took  place. 
Then  came  the  last  act  of  this  revolution  of  feeling  in  the 
North — the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  \_Loud  and  protracted 
cheering.]  The  principle  that  was  laid  down  as  a  distinct 
feature  of  the  platform  on  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected, 
was,  that  there  should  be  no  more  slave  Territories — in 
other  words,  the  breathing  hole  was  stopped  up,  and 
slavery  had  no  air;  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  how 
long  it  would  last  before  it  would  be  suffocated.  [Laugh- 
ter and  cheers.]  The  North  respected  the  doctrine  of  State 
rights,  when  Georgia  said  that  slavery  was  municipal  and 
local,  and  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  had 
no  right  to  touch  slavery  in  Georgia.  The  North  accepted 
the  doctrine.  It  was  true,  that  they  could  not  touch  slavery 
in  the  States;  yet  the  North  had  a  right,  in  connection  with 
the  Middle  States,  to  say,  "  Although  in  certain  States 
slavery  exists  beyond  our  political  reach,  yet  the  territory 
that  is  free  and  is  not  beyond  Federal  jurisdiction  shall  not 
be  touched  by  the  foot  of  a  slave.  [Loud  c/iccrs.]  That  was 
the  spark  which  exploded,  and  this  is  the  war  that  followed; 
for  the  South  knew  perfectly  well, — and  there  is  no  place 
where  logic  is  better  understood  than  in  the  South,— that 
if  limits  were  set  to  the  Slave  States,  if  the  territory  could 
be  no  further  extended,  the  prosperity  of  the  slaveholders 
was  at  an  end.  They  determined  that  that  doctrine  should 
be  broken  up,  and  they  went  into  the  Secession  war  for 
that  very  purpose. 

All    these    were    conflicts    between    the    North    and  the 


506  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

South,  about  the  growth  of  slavery,  and  in  all  but  one  of 
them  the  South  had  its  own  way.  [Ifear.~\  The  States  had 
been  charging  each  other  with  guilt,  and  with  infidelity  to 
obligations,  but  it  was  now  collision.  It  was  the  attraction 
of  great  underlying  influences  that  moved  both  South  and 
North.  The  principle  which  had  been  operating  in  the 
North  for  many  years  was  the  principle  of  free  labor,  while 
the  principle  which  had  impregnated  all  Southern  minds 
was  the  principle  of  slave  labor.  The  result  is  this:  the 
South  is  exhausting  the  whole  life  of  the  States  in  defense 
of  slavery.  This  is  historical  now.  The  great  cause  of 
the  conflict — the  center  of  necessity,  round  which  the 
cannons  roar  and  the  bayonets  gleam, — is  the  preservation 
of  slavery.  Beyond  slavery,  there  is  no  difference  between 
North  and  South.  Their  interests  are  identical,  with  the 
exception  of  work.  The  North  is  for  free  work — the  South 
is  for  slave  work;  and  the  whole  war  in  the  South,  though 
it  is  for  independence,  is,  nevertheless,  expressly  in  order 
to  have  slavery  more  firmly  established  by  that  independ- 
ence. [I/ear,  hear;  cheers,  and  some  kisses.]  On  the  other 
hand,  the  whole  policy  of  the  North,  now  at  last  regen- 
erated, and  made  consistent  with  their  documents,  their 
history,  and  real  belief — the  whole  policy  of  the  North,  as 
well  as  the  whole  work  of  the  North,  rejoicing  at  length  to 
be  set  free  from  antagonism,  bribes,  and  intimidations, — is 
for  liberty;  liberty  for  every  man  in  the  world.  [Cheers.] 
I  wish  you  to  consider  for  a  moment  what  is  the  result 
of  this  state  of  things  in  the  North.  There  never  was  so 
united  a  purpose  as  there  is  to-day  to  crush  the  rebellion. 
We  have  had  nearly  three  years  of  turmoil  and  disturb- 
ance, which  not  only  has  not  taken  away  that  determina- 
tion, but  has  increased  it.  In  the  beginning  of  this  conflict 
we  were  peculiarly  English.  What  do  I  mean  by  that  ? 
Well,  if  I  have  observed  aright,  England  goes  into  wars  to 
make  blunders  at  first,  always— [kisses  and  cheers~\ — but  you 
must  be  aware,  that  in  the  end  it  is  not  England  that  has 
blundered.  I  have  noticed,  in  the  course  of  my  study  of 
the  Penisular  war  under  Wellington,  that  the  first  whole 
year  was  a  series  of  blunders  and  fraudulent  squandering 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  507 

[cheers];  but,  if  I  recollect  aright,  at  last  the  same  Well- 
ington drove  his  foes  out  of  the  Peninsula.  [Cheers.]  And 
so  it  is  with  us.  We  have  so  much  English  blood  in  our 
veins,  that  when  we  began  this  war  we  blundered  and 
blundered;  but  we  are  doing  better  and  better  every  step. 
[Loud  cheering.]  There  has  been  time  enough  for  mere 
enthusiasm  to  have  cooled  in  the  North.  That  has  passed 
away.  Enthusiasm  is  like  the  vapor,  just  enough  con- 
densed to  let  the  sun  striking  upon  it  fill  it  with  gorgeous 
colors;  but  when  still  further  it  condenses,  and  falls  in 
drops  for  the  thirsty  man  to  drink,  or  carries  the  river  to 
the  cataract,  then  it  has  become  useful  and  substantial. 
Enthusiasm,  at  first,  is  that  airy  cloud;  but  when  it  has  be- 
come a  principle  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  then  it  becomes 
substantial;  and  such  is  the  case  in  the  North.  Enthu- 
siasm has  changed  its  form,  and  is  now  become  substantial 
moral  principle.  [Cheers^]  The  loss  of  our  sons  in  battle 
has  been  grievous;  but  we  accept  it  as  God's  will,  and  we 
are  determined  that  every  martyred  son  shall  have  a  repre- 
sentative in  one  hundred  liberated  slaves.  [Loud  cheers.] 
Never  was  such  a  unity  of  Christian  men  in  the  North  as 
there  is  to-day.  I  have  in  my  possession  some  two  hun- 
dred resolutions,  passed  by  different  Christian  churches 
and  denominations  in  America,  saving  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics. In  every  form  of  language  they  express  themselves 
alike  resolute  for  the  maintenance  of  the  government  and 
the  crushing  of  the  rebellion.  I  may  say  that  there  is  no 
seam  in  the  garment  that  binds  us  together.  We  are  one. 
[Cheers.]  The  Peace-Democrats  have  tried  three  times  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  war,  and  every  time  they  tried  it,  it  be- 
came evident  that  the  only  platform  in  America,  on  which 
this  subject  can  be  discussed,  is  this — that  the  war  must 
be  carried  on  till  the  Union  is  re-established.  [Loud  cheers.] 
The  Americans  are  a  practical  people.  They  know  their 
own  business.  [Hear,  hear.]  No  one  so  well  able  as  they 
are,  to  judge  what  they  want;  and  when  they  have  delib- 
erately arrived  at  a  firm  resolve,  they  surely  are  to  be  re- 
garded, at  least  with  respect,  if  not  with  sympathy. 
[Cheers.]     This  much  we  expect,  that  when  a  people  twenty 


508  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

millions  strong,  intelligent,  moral,  and,  as  you  know,  thrifty 
— when  people  of  this  sort,  after  three  years  of  delibera- 
tion, are  fixed  on  one  purpose,  they  at  least  demand  cour- 
tesy, if  not  respect.     [Loud  cheers!\ 

We  are  told  that  we  are  breaking  our  constitutional  ob- 
ligations by  the  measures  we  have  taken;  but  we  were 
forced  to  adopt  those  measures,  and  the  reasons  are  abun- 
dant and  plain.  How  ?  When  a  fire  first  breaks  out,  the 
engineer  goes  down  and  plays  upon  the  fire,  thinking  that 
he  will  be  able  to  save  the  furniture  and  the  neighboring 
houses;  but,  as  the  devouring  element  increases,  and 
threatens  destruction  to  all  around,  the  engineer  says, 
"  Bring  me  powder,"  and  he  blows  up  the  neighboring 
house,  then  the  next,  and  then  the  next,  until  a  sufficient 
gap  is  made  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the  conflagration. 
\Cheers^\  When  he  began,  he  did  not  think  that  he  would 
require  to  sacrifice  so  much:  and  so  it  is  with  us.  When 
this  rebellion  commenced,  we  thought  to  put  it  down, tend 
to  maintain,  at  the  same  time,  the  rights  of  the  States;  but, 
when  the  war  assumed  such  proportions  as  seemed  to 
threaten  the  destruction  of  the  nation  and  its  constitutional 
Government,  it  became  a  question  whether  the  President 
should  put  in  practice  the  powers  he  possessed  of  saving 
the  Union  at  all  hazards.  [Cheers.]  Long  he  paused,  I  know; 
for  I  assisted  in  bombarding  him.  [Laughter  and  dicers.  ] 
For  months,  and  months,  and  months,  I  both  pleaded 
and  inveighed  against  the  dilatory  policy  at  Washington, 
and  at  last  the  President  issued  a  proclamation,  declaring 
that  the  rebellion  had  assumed  such  proportions,  that,  for 
the  sake  of  saving  the  country,  he  intended  to  exercise  the 
powrer  he  possessed,  and  to  confiscate  the  total  "  property  " 
of  the  South,  the  whole  of  the  slaves  being  included, 
for  the  sake  of  saving  the  Union  and  the  Constitution. 
[Cheers.] 

But  some  men  speak  to  me,  and  say,  "  O,  I  am  tired  of 
waiting;  when  is  this  little  quarrel  of  yours  on  the  other  side 
to  be  settled  ? "  [Laughter.]  A  little  quarrel  —  [laughter] 
— with  1,200  miles  of  a  base  line — a  little  quarrel  that  com- 
menced only  seventy-five  years  ago  !     You  ask  how?     The 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  509 

smouldering  fire  that  by  some  means  or  other  has  caught 
a  rafter  between  the  ceilings  is  not  known  of  at  first;  but 
after  two  or  three  days  it  bursts  out,  and  the  whole  build- 
ing is  consumed.  The  fire  did  not  begin  when  it  becamp 
visible  to  the  eyes;  it  began  some  time  before.  In  the 
same  way  this  war  did  not  begin  three  years  ago.  It  be- 
gan when  this  Constitution  was  adopted — a  Constitution 
for  liberty  with  a  policy  for  slavery — [cheers] — and  it  is  as 
impossible  to  tell  when  it  will  come  to  a  termination  as  it  is 
to  foretell  the  conclusion  of  any  great  matter  affecting  the 
welfare  of  thirty  millions  of  people,  contingent  partly  on 
great  laws  and  partly  on  interfering  politicians.  It  might 
close  next  year;  it  might  close  in  three  years;  it  might 
close  in  five.  We  have  lost  many  sons,  we  have  spilled 
much  blood.  This  is  the  operation  by  which  the  cancer  is 
to  be  severed  from  our  system;  the  operation  is  now  far 
advanced,  and  woe  be  to  the  man  who  interferes  with  it 
before  the  last  bit  of  virus  is  removed.  [Cheers.]  But,  let 
me  say,  even  a  servant  who  will  bear  a  blow  cannot  bear 
to  be  beaten  and  preached  at  both  together.  If  you  insist 
on  groaning  over  the  tediousness  of  the  war,  you  must  not 
aid  to  prolong  it.  Either  do  not  ask  us  when  it  will  end, 
or  else  do  not  send  ships  and  guns  to  the  rebels  in  the 
South.  If  you  want  to  sympathize  with  us,  do  so;  and  if 
you  must  assist  the  rebels,  do  so;  but  do  not  attempt  both 
things  at  once.     [Hear,  hear;  and  applause.] 

I  thank  Earl  Russell  for  his  speech  at  Blairgowrie.  It  is 
a  speech  that  has  brought  comfort  and  gladness  to  the 
hearts  of  our  American  friends.  [Hear,  hear.]  A  friend 
of  mine  in  New  York  has  written  to  me,  stating  that  the 
whole  feeling  there  has  been  changed  since  the  intelligence 
of  Earl  Russell's  speech.  We  do  not  want  to  quarrel;  we 
do  not  want  animosity  between  Great  Britain  and  America. 
No  man  has  spoken  of  Great  Britain  words  of  praise  and 
blame  with  more  honest  heart  than  I  have.  [Cheers  and 
some  kisses.]  That  man  is  not  your  friend  who  dares  not 
speak  of  your  faults  to  your  face.  The  man  that  is  your 
friend  tells  you  when  he  thinks  you  are  wrong;  and  whether 
I  am   right  or  wrong,  I  assert,  that  in  giving  moral  sym- 


510  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

pathy  largely  to  the  South,  and  above  all,  in  allowing  the 
infamous  traffic  of  your  ports  with  the  rebels,  thus  strength- 
ening the  hands  of  the  slaveholders, — and  that,  without 
jjiblic  rebuke, — you  have  done  wrong.  I  have  said  this, 
because,  dear  as  your  country  is  to  us,  precious  as  were  the 
legacies  given  to  us  of  learning  and  religion,  and  proud  as 
we  have  been  for  years  past  to  think  of  our  ancestry  and 
common  relationship  to  you — yet  so  much  dearer  to  us 
than  kindred  is  the  cause  of  God,  that,  if  Great  Britain 
sets  herself  against  us,  we  shall  not  hesitate  one  moment 
on  her  account,  but  shall  fulfill  our  mission  !     \Cheersi\ 

Earl  Russell  was,  however,  pleased  to  say  that  this  was 
a  conflict  for  territory  on  the  one  part,  and  for  independ- 
ence on  the  other.  You  know  just  as  well  as  I,  that  the 
North  has  been  adverse  to  the  acquisition  of  territory.  It 
was  the  South  that  brought  in  Texas,  that  brought  in  the 
whole  of  the  Louisiana  tract  by  purchase;  it  was  the  South 
that  went  to  war  with  Mexico,  and  added  New  Mexico, 
and  the  whole  of  California;  and  it  was  the  South  that 
sent  Walker,  the  filibusterer,  to  Cuba.  The  South  would 
have  territory.  It  is  not  the  North  that  has  been  avaricious 
of  land,  but  the  South  that  needed  the  land  for  the  exten- 
sion of  their  slave  system.  Now,  we  are  striving  for  the 
territory  that  belongs  to  the  Union,  [//far,  heat\\  Let 
me  see  that  man  who  dares  to  say  here  that  he  believes  in 
the  kind  of  patriotism  that  would  let  every  citizen  sit  still 
while  their  territory  was  dismembered,  and  never  raise  a 
hand  or  lift  a  sword  ?  If  that  is  your  idea  of  patriotism,  it 
is  not  mine.  I  have  taught  my  people,  and  I  have  prac- 
ticed the  doctrine  myself  as  far  as  necessary,  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  every  Christian  to  defend  his  house,  and  if  any 
robber  broke  into  his  house,  that  he  was  bound  to  resist, 
and  recover  any  goods  that  might  have  been  carried  off. 
Now  that  which  is  true  of  the  householder,  I  declare  to  be 
true  of  the  nation.  The  love  of  country  means  this,  to 
defend  every  part  and  particle  of  the  country  from  unjust 
alienation.  \Loud applawe.~\  It  amounts  then  to  just  this, 
that  we  are  trying  to  get  back  our  own;  though  Lord 
John  Russell — I  beg  his  pardon,  Earl  Russell — \laughter~\ — 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  5  1 1 

says  that  we  were  ambitious  of  territory  !  Well,  here  come 
two  men  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  the  one  with  the 
other  by  the  coat.  The  one  says:  "  I  found  this  man  in  my 
house  carrying  off  my  wife's  silks,  finery,  and  jewels." 
Suppose  the  Justice  to  remonstrate  with  the  complainant, 
and  reprimand  him  for  avarice,  and  blandly  let  the  thief 
go  without  a  word  !  What  would  become  of  a  community 
in  which  the  victim  of  robbery  was  scolded  and  the  robber 
set  free  ?  [Applause.  ]  Now  the  territory  in  question  was 
paid  for  by  the  money  of  the  Union,  and  we  swore  by  as 
solemn  an  oath  as  people  can  swear  to  hold  it  for  the  good 
of  the  nation.  Because  we  are  striving  to  keep  our  oath, 
I  do  not  see  how  that  can  make  us  ambitious  of  territory. 
[Hear,  hear;  and applause '.]  On  the  other  side,  Earl  Russell 
says  the  South  are  contending  for  independence.  Yes  they 
are,  and  I  would  to  God  that  so  much  gallantry  had  a 
better  cause.  It  needs  but  that,  to  be  illustrious  to  the  end 
of  time.  [Cheers.]  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  am  proud  to 
say,  that  we  have  not  in  that  Western  Continent  degen- 
erated from  your  British  blood.  There  is  high  spirit  yet 
in  America  just  as  much  as  there  is  here.     [Applause.] 

Yet,  Southern  independence, — what  is  it  ?  When  they 
seceded  and  went  to  Montgomery  to  frame  a  Constitution, 
what  did  they  do  ?  They  made  one  or  two  little  alterations 
in  the  old  Constitution.  They  lengthened  the  term  of  the 
Presidency,  and  made  a  few  alterations  in  the  forms  of 
procedures  in  the  Congress;  but  substantially  they  took 
the  same  Constitution  that  they  had  just  escaped  from. 
[Hear,  hear.]  The  only  material  clause  they  added  was 
the  one  that  made  slavery  perpetual,  and  declared  it  to 
be  illegal  to  undertake  to  abolish  it.  What  then  is  South- 
ern independence  ?  It  is  the  meteor  around  the  dark  body 
of  slavery.  King  Bomba  of  Naples  wanted  to  be  inde- 
pendent, and  his  idea  of  independence  was,  that  he  should 
be  let  alone  whilst  he  was  oppressing  his  subjects.  This 
very  idea  of  independence  has  been  the  same,  since  the 
days  when  Nimrod  hunted  men.  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 
This  is  the  only  independence  the  South  is  fighting  for. 

But  it  is  said,  that  the  North  is  just  as  bad  as  the  South 


5  I  2  PA  TRIO  TIC  A  P  DRESSES. 

in  its  hatred  for  the  negro.  At  one  time  I  admit  that  there 
was  a  prejudice  against  the  black  man,  arising  out  of  the 
political  condition  of  things;  but  I  can  bear  witness  that 
this  prejudice  has  almost  entirely  passed  away,  in  so  far  as 
the  native  population  is  concerned.  [Chcers.\  I  shall  not 
say  who  are  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  black  men,  because 
you  would  hiss  me  if  I  did  so.  [Loud  cries  of  "Speak  out," 
and  a  voice,  "The  Irishmen" — another  voice,  " The  Irish  Ro- 
man Catholics."  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Irish  have  a 
strong  prejudice  against  the  negroes,  but  it  arises  simply 
from  this,  that  they  have  been  led  to  believe  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  North,  that,  were  the  slaves  freed,  they  would 
dispute  the  field  of  labor  with  them;  whereas  everybody 
who  knew  anything  of  their  disposition  could  tell,  that, 
were  they  freed,  the  Northern  negroes  would  flock  to  the 
South,  leaving  the  North  for  Northern  laborers. 

The  statement  has  been  made  that  the  Americans  are 
seeking  to  destroy  the  Anglo-Saxons  for  the  sake  of  a  few 
millions  of  negroes.  I  contend,  that,  although  the  freedom 
of  the  negroes  will  no  doubt  result  from  this  war,  yet  we 
are  fighting  for  the  good  of  all  mankind — black,  white,  and 
yellow  [laughter],  for  men  of  all  nations — to  save  represent- 
ative government  and  universal  liberty.  It  is  also  said, 
that  the  proclamation  by  the  President  was  not  sincere — 
that  he  had  issued  it  merely  as  an  official,  and  that  it  did 
not  express  his  personal  convictions.  All  I  need  to  reply, 
is,  that  the  President,  whatever  his  own  feelings,  is  bound 
to  act  as  an  official  and  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office. 
He  is  bound  to  administer  the  Constitution  of  the  country. 
It  was  the  President  and  not  the  man  who  spoke;  and  it 
was  the  country,  and  not  the  President,  that  was  respon- 
sible for  the  proclamation.  At  the  same  time  I  affirm,  that 
the  manner  in  which  all  these  proclamations  have  been 
carried  out  is  a  sufficient  test  of  their  sincerity.  The  Pres- 
ident was  very  loath  to  take  the  steps  he  did;  but,  though 
slow,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  sure.  A  thousand  men  could 
not  make  him  plant  his  foot  before  he  was  ready;  ten 
thousand  could  not  move  it  after  he  had  put  it  down.  This 
national  crisis  in  my  own  country  is  a  spectacle  worthy  of 


SPEECH  IN  EDINBURGH.  513 

the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  I  can  only  hope  that  when 
next  the  Social  Science  Congress  assembles,  this  great  con- 
flict will  have  gone  so  far  towards  an  issue,  that  it  may  be 
found  consistent  with  duty  to  inaugurate  its  meeting  with- 
out sneering  at  a  neighboring  nation.  [Great  cheering  and 
hisses.] 

I  have  a  closing  word  to  speak.  It  is  our  duty  in  Amer- 
ica, by  every  means  in  our  power,  to  avoid  all  cause  of 
irritation  with  every  foreign  nation,  and  with  the  English 
nation  most  especially.  On  your  side  it  is  your  duty  to 
avoid  all  irritating  interference,  and  all  speech  that  tends 
to  irritate.  Brothers  should  be  brothers  all  the  world  over, 
and  you  are  of  our  blood,  and  we  are  of  your  lineage.  May 
that  day  be  far  distant  when  Great  Britain  and  America 
shall  turn  their  backs  on  each  other,  and  seek  an  alliance 
with  other  nations.  [Loud  cries  of  "Russia."  The  day  is 
coming  when  the  foundations  of  the  earth  will  be  lifted 
out  of  their  places;  and  there  are  two  nations  that  ought 
to  be  found  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  hand  in  hand  for  the 
sake  of  Christianity  and  universal  liberty,  and  these  nations 
are  Great  Britain  and  America.  [Loud  and  prolonged  cheer- 
ing] 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Beecher's  address  Dr.  Alexander  came  for- 
ward and  was  received  with  loud  applause.  He  said:  "Ladies 
and  gentlemen,  the  resolution  which  I  have  had  put  into  mv 
hands  is  the  following  :  — 

" '  That  this  meeting  most  earnestly  and  emphatically  protests  against 
American  slavery  in  all  its  ramifications,  as  a  system  which  treats  immortal 
and  redeemed  human  beings  as  goods  and  chattels,  which  denies  them  the 
rights  of  marriage  and  of  home,  which  consigns  them  to  ignorance  of  the 
first  rudiments  of  education,  and  exposes  them  to  the  outrages  of  lust  and 
passion;  and  that  this  meeting  is  therefore  of  opinion  that  it  should  be 
totally  abolished;  and,  further,  that  this  meeting,  rejoicing  in  the  progress 
which  has  already  been  made  in  America  towards  this  end,  desires  to  en- 
courage, with  their  cordial  sympathy,  the  earnest  Abolitionists  in  that 
country  in  the  noble  efforts  they  are  making.' 

"  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  offer  any 
observations  in  support  of  this  resolution.    After  the  magnificent 
oration  to  which  we  have  just  listened,  I  do  not  feel  myself  in- 
clined at  all  to  intrude  in  the  way  of  speaking  upon  this  question, 
33 


514  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  I  presume  the  meeting  is  not  at  all  inclined  to  hear  anything 
I  might  be  disposed  to  say.  I  do  not  think  the  motion  which  has 
been  put  into  my  hands  requires  very  much  to  be  said  in  support 
of  it.  I  think  it  is  exceedingly  moderate,  rather  more  moderate 
than  perhaps  I  should  have  expressed  it,  had  it  been  in  my  own 
words.  [Applause^]  I  think  it  pledges  us  to  nothing  but  what 
we  may  heartily  agree  to  [loud  applause],  from  our  abhorrence  of 
slavery,  our  desire  to  see  that  feeling  acknowledged,  and  our  sym- 
pathy with  those  who  are  trying  to  abolish  it  in  America.  Some 
may  perhaps  think  that  in  the  resolution  we  might  directly  sym- 
pathize with  the  Federals  in  their  struggle,  but  that  might  prob- 
ably lead  to  a  division  in  the  meeting.  I  would  venture  to  sug- 
gest that  our  esteemed  friend  has  gone  very  far  to  show  that  the 
Northerners,  as  such,  are  Abolitionists.  Those  who  think  that 
he  has  made  out  that  point  might  interpret  the  latter  part  of  this 
resolution  to  mean  the  whole  of  the  Federals  as  a  body  ;  and  those 
who  do  not  think  that  might  restrict  it  in  their  own  minds  to  suit 
their  views."     [Laughter.] 

Dr.  George  Johnston  then  came  forward  amid  loud  cheers,  and 
said:  "  It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  say  one  word  in  second- 
ing the  motion.  I  am  quite  satisfied  that  this  meeting  is  perfectly 
unanimous  in  accepting  the  sentiments  expressed  in  the  motion, 
and  why,  therefore,  should  I  occupy  more  time.  [Applause.]  Just 
let  me  say  this  one  word,  that  I  apprehend  that  the  magnificent 
speech  of  our  friend  Mr.  Beecher  Stowe — [loud  laughter] — -I  mean 
Mr.  Ward  Beecher — has  removed  some  prejudices  [hear,  hear], 
has  given  some  information  which,  if  rightly  used,  will  guide  us 
to  the  same  conclusion  to  which  I  long  ago  came — viz.,  that  the 
North  is  banded  together  to  maintain  the  liberties  of  mankind." 
[Loud  applause.] 

A  show  of  hands  was  then  taken,  when  only  three  were  held 
up  against  the  resolution,  which  was  carried  amidst  loud  and 
prolonged  cheering. 


SPEECH  IN  THE  PHILHARMONIC 
HALL,   LIVERPOOL. 

October  16,  1863. 


The  hall  was  crowded  in  every  part.  Immediately  upon  the 
doors  being  opened  the  hall  was  filled,  and  the  aspect  of  the 
audience  showed  that  the  proceedings  were  anticipated  with  no 
little  eagerness.  Mr.  Charles  Robertson  was  the  chairman  of  the 
evening. 

On  the  entrance  of  Mr.  Beecher,  preceded  by  the  chairman,  a 
vast  shout  of  mingled  welcome  and  disapprobation  was  imme- 
diately raised.  Placards  had  been  posted  throughout  the  town 
inciting  the  people  of  Liverpool  to  give  the  lecturer  a  hostile  re- 
ception ;  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  a  determined  minority 
of  the  meeting  were  present  with  that  intention.  The  extent  to 
which  their  exertions,  which  were  sedulously  continued  through- 
out, interfered  with  the  proceedings,  will  be  perceived  by  the  re- 
port. 

Charles  Robertson,  Esq.,  on  rising  to  introduce  the  lecturer, 
was  received  with  loud  cheers  and  hisses.  After  obtaining  si- 
lence he  said  :  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  we  are  met  here  to- 
night to  hear  an  address  from  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 
{Cheers  and  kisses.]  I  hope,  gentlemen,  this  is  an  assembly  of 
Englishmen  [/tear,  hear],  and  that  everybody  will  be  heard  with 
calmness  and  impartiality.  [Hear,  hear.]  Well,  gentlemen,  we 
are  met  together  this  evening  to  receive  such  information  from 
Mr.  Beecher  as  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  communicate  to  us  re- 
specting the  present  state  of  the  contest  now  going  on  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  its  bearing  on  that  most  impor- 
tant question  which  has  so  powerfully  stirred  the  hearts  of  En- 
glishmen, the  question  of  the  emancipation  of  the  negro  race. 
[Loud  applause  and  fosses.]  I  need  not  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  it 
is  that  aspect  of  the  question  which  has  induced  many  of  us  to 
take  a  part  in  this  meeting.  It  is  because  we  believe  that  this  is 
a  contest  which  has  a  most  important  bearing  on  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  negro  race,  and  the  introduction,  to  a  larger  portion 


5  16  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  the  population  of  the  Southern  States,  of  those  rights  and 
liberties  which,  as  men,  they  ought  to  possess — that  we  have 
taken  a  deep  interest  in  this  struggle,  believing  that  the  success 
of  the  Northern  States  will  lead  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slave, 
f"  No,  no,"  hisses  and  cheers.}  ....  It  is  with  no  unfriendly 
feelings  to  the  South  that  I  say  these  things.  They  are  our  own 
kinsmen  as  well  as  the  people  of  the  North.  We  have  admired 
their  courage  and  unflinching  devotedness  to  what  they  believe  a 
right  cause.  [Applause.]  But  we  are  equally  convinced  that 
their  cause  is  wrong.  [Loud  cries  of  "  Aro,  no,"  and  "Hear,  hear."] 
If  there  is  a  righteous  God  in  Heaven,  we  believe  that  cause  can- 
not prosper."  [Renewed  interruption?^  The  chairman  concluded 
by  asking  the  respectful  attention  of  the  audience  to  Mr.  Beecher's 
address,  adding  that  that  gentleman  was  perfectly  prepared  to 
answer  any  questions  that  might  be  addressed  to  him  after  the 
lecture,  provided  they  were  put  in  writing,  with  the  name  of  the 
writer  attached,  and  handed  up  to  the  chairman.     ["Oh,  oh."\ 

Mr.  Beecher  then  rose,  and,  advancing  to  the  front  of  the  plat- 
form, was  greeted  with  mingled  cheers,  hisses,  and  groans.  A 
considerable  proportion  of  the  audience  stood  up,  waving  hats 
and  handkerchiefs,  and  cheering.  A  man  in  the  gallery  called 
for  "Three  cheers  for  the  Southern  States,"  which  created  much 
laughter  and  some  uproar.  Mr.  Beecher  proceeded  to  say — 
"Ladies  and  gentlemen,"  when  the  uproar  again  commenced,  and 
efforts  were  made  to  eject  one  noisy  individual  from  the  body  of 
the  hall. 

The  chairman  said:  "A  fair  opportunity  will  be  afforded  to 
express  approval  or  dissent  at  the  close  of  the  lecture,  but  if  any 
one  interrupts  the  meeting  by  disorderly  conduct,  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  police."     [Cheers.] 

Mr.  Beecher  then  spoke: — 

For  more  than  twenty-five  years  I  have  been  made  per- 
fectly familiar  with  popular  assemblies  in  all  parts  of  my 
country  except  the  extreme  South.  There  has  not  for  the 
whole  of  that  time  been  a  single  day  of  my  life  when  it 
would  have  been  safe  for  me  to  go  south  of  Mason's  and 
Dixon's  line  in  my  own  country,  and  all  for  one  reason: 
my  solemn,  earnest,  persistent  testimony  against  that  which 
I  consider  to  be  the  most  atrocious  thing  under  the  sun — 
the  system  of  American  slavery  in  a  great  free  republic. 
[Cheers.]  I  have  passed  through  that  early  period,  when 
right  of  free  speech  was  denied  to  me.     Again  and  again 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  517 

I  have  attempted  to  address  audiences  that,  for  no  other 
crime  than  that  of  free  speech,  visited  me  with  all  manner 
of  contumelious  epithets  ;  and  now  since  I  have  been  in  En- 
gland, although  I  have  met  with  greater  kindness  and 
courtesy  on  the  part  of  most  than  I  deserved,  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  I  perceive  that  the  Southern  influence  prevails 
to  some  extent  in  England.  [Applause  and  uproar.']  It  is 
my  old  acquaintance  ;  I  understand  it  perfectly  [l<mgkter\ 
and  I  have  always  held  it  to  be  an  unfailing  truth  that 
where  a  man  had  a  cause  that  would  bear  examination  he 
was  perfectly  willing  to  have  it  spoken  about.  [Applause.] 
And  when  in  Manchester  I  saw  those  huge  placards,  "Who 
is  Henry  Ward  Beecher?"  [laughter,  cries  of  "Quite  right," 
and  applause]  —  and  when  in  Liverpool  I  was  told  that 
there  were  those  blood -red  placards,  purporting  to  say 
what  Henry  Ward  Beecher  had  said,  and  calling  upon 
Englishmen  to  suppress  free  speech  —  I  tell  you  what  I 
thought.  I  thought  simply  this — "  I  am  glad  of  it."  [Laugh- 
ter^] Why  ?  Because  if  they  had  felt  perfectly  secure, 
that  you  are  the  minions  of  the  South  and  the  slaves  of 
slavery,  they  would  have  been  perfectly  still.  [Applause 
and  uproar?^  And,  therefore,  when  I  saw  so  much  nervous 
apprehension  that,  if  I  were  permitted  to  speak  [hisses  and 
applause] — when  I  found  they  were  afraid  to  have  me  speak 
[fusses,  laughter,  and  "No,  ?io  "], — when  I  found  that  they  con- 
sidered my  speaking  damaging  to  their  cause  [applause] — 
when  I  found  that  they  appealed  from  facts  and  reasonings 
to  mob  law  [applause  and  uproar],  I  said:  No  man  need 
tell  me  what  the  heart  and  secret  counsel  of  these  men 
are.  They  tremble,  and  are  afraid.  [Applause,  laughter, 
hisses,  "JVo,  no,"  and  a  voice:  "Neiu  York  mob."  Now,  per- 
sonally, it  is  a  matter  of  very  little  consequence  to  me 
whether  I  speak  here  to-night  or  not.  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 
But,  one  thing  is  very  certain — if  you  do  permit  me  to 
speak  here  to-night  you  will  hear  very  plain  talking.  [Ap- 
plause and  hisses.]  You  will  not  find  a  man  [interruption], 
— you  will  not  find  me  to  be  a  man  that  dared  to  speak 
about  Great  Britain  three  thousand  miles  off,  and  then  is 
afraid  to  speak   to  Great   Britain  when  he  stands  on   her 


5*8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

shores.  [Immense  applause  and  hisses.~\  And  if  I  do  not  mis- 
take the  tone  and  the  temper  of  Englishmen,  they  had 
rather  have  a  man  who  opposes  them  in  a  manly  way  [ap- 
plause from  all  parts  of  the  l/all]  than  a  sneak  that  agrees 
with  them  in  an  unmanly  way.  [Applause  ami  "Bravo."]  If 
I  can  carry  you  with  me  by  sound  convictions,  I  shall  be 
immensely  glad  [applause]  ;  but  if  I  cannot  carry  you  with 
me  by  facts  and  sound  arguments,  I  do  not  wish  you  to 
go  with  me  at  all;  and  all  that  I  ask  is  simply  fair  play. 
[Applause,  and  avoiee:  "You  shall  have  it,  too."'  Those  of 
you  who  are  kind  enough  to  wish  to  favor  my  speaking — 
and  you  will  observe  that  my  voice  is  slightly  husky,  from 
having  spoken  almost  every  night  in  succession  for  some 
time  past — those  who  wish  to  hear  me  will  do  me  the  kind- 
ness simply  to  sit  still  and  to  keep  still;  and  I  and  my 
friends  the  Secessionists  will  make  all  the  noise.  [Laugh- 
ter.] 

There  are  two  dominant  races  in  modern  history.  The 
Germanic  and  the  Romanic  races.  The  Germanic  races 
tend  to  personal  liberty,  to  a  sturdy  individualism,  to  civil 
and  to  political  liberty.  The  Romanic  race  tends  to  absolu- 
tism in  government;  it  is  clannish;  it  loves  chieftains;  it 
develops  a  people  that  crave  strong  and  showy  govern- 
ments to  support  and  plan  for  them.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
race  belongs  to  the  great  German  family,  and  is  a  fair  ex- 
ponent of  its  peculiarities.  The  Anglo-Saxon  carries  self- 
government  and  self-development  with  him  wherever  he 
goes.  He  has  popular  government  and  popular  industry; 
for  the  effects  of  a  generous  civil  liberty  are  not  seen  a 
whit  more  plain  in  the  good  order,  in  the  intelligence,  and 
in  the  virtue  of  a  self-governing  people,  than  in  their  amaz- 
ing enterprise  and  the  scope  and  power  of  their  creative 
industry.  The  power  to  create  riches  is  just  as  much  a 
part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  virtues  as  the  power  to  create 
good  order  and  social  safety.  The  things  required  for 
prosperous  labor,  prosperous  manufactures,  and  prosper- 
ous commerce  are  three.  First,  liberty;  second,  liberty; 
third,  liberty.  [Hear,  hear.]  Though  these  are  not  merely 
the  same  liberty,  as  I  shall  show  you. 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  519 

First,  there  must  be  liberty  to  follow  those  laws  of  busi- 
ness which  experience  has  developed,  without  imposts  or 
restrictions,  or  governmental  intrusions.  Business  simply 
wants  to  be  let  alone.  [Hear,  hear.]  Then,  secondly, 
there  must  be  liberty  to  distribute  and  exchange  products 
of  industry  in  any  market  without  burdensome  tariffs, 
without  imposts,  and  without  vexatious  regulations. 
There  must  be  these  two  liberties — liberty  to  create  wealth, 
as  the  makers  of  it  think  best  according  to  the  light  and 
experience  which  business  has  given  them;  and  then  lib- 
erty to  distribute  what  they  have  created  without  unneces- 
sary vexatious  burdens.  The  comprehensive  law  of  the  ideal 
industrial  condition  of  the  world  is  free  manufacture  and 
free-trade.  \Hcar,  hear;  a  voice:  "  The  Morrill  tariff." 
Another  voice:  "Mo/iroe."]  I  have  said  there  were  three 
elements  of  liberty.  The  third  is  the  necessity  of  an  in- 
telligent and  free  race  of  customers.  There  must  be  free- 
dom among  producers;  there  must  be  freedom  among  the 
distributers;  there  must  be  freedom  among  the  customers. 
It  may  not  have  occurred  to  you  that  it  makes  any  differ- 
ence what  one's  customers  are;  but  it  does,  in  all  regular 
and  prolonged  business.  The  condition  of  the  customer 
determines  how  much  he  will  buy,  determines  of  what  sort 
he  will  buy.  Poor  and  ignorant  people  buy  little  and  that 
of  the  poorest  kind.  The  richest  and  the  intelligent,  having 
the  more  means  to  buy,  buy  the  most,  and  always  buy  the 
best.  Here  then  are  the  three  liberties — liberty  of  the  pro- 
ducer; liberty  of  the  distributer;  and  liberty  of  the  con- 
sumer. The  first  two  need  no  discussion,  they  have  been 
long  thoroughly  and  brilliantly  illustrated  by  the  political 
economists  of  Great  Britain,  and  by  her  eminent  states- 
men; but  it  seems  to  me  that  enough  attention  has  not 
been  directed  to  the  third;  and,  with  your  patience,  I  will 
dwell  on  that  for  a  moment,  before  proceeding  to  other 
topics. 

It  is  a  necessity  of  every  manufacturing  and  commercial 
people  that  their  customers  should  be  very  wealthy  and  in- 
telligent. Let  us  put  the  subject  before  you  in  the  familiar 
light  of  your   own   local   experience.      To    whom   do   the 


520  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

tradesmen  of  Liverpool  sell  the  most  goods  at  the  highest 
profit  ?     To  the  ignorant  and  poor,  or  to  the  educated  and 
prosperous?      [A  voice:  "To  the  Southerners."     Laughter.] 
The  poor  man  buys  simply  for  his  body;  he  buys  food,  he 
buys  clothing,  he  buys  fuel,  he  buys  lodging.      His  rule  is 
to  buy  the  least  and  the  cheapest  that  he  can.     He  goes  to 
the  store  as  seldom  as  he  can, — he  brings  away  as  little  as 
he  can, — and  he  buys  for  the  least   he   can.     \_Much  lav.gh- 
/(/.]     Poverty  is  not  a  misfortune  to   the  poor  only  who 
suffer  it,  but  it  is   more   or  less   a   misfortune   to  all  with 
whom  they  deal.     On  the  other  hand,  a   man   well  off, — 
how  is  it  with  him  ?     He  buys  in  far  greater  quantity.     He 
can  afford  to  do  it;  he  has  the  money  to   pay  for  it.     He 
buys  in  far  greater  variety,  because  he  seeks  to  gratify  not 
merely  physical  wants,  but  also  mental  wants.     He  buys 
for  the  satisfaction   of  sentiment  and    taste,  as  well  as  of 
sense.     He  buys  silk,  wool,  flax,  cotton;  he  buys  all  metals 
— iron,    silver,   gold,   platinum;    in   short  he  buys  for  all 
necessities  and  of  all  substances.     But  that  is  not  all.     He 
buys  a  better  quality  of  goods.     He  buys  richer  silks,  finer 
cottons,  higher  grained  wools.     Now,  a  rich  silk  means  so 
much  skill  and  care  of  somebody's  that  has  been  expended 
upon  it  to  make  it  finer  and  richer;  and  so   of  cotton,  and 
so  of  wool.     That  is,  the  price  of  the  finer  goods  runs  back 
to  the  very  beginning,  and   remunerates  the  workman  as 
well  as  the  merchant.     Indeed,  the  whole  laboring  com- 
munity is  as   much  interested   and   profited  as  the  mere 
merchant,  in  this  buying  and  selling  of  the  higher  grades 
in  the  greater  varieties  and  quantities.     The  law   of  price 
is  the  skill;  and  the  amount  of  skill  expended  in  the  work 
is  as  much  for  the  market  as  are  the  goods.     A  man  comes 
to  the  market  and  says,  "  I  have  a  pair  of  hands,"  and  he 
obtains  the  lowest  wages.     Another  man  comes  and  says, 
"I   have   something  more   than   a  pair  of  hands;  I    have 
truth  and  fidelity;  "  he  gets  a  higher  price.     Another  man 
comes  and  says,   "  I  have  something  more;    I   have  hands 
and  strength,  and  fidelity,  and  skill."     He  gets  more  than 
either  of  the  others.     The  next  man   comes   and  says,  "  1 
have  got  hands  and  strength,  and  skill,  and  fidelity;    but 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  521 

my  hands  work  more  than  that.  They  know  how  to  create 
things  for  the  fancy,  for  the  affections,  for  the  moral  senti- 
ments; "  and  he  gets  more  than  either  of  the  others.  The 
last  man  comes  and  says,  "I  have  all  these  qualities,  and 
have  them  so  highly  that  it  is  a  peculiar  genius;"  and 
genius  carries  the  whole  market  and  gets  the  highest 
price.  \Loud  applause.]  .  So  that  both  the  workman  and 
the  merchant  are  profited  by  having  purchasers  that  de- 
mand quality,  variety,  and  quantity.  Now,  if  this  be  so  in 
the  town  or  the  city,  it  can  only  be  so  because  it  is  a 
law.  This  is  the  specific  development  of  a  general  or  uni- 
versal law,  and  therefore  we  should  expect  to  find  it  as 
true  of  a  nation  as  of  a  city  like  Liverpool.  I  know  it  is 
so,  and  you  know  that  it  is  true  of  all  the  world;  and  it  is 
just  as  important  to  have  customers  educated,  intelligent, 
moral,  and  rich,  out  of  Liverpool  as  it  is  in  Liverpool.  \Ap- 
plause.]  They  are  able  to  buy;  they  want  variety,  they 
want  the  very  best;  and  those  are  the  customers  you  want. 
That  nation  is  the  best  customer  that  is  freest,  because 
freedom  works  prosperity,  industry,  and  wealth.  Great 
Britain  then,  aside  from  moral  considerations,  has  a  direct 
commercial  and  pecuniary  interest  in  the  liberty,  civiliza- 
tion, and  wealth  of  every  people  and  every  nation  on  the 
globe.  [Loud  applause i\  You  have  also  an  interest  in  this, 
because  you  are  a  moral  and  a  religious  people.  ["Oh, 
oh,"  laughter,  and  applause.]  You  desire  it  from  the  highest 
motives;  and  godliness  is  profitable  in  all  things,  having 
the  promise  of  the  life  that  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to 
come;  but  if  there  were  no  hereafter,  and  if  man  had  no 
progress  in  this  life,  and  if  there  were  no  question  of  moral 
growth  at  all,  it  would  be  worth  your  while  to  protect  civili- 
zation and  liberty,  merely  as  a  commercial  speculation. 
To  evangelize  has  more  than  a  moral  and  religious  import 
— it  comes  back  to  temporal  relations.  Wherever  a  nation 
that  is  crushed,  cramped,  degraded  under  despotism,  is 
struggling  to  be  free,  you,  Leeds,  Sheffield,  Manchester, 
Paisley,  all  have  an  interest  that  that  nation  should  be 
free.  When  depressed  and  backward  people  demand  that 
they  may  have  a  chance   to  rise — Hungary,  Italy,  Poland 


522  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

— it  is  a  duty  for  humanity's  sake,  it  is  a  duty  for  the 
highest  moral  motives,  to  sympathize  with  them;  but  be- 
side all  these  there  is  a  material  and  an  interested  reason 
why  you  should  sympathize  with  them.  Pounds  and  pence 
join  with  conscience  and  with  honor  in  this  design. 

Now,  Great  Britain's  chief  want  is — what?  They  have 
said  that  your  chief  want  is  cotton.  I  deny  it.  Your 
chief  want  is  consumers.  \_Applause  and  hisses.]  You  have 
got  skill,  you  have  got  capital,  and  you  have  got  ma- 
chinery enough  to  manufacture  goods  for  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  globe.  You  could  turn  out  fourfold  as  much 
as  you  do,  if  you  only  had  the  market  to  sell  in.  It  is  not 
therefore  so  much  the  want  of  fabric,  though  there  may 
be  a  temporary  obstruction  of  that;  but  the  principal  and 
increasing  want — increasing  from  year  to  year — is,  where 
shall  we  find  men  to  buy  what  we  can  manufacture  so 
fast?  [Interruption,  and  a  voice,  "The  Morrill  tariff,"  and 
applai/se.~\  Before  the  American  war  broke  out,  your  ware- 
houses were  loaded  with  goods  that  you  could  not  sell. 
[Applause  and  /iisses.~\  You  had  over-manufactured;  what 
is  the  meaning  of  over-manufacturing  but  this,  that  }rou 
had  skill,  capital,  machinery,  to  create  faster  than  you  had 
customers  to  take  goods  off  your  hands  ?  And  you  know 
that,  rich  as  Great  Britain  is,  vast  as  are  her  manufact- 
ures, if  she  could  have  fourfold  the  present  demand  she 
could  make  fourfold  riches  to-morrow;  and  every  political 
economist  will  tell  you  that  your  want  is  not  cotton  pri- 
marily, but  customers.  Therefore  the  doctrine  How  to 
make  customers,  is  a  great  deal  more  important  to  Great 
Britain  than  the  doctrine  How  to  raise  cotton.  It  is  to 
that  doctrine  I  ask  from  you,  business  men,  practical  men, 
men  of  fact,  sagacious  Englishmen — to  that  point  I  ask  a 
moment's  attention.  [Shouts  of  "  Oh,  oh,"  hisses,  and 
applause.] 

There  are  no  more  continents  to  be  discovered.  [Hear, 
hear.]  The  market  of  the  future  must  be  found — how  ? 
There  is  very  little  hope  of  any  more  demand  being 
created  by  new  fields.  If  you  are  to  have  a  better  market 
there  must  be  some  kind  of  process  invented  to  make  the 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  523 

old  fields  better.  [A  voice,  "Tell  us  something  new,"  shouts 
of  "  Order,"  ana!  interruption.]  Let  us  look  at  it,  then.  You 
must  civilize  the  world  in  order  to  make  a  better  class  of 
purchasers.  [Interruption.]  If  you  were  to  press  Italy 
down  again  under  the  feet  of  despotism,  Italy,  discour- 
aged, could  draw  but  very  few  supplies  from  you.  But 
give  her  liberty,  kindle  schools  throughout  her  valleys, 
spur  her  industry,  make  treaties  with  her  by  which  she 
can  exchange  her  wine,  and  her  oil,  and  her  silk  for  your 
manufactured  goods;  and  for  every  effort  that  you  make 
in  that  direction  there  will  come  back  profit  to  you  by  in- 
creased traffic  with  her.  [Loud  applause.]  If  Hungary 
asks  to  be  an  unshackled  nation — if  by  freedom  she  will 
rise  in  virtue  and  intelligence,  then  by  freedom  she  will 
acquire  a  more  multifarious  industry,  which  she  will  be 
willing  to  exchange  for  your  manufactures.  Her  liberty 
is  to  be  found — where  ?  You  will  find  it  in  the  Word  of 
God,  you  will  find  it  in  the  code  of  history;  but  you  will 
also  find  it  in  the  Price  Current  [hear,  hear];  and  every 
free  nation,  every  civilized  people — every  people  that  rises 
from  barbarism  to  industry  and  intelligence,  becomes  a 
better  customer.  A  savage  is  a  man  of  one  story,  and  that 
one  story  a  cellar.  When  man  begins  to  be  civilized,  he 
raises  another  story.  When  you  Christianize  and  civilize 
the  man,  you  put  story  upon  story,  for  you  develop 
faculty  after  faculty;  and  you  have  to  supply  every  story 
with  your  productions.  The  savage  is  a  man  one  story 
deep;  the  civilized  man  is  thirty  stories  deep.  [Applause.] 
Now  if  you  go  to  a  lodging-house,  where  there  are  three 
or  four  men,  your  sales  to  them  may,  no  doubt,  be  worth 
something;  but  if  you  go.  to  a  lodging-house  like  some  of 
those  which  I  saw  in  Edinburgh,  which  seemed  to  contain 
about  twenty  stories  —  ["Oh,  oh,"  and  interruption]  —  every 
story  of  which  is  full,  and  all  who  occupy  buy  of  you — 
which  is  the  best  customer — the  man  who  is  drawn  out,  or 
the  man  who  is  pinched  up  ?     [Laughter.] 

There  is  in  this  a  great  and  sound  principle  of  political 
economy.  ["  Yah  !  yah  !  "  from  the  passage  outside  the  hall, 
and  loud  laughter^]     If  the  South  should   be    rendered  inde- 


524  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

pendent — [at  this  Juncture  mingled  cheering  and  hisses  became 
immense;  half  the  audience  rose  to  their  feet,  waving  hats  and 
handkerchiefs,  and  in  every  part  of  the  hall  there  was  the  great- 
est commotion  and  uproar.  Mr.  Beechcr  quietly  and  smilingly 
waited  until  quiet  was  restored,  and  then  proceeded.]  Well,  you 
have  had  your  turn;  now  let  me  have  mine  again.  [Loud 
applause  and  laughter.']  It  is  a  little  inconvenient  to  talk 
against  the  wind;  but,  after  all,  if  you  will  just  keep  good- 
natured — I  am  not  going  to  lose  my  temper;  will  you  watch 
yours  ?  [Applause.]  Besides  all  that, — it  rests  me,  and  gives 
me  a  chance,  you  know,  to  get  my  breath.  [Applause  and 
hisses.]  And  I  think  that  the  bark  of  those  men  is  worse 
than  their  bite.  They  do  not  mean  any  harm — they  don't 
know  any  better.  [Loud laughter,  applause,  hisses,  and  continued 
uproar.]  I  was  saying,  when  these  responses  broke  in,  that 
it  was  worth  our  while  to  consider  both  alternatives.  What 
will  be  the  result  if  this  present  struggle  shall  eventuate  in 
the  separation  of  America,  and  making  the  South — [loud  ap- 
plause, hisses,  hooting,  and  cries  of  "Bravo  /"] — a  slave  terri- 
tory exclusively — [cries  of  "No,  no,"  and  laughter] — and  the 
North  a  free  territory;  what  will  be  the  first  result?  You 
will  lay  the  foundation  for  carrying  the  slave  population 
clear  through  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  That  is  the  first  step. 
There  is  not  a  man  who  has  been  a  leader  of  the  South 
any  time  within  these  twenty  years,  that  has  not  had  this 
for  a  plan.  It  was  for  this  that  Texas  was  invaded,  first 
by  colonists,  next  by  marauders,  until  it  was  wrested  from 
Mexico.  It  was  for  this  that  they  engaged  in  the  Mexican 
war  itself,  by  which  the  vast  territory  reaching  to  the 
Pacific  was  added  to  the  Union.  Never  have  they  for  a 
moment  given  up  the  plan  of  spreading  the  American  in- 
stitution, as  they  call  it,  straight  through  towards  the  West, 
until  the  slave,  who  has  washed  his  feet  in  the  Atlantic, 
shall  be  carried  to  wash  them  in  the  Pacific.  [Cries  of 
"Question,"  and  uproar.]  There  !  I  have  got  that  statement 
out,  and  you  cannot  put  it  back.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 
Now,  let  us  consider  the  prospect.  If  the  South  become 
a  slave  empire,  what  relation  will  it  have  to  you  as  a  cus- 
tomer?    [A    voice:     "Or   any    other    man."     L.aughter.]     It 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  525 

would  be  an  empire  of  twelve  millions  of  people.  Of  these, 
eight  millions  are  white  and  four  millions  black.  [A  voice: 
"How  many  have  you  got?  " — applause  and  laughter.  Another 
voice:  "Free  your  own  slaves."]  Consider  that  one-third  of 
the  whole  are  the  miserably  poor,  unbuying  blacks.  [Cries 
of  "No,  no"  "  Yes,  yes,"  and  interruption.]  You  do  not  man- 
ufacture much  for  them.  [Hisses,  "Oh/"  "No"]  You 
have  not  got  machinery  coarse  enough.  [Laughter,  and 
"  IVo."]  Your  labor  is  too  skilled  by  far  to  manufacture 
bagging  and  linsey-woolsey.  [A  Southerner :  "  We  are 
t^oi/ig  to  free  them  every  one."  Then  you  and  I  agree  ex- 
actly. [Laughter.]  One  other  third  consists  of  a  poor, 
unskilled,  degraded  white  population;  and  the  remaining 
one-third,  which  is  a  large  allowance,  we  will  say,  intelli- 
gent and  rich.  Now  here  are  twelve  millions  of  people, 
and  only  one-third  of  them  are  customers  that  can  afford  to 
buy  the  kind  of  goods  that  you  bring  to  market.  [Inter- 
ruption and  uproar^]  My  friends,  I  saw  a  man  once,  who 
was  a  little  late  at  a  railway  station,  chase  an  express 
train.  He  did  not  catch  it.  [Laughter.]  If  you  are  going 
to  stop  this  meeting,  you  have  got  to  stop  it  before  I 
speak;  for  after  I  have  got  the  things  out,  you  may  chase 
as  long  as  you  please — you  will  not  catch  them.  [Laughter 
and  interruption^]  But  there  is  luck  in  leisure;  I'm  going 
to  take  it  easy.  [Laughter.]  Two-thirds  of  the  population 
of  the  Southern  States  to-day  are  non-purchasers  of  En- 
glish goods.  [A  voice:  "No,  they  are  not;"  "  Aro,  no,"  and 
uproar.]  You  must  recollect  another  fact — namely,  that 
this  is  going  on  clear  through  to  the  Pacific  Ocean;  and  if 
by  sympathy  or  help  you  establish  a  slave  empire,  you 
sagacious  Britons — ["  Oh,  oh,"  and  hooting] — if  you  like  it 
better,  then,  I  will  leave  the  adjective  out — [laughter,  hear, 
and  applause] — are  busy  in  favoring  the  establishment  of 
an  empire  from  ocean  to  ocean  that  should  have  fewest 
customers  and  the  largest  non-buying  population.  [Ap- 
plause, "No,  no."  A  voice:  "L  thought  it  was  the  happy  people 
that  populated  fastest."] 

Now,  for  instance,  just  look   at   this,  the  difference  be- 
tween free   labor  and   slave -labor  to   produce   cultivated 


526  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

land.  The  State  of  Virginia  has  15,000  more  square  miles 
of  land  than  the  State  of  New  York;  but  Virginia  has  only 
15,000  square  miles  improved,  while  New  York  has  20,000 
square  miles  improved.  Of  unimproved  land  Virginia  has 
about  23,000  square  miles,  and  New  York  only  about  10,- 
000  square  miles.  These  facts  speak  volumes  as  to  the 
capacity  of  the  territory  to  bear  population.  The  smaller 
is  the  quantity  of  soil  uncultivated,  the  greater  is  the 
density  of  the  population — [hear,  hear]; — and  upon  that, 
their  value  as  customers  depends.  Let  us  take  the  States 
of  Maryland  and  Massachusetts.  Maryland  has  2,000 
more  square  miles  of  land  than  Massachusetts;  but  Mary- 
land has  about  4,000  square  miles  of  land  improved,  Mas- 
sachusetts has  3,200  square  miles.  Maryland  has  2,800 
unimproved  square  miles  of  land,  while  Massachusetts  has 
but  1,800  square  miles  unimproved.  But  these  two  are 
little  States, — let  us  take  greater  States :  Pennsylvania 
and  Georgia.  The  State  of  Georgia  has  12,000  more 
square  miles  of  land  than  Pennsylvania.  Georgia  has  only 
about  9,800  square  miles  of  improved  land,  Pennsylvania 
has  13,400  square  miles  of  improved  land,  or  about  2,300,- 
000  acres  more  than  Georgia.  Georgia  has  about  25,600 
square  miles  of  unimproved  land,  and  Pennsylvania  has 
only  10,400  square  miles,  or  about  10,000,000  acres  less  of 
////improved  land  than  Georgia.  The  one  is  a  Slave  State 
and  the  other  is  a  Free  State.  I  do  not  want  you  to  for- 
get such  statistics  as  those,  having  once  heard  them. 
[Laughter.]  Now,  what  can  England  make  for  the  poor 
white  population  of  such  a  future  empire,  and  for  her  slave 
population  ?  What  carpets,  what  linens,  what  cottons  can 
you  sell  to  them  ?  What  machines,  what  looking-glasses, 
what  combs,  what  leather,  what  books,  what  pictures,  what 
engravings?  [A  voice:  "We  11  sell  them  ships."}  You  may 
sell  ships  to  a  few,  but  what  ships  can  you  sell  to  two- 
thirds  of  the  population  of  poor  whites  and  blacks?  [Ap- 
plause^] A  little  bagging  and  a  little  linsey-woolsey,  a  few 
whips  and  manacles,  are  all  that  you  can  sell  for  the  slave. 
[Great  applause,  and  uproar. ~\  This  very  day,  in  the  Slave 
States  of  America  there  are  eight  millions   out  of  twelve 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  527 

millions  that  are  not,  and  cannot  be  your  customers  from 
the  very  laws  of  trade.  [A  voice:  "  Then  how  are  they 
clothed?  "  and  continued  interruption.] 

The  chairman  finally  said:    If  gentlemen  will  only  sit  down, 
those  who  are  making  the  disturbance  will  be  tired  out. 

Mr.  Beecher  resumed:  There  are  some  apparent  draw- 
backs that  may  suggest  themselves.  The  first  is  that  the 
interests  of  England  consist  in  drawing  from  any  country 
its  raw  material.  \_A  voice:  "We  have  got  over  that."  There 
is  an  interest,  but  it  is  not  now  the  chief  interest  of  England. 
The  interest  of  England  is  not  merely  where  to  buy  her  cot- 
ton, her  ores,  her  wool,  her  linens,  and  her  flax.  When  she 
has  put  her  brains  into  the  cotton,  and  into  the  linen  and 
flax,  and  it  becomes  the  product  of  her  looms,  a  far  more 
important  question  is,  What  can  be  done  with  it  ?  En- 
gland does  not  want  merely  to  pay  prices  for  that  which 
brute  labor  produces,  but  to  get  a  price  for  that  which  brain 
labor  produces.  [Hear,  hear,  and  applause.]  Your  interest 
lies  beyond  all  peradventure  in  customers;  therefore,  if  you 
should  bring  ever  so  much  cotton  from  the  slave-empire — 
["  Yah,  yah  "] — you  cannot  sell  back  to  the  slave-empire.  \_A 
voice:  "Go  on  with  your  subject;  we  know  all  about  England." 
Excuse  me,  sir,  I  am  the  speaker,  not  you;  and  it  is  forme 
to  determine  what  to  say.  [Hear,  hear.]  Do  you  suppose  I 
am  going  to  speak  about  America  except  to  convince  En- 
glishmen ?  I  am  here  to  talk  to  you  for  the  sake  of  ulti- 
mately carrying  you  with  me  in  judgment  and  in  thinking 
— ["  Oh  f  oli/"] — however,  as  to  this  logic  of  cat-calls,  it  is 
slavery  logic, — I  am  used  to  it.  [Applause,  hisses  and 
cheers?^  Now,  it  is  said  that  if  the  South  should  be 
allowed  to  be  separate  there  will  be  no  tariff,  and  England 
can  trade  with  her;  but,  if  the  South  remains  in  the 
United  States  it  will  be  bound  by  a  tariff,  and  English 
goods  will  be  excluded  from  it  [interruption].  Well,  I  am 
not  going  to  shirk  any  question  of  that  kind.  In  the  first 
place,  let  me  tell  you  that  the  first  tariff  ever  proposed  in 
America  was  not  only  supported  by  Southern  interests  and 
votes,  but  was  originated  by  the  peculiar  structure  of 
Southern  society.     The  first  and  chief  difficulty — after  the 


5^8  PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

Union  was  formed  under  our  present  Constitution — the 
first  difficulty  that  met  our  fathers  was,  how  to  raise  taxes 
to  support  the  government;  and  the  question  of  represen- 
tation and  taxes  went  together;  and  the  difficulty  was, 
whether  we  should  tax  the  North  and  South  alike,  man 
for  man  per  caput,  counting  the  slaves  with  whites.  The 
North  having  fewer  slaves  in  comparison  with  the  number 
of  its  whites;  the  South,  which  had  a  larger  number  of 
blacks,  said,  "  We  shall  be  overtaxed  if  this  system  be 
adopted."  They  therefore  proposed  that  taxes  and  repre- 
sentation should  be  on  the  basis  of  five  black  men  counting 
as  three  white  men.  In  a  short  time  it  was  found  impossi- 
ble to  raise  these  taxes  in  the  South,  and  then  they  cast  about 
for  a  better  way,  and  the  tariff  scheme  was  submitted. 
The  object  was  to  raise  the  revenue  from  the  ports  instead 
of  from  the  people.  The  tariff  therefore  had  its  origin 
in  Southern  weaknesses  and  necessities,  and  not  in  the 
Northern  cities  [loud  applause\  Daniel  Webster's  first 
speech  was  against  it;  but  after  that  was  carried  by  South- 
ern votes  (which  for  more  than  fifty  years  determined  the 
law  of  the  country),  New  England  accepted  it,  and  saying, 
"It  is  the  law  of  the  land,"  conformed  her  industry  to  it; 
and  when  she  got  her  capital  embarked  in  mills  and 
machinery,  she  became  in  favor  of  it.  But  the  South,  be- 
ginning to  feel,  as  she  grew  stronger,  that  it  was  against 
her  interest  to  continue  the  system,  sought  to  have  the 
tariff  modified,  and  brought  it  down;  though  Henry  Clay, 
a  Southern  man  himself,  was  the  immortal  champion  of 
the  tariff.  All  his  life-time  he  was  for  a  high  tariff,  till  such 
a  tariff  could  no  longer  stand;  and  then  he  was  for  moder- 
ating the  tariffs.  But  there  has  not  been  for  the  whole  of 
the  fifty  years  a  single  hour  when  any  tariff  could  be  passed 
without  the  South.  The  opinion  of  the  whole  of  America 
was,  Tariff,  high  tariff.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  were  none 
that  dissented  from  that  opinion,  but  it  was  the  popular  and 
prevalent  cry.  I  have  lived  to  see  the  time  when,  just  be- 
fore the  war  broke  out,  it  might  be  said  that  the  thinking 
men  of  America  were  ready  for  free-trade.  There  has  been 
a  steady  progress  throughout  America  for  free-trade  ideas. 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  529 

How,  then,  came  this  Morrill  tariff  ?  The  Democratic 
administration,  inspired  by  Southern  counsels,  left  millions 
of  millions  of  unpaid  debt  to  cramp  the  incoming  of 
Lincoln;  and  the  government,  betrayed  to  the  Southern 
States,  found  itself  unable  to  pay  those  debts,  unable  to 
build  a  single  ship,  unable  to  raise  an  army;  and  it  was  the 
exigency,  the  necessity,  that  forced  them  to  adopt  the  Mor- 
rill tariff,  in  order  to  raise  the  money  which  they  required. 
It  was  the  South  that  obliged  the  North  to  put  the  tariff 
on.  [Applause  and  uproar.']  Just  as  soon  as  we  begin  to 
have  peace  again,  and  can  get  our  national  debt  into  a 
proper  shape  as  you  have  got  yours — [laughter] — the  same 
cause  that  worked  before  will  begin  to  work  again;  and 
there  is  nothing  more  certain  in  the  future  than  that 
America  is  bound  to  join  with  Great  Britain  in  the  world- 
wide doctrine  of  free-trade.     [Applause  and  interruption.] 

Here  then,  so  far  as  this  argument  is  concerned,  I  rest 
my  case,  saying  that  it  seems  to  me  that  in  an  argument 
addressed  to  a  commercial  people  it  was  perfectly  fair  to 
represent  that  their  commercial  and  manufacturing  inter- 
ests tallied  with  their  moral  sentiments;  and  as  by  birth, 
by  blood,  by  history,  by  moral  feeling,  and  by  everything, 
Great  Britain  is  connected  with  the  liberty  of  the  world, 
God  has  joined  interest  and  conscience,  head  and  heart; 
so  that  you  ought  to  be  in  favor  of  liberty  everywhere. 
[Great  applause.]  There!  I  have  got  quite  a  speech  out 
already,  if  I  do  not  get  any  more.     [Hisses  and  applause.] 

Now  then,  leaving  this  for  a  time,  let  me  turn  to  some 
other  nearly  connected  topics.  It  is  said  that  the  South  is 
fighting  for  just  that  independence  of  which,  I  have  been 
speaking.  [Hear,  hear.]  But  the  South  is  divided  on  that 
subject.  ["  No,  no."  There  are  twelve  millions  in  the 
South.  Four  millions  of  them  are  asking  for  their  liberty. 
["No,  no,"  hisses,  "Yes,"  applause  and  interruption.]  Four 
millions  are  asking  for  their  liberty.  [Continued  interrup- 
tion, and  renewed  applause^  Eight  millions  are  banded 
together  to  prevent  it.  ["No,  no,"  hisses,  and  applause^] 
That  is  what  they  asked  the  world  to  recognize  as  a  strike 

for    independence.       [Hear,    hear,    and  laughter  ^\       Eight 

34 


53°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

million  white  men  fighting  to  prevent  the  liberty  of  four 
million  black  men,  challenging  the  world.  [Uproar,  hisses, 
applause,  and  continued  interruption^  You  cannot  get  over 
the  fact.  There  it  is;  like  iron,  you  cannot  stir  it.  [Up- 
roar.] They  went  out  of  the  Union  because  slave-property 
was  not  recognized  in  it.  There  were  two  ways  of  reaching 
slave-property  in  the  Union:  the  one  by  exerting  the  direct 
Federal  authority:  but  they  could  not  do  that,  for  they 
conceived  it  to  be  forbidden.  The  second  was  by  indirect 
influence.  If  you  put  a  candle  under  a  bowl  it  will  burn 
so  long  as  the  fresh  air  lasts,  but  it  will  go  out  as  soon  as 
the  oxygen  is  exhausted;  and  so,  if  you  put  slavery  into  a 
State  where  it  cannot  get  more  States,  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time  how  soon  it  will  die.  By  limiting  slave  territory 
you  lay  the  foundation  for  the  final  extinction  of  slavery. 
[Applause.]  Gardeners  say  that  the  reason  why  crops  will 
not  grow  in  the  same  ground  for  a  long  time  together,  is 
that  the  roots  excrete  poisoned  matter  which  the  plants 
cannot  use,  and  thus  poison  the  grain.  Whether  this  is 
true  of  crops  or  not,  it  is  certainly  true  of  slavery,  for  slav- 
ery poisons  the  land  on  which  it  grows.  Look  at  the  old 
Slave  States, — Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  and  even  at  the  newer  State  of  Missouri. 
What  is  the  condition  of  slavery  in  those  States  ?  It  is  not 
worth  one  cent,  except  to  breed.  It  is  not  worth  one  cent 
so  far  as  productive  energy  goes.  They  cannot  make 
money  by  their  slaves  in  those  States.  The  first  reason 
with  them  for  maintaining  slavery  is,  because  it  gives  polit- 
ical power;  and  the  second,  because  they  breed  for  the 
Southern  market.  I  do  not  stand  on  my  own  testimony 
alone.  The  editor  of  the  Virginia  Times,  in  the  year  1836, 
made  a  calculation  that  120,000  slaves  were  sent  out  of  the 
State  during  that  year;  80,000  of  whom  went  with  their 
owners,  and  ^40,000  were  sold  at  the  average  price  of  600 
dollars,  amounting  to  24,000,000  dollars  in  one  year  out  of 
the  State  of  Virginia.  Now,  what  does  Henry  Clay,  him- 
self a  slave-owner,  say  about  Kentucky  ?  In  a  speech  before 
the  Colonization  Society,  he  said:  "It  is  believed  that 
nowhere  in  the  farming  portion  of  the  United  States  would 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  531 

slave-labor  be  generally  employed,  if  the  proprietary  were 
not  compelled  to  raise  slaves  by  the  high  price  of  the 
Southern  market,"  and  the  only  profit  of  slave  property  in 
the  northern  farming  slave  States  is  the  value  they  bring. 
\A  voice:  "  Then  if  the  Northerners  breed  to  supply  the  South, 
what's  the  difference  ?  "]  So  that  if  you  were  to  limit  slavery, 
and  to  say,  it  shall  go  so  far  and  no  further,  it  would  be 
only  a  question  of  time  when  it  should  die  of  its  own  intrin- 
sic weakness  and  disease.  This  was  the  Northern  feeling. 
The  North  was  true  to  the  doctrine  of  constitutional  rights. 
The  North  refused,  by  any  Federal  action  within  the 
States,  to  violate  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution,  and  left 
local  compacts  unimpaired;  but  feeling  herself  unbound 
with  regard  to  what  we  call  the  Territories, — free  land 
which  has  not  yet  State  rights, — the  North  said  there 
should  be  no  more  territory  cursed  with  slavery.  \_Ap- 
plause.~\  With  unerring  instinct  the  South  said,  "  The  gov- 
ernment administered  by  Northern  men  on  the  principle 
that  there  shall  be  no  more  slave-territory,  is  a  govern- 
ment fatal  to  slavery,"  and  it  was  on  that  account  that 
they  seceded  ["A^,  no,"  "  Yes,  yes,"  applause,  hisses,  and 
uproar\ — and  the  first  step  which  they  took  when  they  as- 
sembled at  Montgomery,  was,  to  adopt  a  constitution. 
What  constitution  did  they  adopt  ?  The  same  form  of  con- 
stitution which  they  had  just  abandoned.  What  changes  did 
they  introduce  ?  A  trifling  change  about  the  Presidential 
term,  making  it  two  years  longer;  a  slight  change  about 
some  doctrine  of  legislation,  involving  no  principle  what- 
ever, but  merely  a  question  of  policy.  But  by  the  consti- 
tution of  Montgomery  they  legalized  slavery,  and  made  it 
the  organic  law  of  the  land.  The  very  Constitution  which 
they  said  they  could  not  live  under  when  they  left  the 
Union  they  took  again  immediately  afterwards,  altering  it 
in  only  one  point,  and  that  was,  making  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  land  to  be  slavery.  [Hear,  hear.]  Let  no  man 
undertake  to  say  in  the  face  of  intelligence — let  no  man 
undertake  to  delude  an  honest  community — by  saying  that 
slavery  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Secession.  Slavery  is 
the  framework  of  the  South;  it  is  the  root  and  the  branch 


532  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  this  conflict  with  the  South.  Take  away  slavery  from 
the  South,  and  she  would  not  differ  from  us  in  any  respect. 
There  is  not  a  single  antagonistic  interest.  There  is  no 
difference  of  race,  no  difference  of  language,  no  difference 
of  law,  no  difference  of  constitution;  the  only  difference 
between  us  is,  that  free  labor  is  in  the  North,  and  slave 
labor  is  in  the  South.     [Loud  applause.'] 

But  I  know  that  you  say,  you  cannot  help  sympathizing 
with  a  gallant  people.  [Hear,  hear.]  They  are  the  weaker 
people,  the  minority;  and  you  cannot  help  going  with  the 
minority  who  are  struggling  for  their  rights  against  the 
majority.  Nothing  could  be  more  generous,  when  a  weak 
party  stands  for  its  own  legitimate  rights  against  impe- 
rious pride  and  power,  than  to  sympathize  with  the  weak. 
But  who  ever  yet  sympathized  with  a  weak  thief,  because 
three  constables  had  got  hold  of  him  ?  [Hear,  hear.] 
And  yet  the  one  thief  in  three  policemen's  hands  is  the 
weaker  party;  I  suppose  you  would  sympathize  with  him! 
[Hear,  hear,  laughter,  and  applause^]  Why,  when  that  in- 
famous king  of  Naples,  Bomba,  was  driven  into  Gaeta  by 
Garibaldi  with  his  immortal  band  of  patriots,  and  Cavour 
sent  against  him  the  army  of  Northern  Italy,  who  was  the 
weaker  party  then?  The  tyrant  and  his  minions;  and  the 
majority  was  with  the  noble  Italian  patriots,  struggling 
for  liberty.  I  never  heard  that  Old  England  sent  deputa- 
tions to  King  Bomba,  and  yet  his  troops  resisted  bravely 
there.  [Laughter  and  interruption.]  To-day  the  majority 
of  the  people  of  Rome  are  with  Italy.  Nothing  but  French 
bayonets  keeps  her  from  going  back  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Italy,  to  which  she  belongs.  Do  you  sympathize  with  the 
minority  in  Rome  or  the  majority  in  Italy?  [A  voice: 
"  With  Italy"]  To-day  the  South  is  the  minority  in 
America,  and  they  are  fighting  for  "independence  !  "  For 
what?  [Uproar.  A  voice:  "Three  cheers  for  independence," 
and  hisses.]  I  could  wish  so  much  bravery  had  had  a 
better  cause,  and  that  so  much  self-denial  had  been  less 
deluded;  that  that  poisonous  and  venomous  doctrine  of 
State  Sovereignty  might  have  been  kept  aloof;  that  so 
many   gallant   spirits,  such   as   Stonewall  Jackson,    might 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  533 

still  have  lived.  {Great  applause  and  loud  cheers,  again  and 
again  renewed.]  The  force  of  these  facts,  historical  and  in- 
controvertible, cannot  be  broken,  except  through  diverting 
attention  by  an  attack  upon  the  North.  It  is  said  that  the 
North  is  fighting  for  Union,  and  not  for  emancipation. 
The  North  is  fighting  for  Union,  for  that  insures  emancipa- 
tion. [Loud  cheers,  "Oh,  oh,"  "No, no"  and  cheers?]  A  great 
many  men  say  to  ministers  of  the  Gospel:  "You  pretend 
to  be  preaching  and  working  for  the  love  of  the  people  ? 
Why,  you  are  all  the  time  preaching  for  the  sake  of  the 
church."  What  does  the  minister  say  ?  "  It  is  by  means 
of  the  church  that  we  help  the  people,"  and  when  men 
say  that  we  are  fighting  for  the  Union,  I  too  say  we  are 
fighting  for  the  Union.  [Hear,  hear,  and  a  voice:  "That's 
right."  But  the  motive  determines  the  value;  and  why 
are  we  fighting  for  the  Union?  Because  we  never  shall 
forget  the  testimony  of  our  enemies.  They  have  gone  off 
declaring  that  the  Union  in  the  hands  of  the  North  was 
fatal  to  slavery.  {Loud  applause.]  There  is  testimony  in 
court  for  you!     [A  voice:  "See  that"  and  laughter!] 

We  are  fighting  for  the  Union,  because  we  believe  that 
preamble,  which  explains  the  very  reason  for  which  the 
Union  was  constituted.  I  will  read  it.  "We" — not  the 
States — "  We,  the  People  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union"  {uproar] — I  don't  wonder  you 
don't  want  to  hear  it  [laughter] — "  in  order  to  form  a  more 
perfect  Union,  establish  Justice,  insure  domestic  Tran- 
quillity [uproar] — provide  for  the  common  Defense,  pro- 
mote the  general  Welfare,  and  secure  the  Blessings  of 
Liberty  ["Oh,  oh"] — to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  or- 
dain and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States 
of  America."  [A  voice:  "How  many  States?"]  It  is  for  the 
sake  of  that  justice,  that  common  welfare,  and  that  liberty 
for  which  the  National  Union  was  established,  that  we  fight 
for  the  Union.  [Interruption?^  Because  the  South  believed 
that  the  Union  was  against  slavery,  they  left  it.  [Renewed 
interruption!]  Yes.  [Applause,  and  "No,  no."]  To-day,  how- 
ever, if  the  North  believed  that  the  Union  was  against  lib- 
erty, they  would  leave  it.      ["Oh,  oh,"  and  great  disturbance.] 


534  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  traveled  in  the  West  ten  or  twelve 
hours  at  a  time  in  the  mud  knee-deep.  It  was  hard, 
toiling  my  way,  but  I  always  got  through  my  journey.  I 
feel  to-night  as  though  I  were  traveling  over  a  very  muddy 
road;  but  I  think  I  shall  get  through.     [Cheers.] 

Well,  next  it  is  said,  that  the  North  treats  the  negro  race 
worse  than  the  South.  [Applause,  cries  of  "Bravo  !  "  and 
uproar.]  Now,  you  see  I  don't  fear  any  of  these  disagree- 
able arguments.  I  am  going  to  face  every  one  of  them. 
In  the  first  place  I  am  ashamed  to  confess  that  such  was 
the  thoughtlessness — [interruption] — such  was  the  stupor 
of  the  North — [renewed  interruption] — you  will  get  a  word 
at  a  time;  to-morrow  will  let  folks  see  what  it  is  you  don't 
want  to  hear — that  for  a  period  of  twenty-five  years  she 
went  to  sleep,  and  permitted  herself  to  be  drugged  and 
poisoned  with  the  Southern  prejudice  against  black  men. 
[Applause  and  uproar.]  The  evil  was  made  worse,  because, 
when  any  object  whatever  has  caused  anger  between 
political  parties,  a  political  animosity  arises  against  that 
object,  no  matter  how  innocent  in  itself;  no  matter  what 
were  the  original  influences  which  excited  the  quarrel. 
Thus  the  colored  man  has  been  the  football  between  the 
two  parties  in  the  North,  and  has  suffered  accordingly.  I 
confess  it  to  my  shame.  But  I  am  speaking  now  on  my 
own  ground,  for  I  began  twenty-five  years  ago,  with  a 
small  party,  to  combat  the  unjust  dislike  of  the  colored 
man.  [Loud  applause,  dissension,  and  uproar.  The  interrup- 
tion at  this  point  became  so  violent  that  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Beecher  throughout  the  hall  rose  to  their  feet,  waving  hats  and 
handkerchiefs,  and  renewing  their  shouts  of  applause.  The  in- 
terruption lasted  some  minutes.]  Well,  I  have  lived  to  see  a 
total  revolution  in  the  Northern  feeling — I  stand  here  to 
bear  solemn  witness  of  that.  It  is  not  my  opinion;  it  is 
my  knowledge.  [Great  uproar^]  Those  men  who  under- 
took to  stand  up  for  the  rights  of  all  men — black  as  well 
as  white — have  increased  in  number;  and  now  what  party 
in  the  North  represents  those  men  that  resist  the  evil 
prejudices  of  past  years  ?  The  Republicans  are  that 
party.      [Loud  applause.]     And  who  are  those  men  in  the 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  535 

North  that  have  oppressed  the  negro  ?  They  are  the  Peace 
Democrats;  and  the  prejudice  for  which  in  England  you  are 
attempting  to  punish  me,  is  a  prejudice  raised  by  the  men  who 
have  opposed  me  all  my  life.  These  pro-slavery  Democrats 
abused  the  negro.  I  defended  him,  and  they  mobbed  me 
for  doing  it.  Oh,  justice  !  [Loud  laughter,  applause,  and 
hisses.]  This  is  as  if  a  man  should  commit  an  assault, 
maim  and  wound  a  neighbor,  and  a  surgeon  being  called 
in  should  begin  to  dress  his  wounds,  and  by  and  by  a 
policeman  should  come  and  collar  the  surgeon  and  haul 
him  off  to  prison  on  account  of  the  wounds  which  he  was 
healing. 

Now,  I  told  you  I  would  not  flinch  from  anything.  I 
am  going  to  read  you  some  questions  that  were  sent  after 
me  from  Glasgow,  purporting  to  be  from  a  working  man. 
[Great  interruption?^  If  those  pro-slavery  interrupters  think 
they  will  tire  me  out,  they  will  do  more  than  eight  millions 
in  America  could.  [Applause  and  renewed  interruption?^  I 
was  reading  a  question  on  your  side,  too. 

"  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  in  most  of  the  Northern  States  laws  exist 
precluding  negroes  from  equal  civil  and  political  rights  with  the 
whites  ?  That  in  the  State  of  New  York  the  negro  has  to  be  the 
possessor  of  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  worth  of  prop- 
erty to  entitle  him  to  the  privileges  of  a  white  citizen?  That  in 
some  of  the  Northern  States  the  colored  man,  whether  bond  or 
free,  is  by  law  excluded  altogether,  and  not  suffered  to  enter  the 
State  limits,  under  severe  penalties?  and  is  not  Mr.  Lincoln's 
own  State  one  of  them ;  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  $20,000,- 
000  compensation  which  was  promised  to  Missouri  in  aid  of  eman- 
cipation was  defeated  in  the  last  Congress  (the  strongest  Repub- 
lican Congress  that  ever  assembled),  what  has  the  North  done 
towards  emancipation  ?  " 

Now,  then,  there's  a  dose  for  you.     \A  voice:  "Answer  it." 
And  I  will  address  myself  to  the  answering  of  it. 

And  first,  the  bill  for  emancipation  in  Missouri,  to  which 
this  money  was  denied,  was  a  bill  which  was  drawn  by 
what  we  call  "log-rollers,"  who  inserted  in  it  an  enormously 
disproportioned  price  for  the  slaves.  The  Republicans 
offered  to  give  them  $10,000,000  for  the  slaves  in  Missouri, 
and  //^outvoted  it  because  they  could  not  get  $12,000,- 


536  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ooo.  Already  half  the  slave-population  had  been  "run" 
down  South,  and  yet  they  came  up  to  Congress  to  get 
$12,000,000  for  what  was  not  worth  ten  millions,  nor  even 
eight  millions. 

Now  as  to  those  States  that  had  passed  "  black  "  laws, 
as  we  call  them,  they  are  filled  with  Southern  immigrants. 
The  Southern  part  of  Ohio,  the  Southern  part  of  Indiana, 
where  I  myself  lived  for  years,  and  which  I  knew  like  a 
book,  the  Southern  part  of  Illinois,  where  Mr.  Lincoln  lives 
f  %reat  uproar],  these  parts  are  largely  settled  by  immigrants 
from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  Virginia,  and  North 
Carolina,  and  it  was  their  votes,  or  the  Northern  votes  pan- 
dering for  political  reasons  to  theirs,  that  passed  in  those 
States  the  infamous  "  black "  laws;  and  the  Republicans 
in  these  States  have  a  record,  clean  and  white,  as  having 
opposed  these  laws  in  every  instance 'as  "  infamous." 

Now  as  to  the  State  of  New  York,  it  is  asked  whether  a 
negro  is  not  obliged  to  have  a  certain  freehold  property, 
or  a  certain  amount  of  property,  before  he  can  vote.  It  is 
so  still  in  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  for  white  folks 
— it  is  so  in  New  York  State.  \Mr.  Beecher's  twice  slightly 
failed  him  here,  and  he  was  interrupted  by  a  person  who  tried 
to  imitate  him ;  cries  of  "Shame,"  and  "Turn  him  out."  I 
am  not  undertaking  to  say  that  these  faults  of  the  North, 
which  were  brought  upon  them  by  the  bad  example  and 
influence  of  the  South,  are  all  cured;  but  I  do  say  that  they 
are  in  a  process  of  cure  which  promises,  if  unimpeded  by 
foreign  influence,  to  make  all  such  odious  distinctions  van- 
ish. 

"  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  in  most  of  the  Northern  States  laws 
exist  precluding  negroes  from  equal  civil  and  political 
rights  with  the  whites?"  I  will  tell  you.  Let  us  compare 
the  condition  of  the  negro  in  the  North  and  the  South, 
and  that  will  tell  the  story.  By  express  law  the  South 
takes  away  from  the  slave  all  attributes  of  manhood,  and 
calls  him  "chattel,"  which  is  another  word  for  "cattle." 
[Hear,  hear,  and  misses.]  No  law  in  any  Northern  State 
calls  him  anything  else  but  a  person,  [applause.]  The 
South  denies  the  right  of  legal  permanent  marriage  to  the 


SPEECH  IX  LIVERPOOL.  537 

slave.  There  is  not  a  State  in  the  North  where  the  mar- 
riage of  the  slave  is  not  as  sacred  as  that  of  any  free  white 
man.  [Immense  cheering.]  Throughout  the  South,  since 
the  slave  is  not  permitted  to  live  in  anything  but  in  con- 
cubinage, his  wife,  so  called,  is  taken  from  him  at  the  will 
of  his  master,  and  there  is  neither  public  sentiment  nor 
law  that  can  hinder  most  dreadful  and  cruel  separations 
every  year  in  every  county  and  town.  There  is  not  a  State, 
county,  or  town,  or  school  district  in  the  North,  where,  if 
any  man  dare  to  violate  the  family  of  the  poorest  black 
man,  there  would  not  be  an  indignation  that  would  over- 
whelm him.  [Loud  applause.  A  voice:  "Hoiu  about  the  New 
York  riots ?"]  Pro-slavery  Irishmen  made  that.  [Laughter.] 
In  the  South  by  statutory  law  it  is  a  penitentiary  offense  to 
teach  a  black  man  to  read  and  write.  In  the  North  not 
only  are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  dollars  of  State  money 
expended  in  teaching  colored  people,  but  they  have  their 
own  schools,  their  own  academies,  their  own  churches,  their 
own  ministers,  their  own  lawyers.  [Cheers  and  hisses.]  In 
the  South,  black  men  are  bred,  exactly  as  cattle  are  bred 
in  the  North,  for  the  market  and  for  sale.  Such  dealing  is 
considered  horrible  beyond  expression  in  the  North.  In 
the  South  the  slave  can  own  nothing  by  law  [interruption], 
but  in  the  single  city  of  New  York  there  are  ten  million 
dollars  of  money  belonging  to  free  colored  people.  [Loud 
applause.]  In  the  South  no  colored  man  can  determine 
[uproar]  —  no  colored  man  can  determine  in  the  South 
where  he  will  work,  nor  at  what  he  will  work;  but  in  the 
North — except  in  the  great  cities,  where  we  are  crowded 
by  foreigners, — in  any  country-part,  the  black  man  may 
choose  his  trade  and  work  at  it,  and  is  just  as  much  pro- 
tected by  the  laws  as  any  white  man  in  the  land.  [Applause.] 
I  speak  with  authority  on  this  point.  [Cries  of  "JVo." 
When  I  was  twelve  years  old,  my  father  hired  Charles 
Smith,  a  man  as  black  as  lampblack,  to  work  on  his  farm. 
I  slept  in  the  same  room  with  him.  ["  Oh,  oh."  Ah,  that 
don't  suit  you!  [Uproar.]  Now,  you  see,  the  South  comes 
out.  [Loud laughter.]  I  ate  with  him  at  the  same  table;  I 
sang  with   him  out  of   the   same   hymn-book    ["Good."];  I 


538  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

cried,  when  he  prayed  over  me  at  night;  and  if  I  had  seri- 
ous impressions  of  religion  early  in  life,  they  were  due  to 
the  fidelity  and  example  of  that  poor  humble  farm-laborer, 
black  Charles  Smith.  [Tremendous  uproar  and  cheers.]  In 
the  South,  no  matter  what  injury  a  colored  man  may  re- 
ceive, he  is  not  allowed  to  appear  in  court  nor  to  testify 
against  a  white  man.  [A  voice:  "That's  /act."]  In  every 
single  court  of  the  North  a  respectable  colored  man  is  as 
good  a  witness  as  if  his  face  were  white  as  an  angel's  robe. 
[Applause  and  laughter.]  I  ask  any  truthful  and  considerate 
man  whether,  in  this  contrast,  it  does  not  appear  that, 
though  faults  may  yet  linger  in  the  North  uneradicated, 
the  state  of  the  negro  in  the  North  is  not  immeasurably 
better  than  anywhere  in  the  South?  [Applause.]  And 
now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  America  [great 
interruption], — for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States  a  colored  man  has  received  a  commission  under  the 
broad  seal  and  signature  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  [Loud  applause.]  This  day  [renewed  interruption] 
— this  day,  Frederick  Douglass,  of  whom  you  all  have  heard 
here,  is  an  officer  of  the  United  States  [loud  applause],  a 
commissioner  sent  down  to  organize  colored  regiments  on 
Jefferson  Davis's  farm  in  Mississippi.  [  Uproar  and  applause, 
and  a  voice,  "  You  put  them  in  the  front  of  the  battle  too."] 

There  is  another  fact  that  I  wish  to  allude  to — not  for 
the  sake  of  reproach  or  blame,  but  by  way  of  claiming 
your  more  lenient  consideration — and  that  is,  that  slavery 
was  entailed  upon  us  by  your  action.  [Hear,  hear.  \ 
Against  the  earnest  protests  of  the  colonists  the  then  Gov- 
ernment of  Great  Britain — I  will  concede,  not  knowing 
what  were  the  mischiefs — ignorantly,  but  in  point  of  fact, 
forced  slave  traffic  on  the  unwilling  colonists.  [Great 
uproar,  in  the  midst  of  which  one  individual  7cas  lifted  up  and 
carried  out  of  the  room  amidst  cheers  and  hisses."] 

The  Chairman  :  If  you  would  only  sit  down  no  disturbance 
would  take  place. 

The  disturbance  having  subsided,  Mr.  Beecher  proceeded  :  — 

I  was  going  to  ask  you,  suppose  a  child  is  born  with  he- 
reditary disease;  suppose   this   disease  was  entailed  upon 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  539 

him  by  parents  who  had  contracted  it  by  their  own  mis- 
conduct, would  it  be  fair  that  those  parents,  that  had 
brought  into  the  world  the  diseased  child,  should  rail  at 
that  child  because  it  was  diseased  ?  ["Ala,  no."]  Would 
not  the  child  have  a  right  to  turn  round  and  say,  "  Father, 
it  was  your  fault  that  I  had  it,  and  you  ought  to  be  pleased 
to  be  patient  with  my  deficiencies."  [Applause  and  hisses, 
and  cries  of  "Order."] 

Great  interruption  and  great  disturbance  here  took  place  on 
the  right  of  the  platform  ;  and  the  chairman  said  that  if  the  per- 
sons around  the  unfortunate  individual  who  had  caused  the  dis- 
turbance would  allow  him  to  speak  alone,  but  not  assist  him  in 
making  the  disturbance,  it  might  soon  be  put  an  end  to.  The 
interruption  was  continued  until  another  person  was  carried  out 
of  the  hall. 

Mr.  Beecher  continued: — 

I  do  not  ask  that  you  should  justify  slavery  in  us  now 
because  it  was  wrong  in  you  two  hundred  years  ago;  but 
having  ignorantly  been  the  means  of  fixing  it  upon  us,  now 
that  we  are  struggling  with  mortal  struggles  to  free  our- 
selves from  it,  we  have  a  right  to  your  tolerance,  your 
patience,  and  charitable  construction. 

I  am  every  day  asked  when  this  war  will  end.  [Inter- 
ruption.] I  wish  I  could  tell  you;  but  remember,  slavery  is 
the  cause  of  the  war.  [Hear,  hear,  applause,  "Yes"  "No."] 
Slavery  has  been  working  for  more  than  one  hundred 
years,  and  a  chronic  evil  cannot  be  suddenly  cured;  and 
as  war  is  the  remedy,  you  must  be  patient  to  have  the  con- 
flict long  enough  to  cure  the  inveterate  hereditary  sore. 
[Hisses,  loud  applause,  and  a  voice:  "  We'll  stop  it."]  But  of 
one  thing  I  think  I  may  give  you  assurance — this  war 
won't  end  until  the  cancer  of  slavery  is  cut  out  by  the 
roots.  [Loud  applause,  hisses,  and  tremendous  uproar.]  I  will 
read  you  a  word  from  President  Lincoln.  [Renewed 
uproar.]  It  is  a  letter  from  Theodore  Tilton.  [Hisses  and 
cheers.]  Won't  you  hear  what  President  Lincoln  thinks  ? 
["No,  no."]  Well,  you  can  hear  it  or  not.  It  will  be 
printed  whether  you  hear  it  or  hear  it  not.  [Hear,  and 
cries  of  "Read,  read."]      Yes,   I   will    read.      "A  talk    with 


54°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

President  Lincoln  revealed  to  me  a  great  growth  of  wis- 
dom. For  instance,  he  said  he  was  not  going  to  press  the 
colonization  idea  any  longer,  nor  the  gradual  scheme  of 
emancipation,  expressing  himself  sorry  that  the  Missouri- 
ans  had  postponed  emancipation  for  seven  years.  He 
said,  '  Tell  your  anti-slavery  friends  that  I  am  coming  out 
all  right.'  He  is  desirous  that  the  Border  States  shall 
form  free  constitutions,  recognizing  the  proclamation,  and 
thinks  this  will  be  made  feasible  by  calling  on  loyal  men." 
[A  voice:  "  What  date  is  that  letter  ?  "  and  interruption!] 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  have  finished  the  exposition  of 
this  troubled  subject.  [Renewed  and  continued  interruption^ 
No  man  can  unveil  the  future;  no  man  can  tell  what  revo- 
lutions are  about  to  break  upon  the  world;  no  man  can 
tell  what  destiny  belongs  to  France,  nor  to  any  of  the 
European  powers;  but  one  thing  is  certain,  that  in  the 
exigencies  of  the  future  there  will  be  combinations  and  re- 
combinations, and  that  those  nations  that  are  of  the  same 
faith,  the  same  blood,  and  the  same  substantial  interests, 
ought  not  to  be  alienated  from  each  other,  but  ought  to 
stand  together.  [Immense  cheering  and  kisses.]  I  do  not 
say  that  you  ought  not  to  be  in  the  most  friendly  alliance 
with  France  or  with  Germany;  but  I  do  say  that  your  own 
children,  the  offspring  of  England,  ought  to  be  nearer  to 
you  than  any  people  of  strange  tongue.  [A  voice:  '■'■Degen- 
erate sons,"  applause  and  hisses;  another  voice:  "  What  about 
the  Trent?"  If  there  have  been  any  feelings  of  bitterness 
in  America,  let  me  tell  you  they  have  been  excited,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  under  the  impression  that  Great  Britain  was 
going  to  intervene  between  us  and  our  own  lawful  strug- 
gle. \_A  voice:  "No"  and  applause.]  With  the  evidence 
that  there  is  no  such  intention  all  bitter"  feelings  will  pass 
away.  [Applause.]  We  do  not  agree  with  the  recent  doc- 
trine of  neutrality  as  a  question  of  law.  But  it  is  past,  and 
we  are  not  disposed  to  raise  that  question.  We  accept  it 
now  as  a  fact,  and  we  say  that  the  utterance  of  Lord  Rus- 
sell at  Blairgowrie  [applause,  hisses,  and  a  voice:  "What 
about  Lord  Brougham  I "] — together  with  the  declaration 
of  the  government  in  stopping  war-steamers  here  [great 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  541 

uproar,  and  applause]  —  has  gone  far  towards  quieting 
every  fear  and  removing  every  apprehension  from  our 
minds.  [  Uproar  and  shouts  of  applause.']  And  now  in 
the  future  it  is  the  work  of  every  good  man  and  patriot 
not  to  create  divisions,  but  to  do  the  things  that  will  make 
for  peace.  ["Oh,  oh"  and  laughter.]  On  our  part  it 
shall  be  done.  [Applause  and  hisses,  and  "No,  no."  On 
your  part  it  ought  to  be  done;  and  when  in  any  of  the 
convulsions  that  come  upon  the  world,  Great  Britain  finds 
herself  struggling  single-handed  against  the  gigantic 
powers  that  spread  oppression  and  darkness  [applause, 
hisses,  and  uproar],  there  ought  to  be  such  cordiality  that 
she  can  turn  and  say  to  her  first-born  and  most  illustrious 
child,  "  Come  !  "  [Hear,  hear,  applause,  tremendous  cheers, 
and  uproar^]  I  will  not  say  that  England  cannot  again,  as 
hitherto,  single-handed,  manage  any  power  [applause  and 
uproar] — but  I  will  say  that  England  and  America  together 
for  religion  and  liberty  [a  voice:  "Soap,  soap,"  uproar,  and 
great  applause]  —  are  a  match  for  the  world.  [Applause; 
a  voice:  "They  dont  want  any  more  soft  soap."] 

Now,  gentlemen  and  ladies  —  [a  voice:  "Sam  Slick;"  and 
another  voice:  "Ladies  and  gentlemen,  if  you  please"] — when  I 
came  I  was  asked  whether  I  would  answer  questions,  and 
I  very  readily  consented  to  do  so,  as  I  had  in  other  places; 
but  I  will  tell  you  it  was  because  I  expected  to  have  the 
opportunity  of  speaking  with  some  sort  of  ease  and  quiet. 
[A  voice:  "So  you  have."'  I  have  for  an  hour  and  a  half 
spoken  against  a  storm  [hear,  hear]  —  and  you  yourselves 
are  witnesses  that,  by  the  interruption,  I  have  been  obliged 
to  strive  with  my  voice,  so  that  I  no  longer  have  the  power 
to  control  it  in  the  face  of  this  assembly.  [Applause.]  And 
although  I  am  in  spirit  perfectly  willing  to  answer  any 
question,  and  more  than  glad  of  the  chance,  yet  I  am  by  this 
very  unnecessary  opposition  to-night  incapacitated  physic- 
ally from  doing  it.  [A  voice:  "  Why  did  Lincoln  delay  the  proc- 
lamation of  slavery  so  long  ?  " — another  voice:  "Habeas  Corpus." 
A  piece  of  paper  was  here  handed  up  to  Mr.  Beecher.] 

I  am  asked  a  question.  I  will  answer  this  one.  "At  the 
auction  of  sittings  in  your  church,  can  the  negroes  bid  on 


542  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

equal  terms  with  the  whites?"  [Cries  of  "No,  /to."]  Per- 
haps you  know  better  than  I  do.  [//ear,  /war.]  But  I 
declare  that  they  can.  [//car,  hear,  and  applause.]  I  de- 
clare that,  at  no  time  for  ten  years  past — without  any  rule 
passed  by  the  trustees,  and  without  even  a  request  from 
me  —  no  decent  man  or  woman  has  ever  found  molestation 
or  trouble  in  walking  into  my  church  and  sitting  where  he 
or  she  pleased.  [Applause.]  "  Are  any  of  the  office-bearers 
in  your  church  negroes  ? "  No,  not  to  my  knowledge. 
Such  has  been  the  practical  doctrine  of  amalgamation  in 
the  South  that  it  is  very  difficult  nowadays  to  tell  who  is 
a  negro.  [Hear,  hear,  and  "No,  no"  Whenever  a  major- 
ity of  my  people  want  a  negro  to  be  an  officer,  he  will  be 
one;  and  I  am  free  to  say  that  there  are  a  great  many 
colored  men  that  I  know,  who  are  abundantly  capable  of 
honoring  any  office  of  trust  in  the  gift  of  our  church. 
[Applause^]  But  while  there  are  none  in  my  church  there 
is  in  Columbia  county  a  little  church  where  a  negro  man, 
being  the  ablest  business  man,  and  the  wealthiest  man  in 
that  town,  is  not  only  a  ruler  and  elder  of  the  church,  but 
also  contributes  about  two-thirds  of  all  the  expenses  of  it. 
[Hear,  hear,  and  a  voice:  "That  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule." 
I  am  answering  these  questions,  you  see,  out  of  gratuitous 
mercy:  I  am  not  bound  to  do  so. 

It  is  asked  whether  Pennsylvania  was  not  carried  for  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  account  of  his  advocacy  of  the  Morrill  tariff, 
and  whether  the  tariff  was  not  one  of  the  planks  of  the  Chi- 
cago platform,  on  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected.  I  had  a 
great  deal  to  do  with  that  election;  but  I  tell  you  that 
whatever  local — 

Here  the  interruptions  became  so  noisy,  that  it  was  found  im- 
possible to  proceed.  The  chairman  asked  how  they  could  expect 
Mr.  Beecher  to  answer  questions  amid  such  a  disturbance.  When 
order  had  been  restored,  the  lecturer  proceeded : — 

I  am  not  afraid  to  leave  the  treatment  I  have  received  at 
this  meeting  to  the  impartial  judgment  of  every  fair-play- 
ing Englishman.  When  I  am  asked  questions,  gentlemanly 
courtesy  requires  that  I  should  be  permitted  to  answer 
them.      [A  voice  from  the  further  end  of  the  room  shouted 


SPEECH  IN  LIVERPOOL.  543 

something  about  the  inhabitants  of  Liverpool?^  I  know  that  it 
was  in  the  placards  requested  to  give  Mr.  Beecher  a  recep- 
tion that  should  make  him  understand  what  the  opinion 
of  Liverpool  was  about  him.  ["^V7^,  no;  "  and  "  Yes,  yes"~\ 
There  are  two  sides  to  every  question,  and  Mr.  Beecher's 
opinion  about  his  treatment  by  Liverpool  citizens  is  just 
as  valid  as  your  opinion  about  Mr.  Beecher.  Let  me  say, 
that  if  you  wish  me  to  answer  questions  you  must  be  still; 
for,  if  I  am  interrupted,  that  is  the  end  of  the  matter. 
[Hear,  hear,  and  "Bravo."} 

I  have  this  to  say,  that  I  have  no  doubt  the  Morrill  tariff, 
or  that  which  is  now  called  so,  did  exercise  a  great  deal  of 
influence,  not  alone  in  Pennsylvania,  but  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  country;  because  there  are  many  sections  of 
our  country — those  especially  where  the  manufacture  of 
iron  or  wool  are  the  predominating  industries — that  are 
yet  very  much  in  favor  of  protective  tariffs;  but  the  think- 
ing men  and  the  influential  men  of  both  parties  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  in  favor  of  free-trade. 

"  Can  a  negro  ride  in  a  public  vehicle  in  New  York  with 
a  white  man?"  I  reply  that  there  are  times  when  politi- 
cians stir  up  the  passions  of  the  lower  classes  of  men  and 
the  foreigners,  and  there  are  times  just  on  the  eve  of  an 
election  when  the  prejudice  against  the  colored  man  is 
stirred  up  and  excited,  in  which  they  will  be  disturbed  in 
any  part  of  the  city;  but  taking  the  course  of  the  year 
throughout,  one  year  after  another,  there  are  but  one  or 
two  of  the  city  horse-railroads  in  which  a  respectable  col- 
ored man  will  be  molested  in  riding  through  the  city.  It 
is  only  on  one  railroad  that  this  happened,  and  it  is  one 
which  I  have  in  the  pulpit  and  the  press  always  held  up  to 
severe  reproof.  At  the  Fulton  Ferry  there  are  two  lines  of 
omnibuses,  one  white  and  the  other  blue.  I  had  been  ac- 
customed to  go  in  them  indifferently;  but  one  day  I  saw  a 
little  paper  stuck  upon  one  of  them,  saying,  "Colored  peo- 
ple not  allowed  to  ride  in  this  omnibus."  I  instantly  got 
out.  There  are  men  who  stand  at  the  door  of  these  two 
omnibus  lines,  urging  passengers  into  one  or  the  other.  I 
am  very  well  known  to  all  of  them,  and  the  next  day,  when 


544  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

I  came  to  the  place,  the  agent  asked,  "  Won't  you  ride, 
sir?"  "No,"  I  said,  "I  am  too  much  of  a  negro  to  ride  in 
that  omnibus."  \Laughteri\  I  do  not  know  whether  this 
had  any  influence,  but  I  do  know,  that  after  a  fortnight's 
time  I  had  occasion  to  look  in,  and  the  placard  was  gone. 
I  called  the  attention  of  every  one  I  met  to  that  fact,  and 
said  to  them,  "  Don't  ride  in  that  omnibus,  which  violates 
your  principles,  and  my  principles,  and  common  decency 
at  the  same  time."  I  say  still  further,  that  in  all  New 
England  there  is  not  a  railway  where  a  colored  man  can- 
not ride  as  freely  as  a  white  man.  [Hear,  hear^\  In  the 
whole  city  of  New  York,  a  colored  man  taking  a  stage  or 
railway  will  never  be  inconvenienced  or  suffer  any  dis- 
courtesy. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  bid  you  good  evening. 

Mr.  Beecher's  resuming  his  seat  was  the  signal  for  another  out- 
burst of  loud  and  prolonged  cheers,  hisses,  groans,  cat-calls,  and 
every  conceivable  species  of  expression  of  approbation  and 
disapprobation.  Three  cheers  were  proposed  for  the  lecturer  from 
the  galleries,  and  enthusiastically  given. 

The  Rev.  C.  M.  Birrell  then  came  forward  and  said  it  would 
have  been  very  unlike  the  fairness  of  Englishmen  if  that  assembly- 
had  not  given  to  a  distinguished  stranger  [hisses\  a  fair  and  im- 
partial hearing;  and  it  would  have  been  as  unlike  a  free  American 
to  demand  of  Englishmen  that  they  should  accept  his  opinions 
merely  because  they  were  his.  But,  since  Mr.  Beecher  had  given 
to  them,  under  circumstances  of  great  difficulty,  and  with  mar- 
velous courtesy  and  patience  [hear,  hear],  an  elaborate,  temperate, 
and  most  eloquent  lecture,  he  called  upon  them  to  render  him  a 
cordial  vote  of  thanks.  [Hear,  near,  and  renewed  hisses.]  He 
expected  that  that  vote  would  be  joined  in  by  all  the  representa- 
tives of  the  American  slaveholders  in  that  assembly,  considering 
that  they  had  had  more  instruction  that  night  than  they  had 
apparently  received  during  all  the  previous  part  of  their  lives. 
["  Oh,  oh,"  cheers  and  laughter^ 

Mr.  W.  Crossfield,  in  seconding  the  resolution,  said,  as  an  in- 
habitant of  Liverpool,  he  had  been  ashamed  at  the  conduct  of 
that  meeting — an  assembly  of  gentlemen,  or  those  who  professed 
to  be  gentlemen.  For  himself  he  most  cordially  thanked  Mr. 
Beecher  for  the  very  interesting  lecture  they  had  had. 

The  vote  was  carried  with  loud  and  prolonged  cheering  amid  the 
waving  of  hats. 


SPEECH    IN    EXETER   HALL,   LONDON. 

October  20,  1863. 


Under  the  auspices  of  the  Emancipation  Society  and  the 
London  Committee  of  Correspondence  on  American  Affairs,  a 
meeting  was  held  in  Exeter  Hall  to  hear  an  address  from  Mr. 
Beecher.  Exeter  Hall,  on  the  Strand,  London,  holds  about  3000 
people.  It  was  built  in  1831,  and  has  been  the  regular  gathering- 
place  of  religious  assemblies,  the  "  May  meetings  "  of  reform 
societies,  etc. 

Long  before  the  hour  of  meeting  the  great  hall  was  densely 
packed  by  as  many  human  beings  as  could  find  sitting  or  stand- 
ing room  in  any  part  of  the  edifice,  however  inconvenient  or  per- 
ilous the  position.  They  were  both  patient  and  good-humored 
while  waiting  for  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Beecher,  who  found  great 
difficulty  in  forcing  away  through  the  enormous  mass  of  people, 
which,  in  the  Strand  and  Exeter  street,  literally  beleaguered  the 
place  of  meeting.  On  presenting  himself  to  the  audience,  accom- 
panied by  many  of  the  leading  supporters  of  the  Emancipation 
movement,  he  was  welcomed  by  long  and  reiterated  plaudits, 
which  were  again  and  again  repeated,  the  audience  rising  en 
masse.  The  friends  of  Secession  had  endeavored  to  stir  up  some 
personal  feeling  against  the  lecturer  by  inflammatory  placards, 
which  covered  every  blank  wall  in  the  metropolis  ;  but  the  result 
only  exhibited  their  own  weakness  and  the  total  absence  of  pop- 
ular sympathy  with  their  cause. 

The  chair  was  taken  shortly  after  seven  o'clock,  by  Benjamin 
Scott,  Esq.,  Chamberlain  of  London.* 

*  Mr.  James  B.  Pond,  in  his  volume  entitled  "A  Summer  in  England 
(1S86)  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher"  [New  York:  Fords,  Howard,  &  Hul- 
bert,  18S7],  says:  "It  was  in  this  same  hall  that  Mr.  Beecher  had  spoken 
last  in  England,  at  the  close  of  his  previous  visit,  during  our  American  Civil 
War.  At  that  time  our  Union  was  so  greatly  misunderstood  that  it  was 
extremely  difficult  to  find  in  all  London  a  person  willing  to  preside  at  the 
hall.  Now  all  was  changed.  I  believe  scarcely  a  clergyman  or  minister  in 
the  city  would  have  declined  the  honor.  But  Mr.  Beecher  said  to  me: 
'  Pond,  when  I  spoke  here  in  1863,  and  was  having  hard  work  to  find  some 
35 


546  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

The  Chairman  said:  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  allow  me  to  inform 
you  the  crowd  outside  the  building  is  so  dense  that  Mr.  Beecher 
has  not  been  able  to  force  his  way  punctually.  It  has  been  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  I  and  some  other  members  of  the  com- 
mittee have  found  our  way  here.  You  will,  therefore,  I  am  sure, 
make  all  allowance  for  Mr.  Beecher  if  he  should  yet  be  a  few  min- 
utes behind  time.  [Cheers.]  .  .  .  Our  object  to-night  is  to  afford 
an  opportunity  to  a  distinguished  stranger  [cheers] — to  address 
us  on  that  absorbing  topic— a  gentleman  who  is  entitled,  what- 
ever opinions  we  may  hold,  to  our  profound  respect.  [Great 
cheering^  Whether  we  regard  Henry  Ward  Beecher  as  the  son 
of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Beecher  [hear] — or  as  the  brother  of  Mrs. 
Beecher  Stowe  [cheers] — or  a  stranger  visiting  our  shores — 
whether  we  regard  him  as  a  gentleman  or  a  Christian  minister, 
and  as  the  uncompromising  advocate  of  human  rights  [loud 
cheers] — he  is  entitled  to  our  respectful  and  courteous  attention. 
[Cheers?^  I  am  quite  sure  that  this  assembly  of  Englishmen  and 
English  women  will  support  me  in  securing  for  him  a  respectful 
hearing.  ...  I  shall  myself  abstain  advisedly  from  entering 
upon  the  subject  of  to-night's  address.  I  wish  merely  to  take 
this  opportunity  of  saying  how  much  I  esteem  the  man  person- 
ally, and  because  he  has  been  the  uncompromising  advocate  for 
twenty-five  years,  in  times  of  peace  and  before  the  war,  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  enslaved  and  oppressed.  He  was  one  of  the 
few  thinking  men  who  were  the  noble  pioneers  of  freedom  on 
the  American  continent.  He  was  so  when  it  was  neither  fash- 
ionable nor  profitable  to  be  so.  He  took  his  stand,  not  on  the 
shifting  sands  of  expediency,  but  on  the  immovable  rock  of 
principle.  [Cheers.]  He  had  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and 
would  never  turn  back.  Some  people  had  allowed  their  ears  to 
be  stuffed  with  cotton  [laughter  and  cheers],  some  were  blinded 
by  gold  dust,  and  some  had  allowed  the  gag  of  expediency  to  be 


one  to  preside,  Mr.  Benjamin  Scott,  Chamberlain  of  the  city  of  London, 
volunteered  his  services.  See  if  you  can  find  him  ;  I  want  him  to  take  the 
chair  to-night.'  I  did  find  him,  still  Chamberlain  of  the  city.  He  very 
modestly  referred  me  to  others  who  he  said  would  gladly  preside  and  would 
lend  more  honor  to  the  occasion  than  he  could;  but  at  length  he  kindly 
consented  to  serve  for  this  second  time.  A  large  audience  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  packed  the  great  hall ;  and  when  Mr.  Scott  appeared,  the  mem- 
ory of  his  earlier  action  still  green,  the  burst  of  applause  grew  as  it  continued, 
the  audience  finally  rising,  waving  handkerchiefs  and  cheering.  Mr.  Scott 
briefly  referred  to  the  meeting  in  the  hall  twenty-three  years  ago.  He  had 
never  regretted  occupying  the  position  filled  on  that  occasion,  and  now 
Mr.  Beecher  had  asked  him  to  be  present  again." 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  547 

put  in  their  mouths  to  quiet  them.  [Cheers.]  But  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  stood  before  the  world  of  America,  and  for  some  time 
stood  almost  alone,  and  called  things  by  their  right  names. 
[Cheers.]  He  had  no  mealy-mouthed  expressions  about  'pecul- 
iar institutions,'  'patriarchal  institutions,'  and  ' paternal  institu- 
tions,' [hear,  hear,  and  laughter} — but  he  called  slavery  by  the 
old  English  name  of  Slavery.  [Loud  cheers.]  And  he  charged 
to  the  account  of  that  crime  cruelty,  lust,  murder,  rapine,  piracy. 
[Loud  cheers.]  He  minced  not  his  terms  or  his  phrases.  He 
looked  right  ahead  to  the  course  of  duty  which  he  had  selected, 
and,  regardless  of  the  threats  of  man  or  the  wrath  of  man, 
although  the  tar-pot  was  ready  for  him  and  the  feathers  were 
prepared — although  the  noose  and  the  halter  were  ready  and  al- 
most about  his  neck — he  went  straight  onward  to  the  object;  and 
now  he  has  converted — as  every  man  who  stands  alone  for  the 
truth  and  right  will  eventually  convert — a  large  majority  of  those 
who  were  originally  opposed  to  him.  [Cheers.]  What  the  hum- 
ble draper's  assistant,  Granville  Sharpe,  did  in  this  country, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  two  or  three  like-minded  men  have 
done  on  the  continent  of  America.  When  he  heard  Christian 
ministers — God  save  the  mark  ! — standing  in  their  pulpits  with 
the  Book  of  Truth  before  them,  and  stating  that  the  institution 
of  slavery  was  Christian,  he  did  not  mince  the  matter — he 
affirmed  that  it  was  bred  in  the  bottomless  pit.  [Loud cheers']  I 
honor  and  respect  him  for  his  manliness.  He  is  every  inch  a 
man.  He  is  a  standard  by  which  humanity  may  well  measure 
itself.  [Loud  cheers.]  Would  to  God  we  had  a  hundred  such 
men.  [Cheers.]  I  will  now  call  upon  Mr.  Beecher  [great  cheer- 
ing]— but  allow  me  to  say  that  we  shall  only  prolong  our  meeting 
in  this  heated  atmosphere  by  not  affording  the  speakers  a  fair 
opportunity  of  addressing  you."     [Loud  applause?^ 

Mr.  Beecher  advanced  to  the  front  of  the  platform  amidst  the 
most  enthusiastic  demonstrations  of  applause.  The  whole  audi- 
ence stood  up:  hats  and  handkerchiefs  were  waved,  and  for  some 
minutes  the  most  excitinsr  manifestations  of  hearty  English  good 
feeling  were  extended  to  the  American  advocate  of  freedom.  As 
the  uproarious  greeting  subsided,  a  few  hisses  rose  up  from  the 
middle  of  the  room,  as  if  a  body  of  serpents  had  somehow  or  other 
found  their  way  into  the  assembly,  and  were  adding  their  pro- 
longed tribute  to  the  general  display.  Mr.  Beecher  then  addressed 
the  audience  as  follows,  speaking  distinctly  and  deliberately  : — 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  very  kind  introduction  that 
I  have   received   requires  but  a   single  word   from   me.     I 


548  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

should  be  guilty  if  I  could  take  all  the  credit  which  has 
been  generously  ascribed  to  me,  for  I  am  not  old  enough 
to  have  been  a  pioneer.  And  when  I  think  of  such  names 
as  Weld,  Alvin  Stewart,  Gerritt  Smith,  Joshua  Leavitt, 
William  Goodell,  Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  [loud  applause] — and  that  most  accomplished 
speaker  of  the  world,  Wendell  Phillips  [renewed  applause] 
— when  I  think  of  multitudes  of  that  peculiar  class  of 
Christians  called  Friends — when  I  think  of  the  number  of 
men,  obscure,  without  name  or  fame,  who  labored  in  the 
earliest  days  at  the  foundation  of  this  reformation — and 
when  I  remember  that  I  came  in  afterwards  to  build  on 
their  foundation — I  cannot  permit  in  this  fair  country  the 
honors  to  be  put  upon  me  and  wrested  from  those  men 
that  deserve  them  far  more  than  I  do.  [Cheers^]  All  I  can 
say  is  this,  that  when  I  began  my  public  life  I  fell  into  the 
ranks  under  the  appropriate  captains,  and  fought  as  well 
as  I  knew  how,  in  the  ranks  or  in  command.  [Loud  cheers.} 
As  this  is  my  last  public  address  upon  the  American 
question  in  England,  I  may  be  permitted  to  glance  briefly 
at  my  course  here.  [Hear,  hear.]  At  Manchester  I  at- 
tempted to  give  a  history  of  the  external  political  move- 
ment for  fifty  years  past,  so  far  as  it  wras  necessary  to 
illustrate  the  fact  that  the  present  American  war  was  only 
an  overt  and  warlike  form  of  a  contest  between  liberty  and 
slavery  that  had  been  going  on  politically  for  half  a  cent- 
ury. [Hear,  liear.]  At  Glasgow  I  undertook  to  show  the 
condition  of  work  or  labor  necessitated  by  any  profitable 
system  of  slavery,  demonstrating  that  it  brought  labor  into 
contempt,  affixing  to  it  the  badge  of  degradation,  and  that 
a  struggle  to  extend  servile  labor  across  the  American  con- 
tinent interests  every  free  working  man  on  the  globe. 
[Cheers.]  For  my  sincere  belief  is  that  the  Southern  cause 
is  the  natural  enemy  of  free  labor  and  the  free  laborer  all 
the  world  over.  [Loud cheers.]  In  Edinburgh  I  endeavored 
to  sketch  how,  out  of  separate  colonies  and  States  intensely 
jealous  of  their  individual  sovereignty,  there  grew  up  and 
was  finally  established  a  Nation,  and  how  in  that  nation 
of  united    states    two   distinct    and    antagonistic    systems 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  549 

were  developed  and  strove  for  the  guidance  of  the  national 
policy;  which  struggle  at  length  passed,  and  the  North 
gained  the  control.  Thereupon  the  South  abandoned  the 
Union  simply  and  solely  because  the  Government  was  in 
future  to  be  administered  by  men  who  would  give  their 
whole  influence  to  freedom.  [Loud  cheers.]  In  Liverpool 
I  labored,  under  difficulties  [laughter  and  cheers\— to  show 
that  slavery  in  the  long  run  was  as  hostile  to  commerce 
and  to  manufactures  all  the  world  over,  as  it  was  to  free 
interests  in  human  society  [cheers] — that  a  slave  nation 
must  be  a  poor  customer,  buying  the  fewest  and  poorest 
goods,  and  the  least  profitable  to  the  producers  [hear, 
/tear] — that  it  was  the  interest  of  every  manufacturing 
country  to  promote  freedom,  intelligence,  and  wealth 
amongst  all  nations  [cheers] — that  this  attempt  to  cover 
the  fairest  portion  of  the  earth  with  a  slave-population 
that  buys  nothing,  and  a  degraded  white  population  that 
buys  next  to  nothing,  should  array  against  it  every  true 
political  economist  and  every  thoughtful  and  far-seeing 
manufacturer,  as  tending  to  strike  at  the  vital  want 
of  commerce — which  is  not  cotton,  but  rich  customers. 
[Cheers.]  I  have  endeavored  to  enlist  against  this  flagi- 
tious wickedness,  and  the  great  civil  war  which  it  has 
kindled,  the  judgment,  conscience,  and  interests,  of  the 
British  people.     [Cheers.] 

I  am  aware  that  a  popular  address  before  an  excited 
audience  more  or  less  affected  by  party  sympathies  is  not 
the  most  favorable  method  of  doing  justice  to  these  mo- 
mentous topics;  and  there  have  been  some  other  circum- 
stances which  made  it  yet  more  difficult  to  present  a  care- 
ful or  evenly  balanced  statement;  but  I  shall  do  the  best  I 
can  to  leave  no  vestige  of  doubt,  that  slavery  was  the 
cause — the  only  cause — the  whole  cause — of  this  gigantic 
and  cruel  war.  [Cheers.]  I  have  tried  to  show  that  sym- 
pathy for  the  South,  however  covered  by  excuses  or  soft- 
ened by  sophistry,  is  simply  sympathy  with  an  audacious 
attempt  to  build  up  a  slave -empire  pure  and  simple. 
[Near,  hear.]  I  have  tried  to  show  that  in  this  contest  the 
North  were  contending  for  the  preservation  of  their  Gov- 


55°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ernment  and  their  own  territory,  and  those  popular  insti- 
tutions on  which  the  well-being  of  the  nation  depended. 
[Hear,  /war.]  So  far,  I  have  spoken  to  the  English  from  an 
English  point  of  view.  To-night  I  ask  you  to  look  to  this 
struggle  from  an  American  point  of  view,  and  in  its  moral 
aspects.  [Hear,  hear.']  That  is,  I  wish  you  to  take  our 
stand-point  for  a  little  while  [cheers] — and  to  look  at  our 
actions  and  motives,  not  from  what  the  enemy  says,  but 
from  what  we  say.  [Cheers.]  When  two  men  have  dis- 
agreed, you  seldom  promote  peace  between  them  by  at- 
tempting to  prove  that  either  of  them  is  all  right  or  either 
of  them  is  all  wrong.  [Hear,  hear.]  Now  there  has  been 
some  disagreement  of  feeling  between  America  and  Great 
Britain.  I  don't  want  to  argue  the  question  to-night  which 
is  right  and  which  is  wrong;  but  if  some  kind  neighbor 
will  persuade  two  people  that  are  at  disagreement  to  con- 
sider each  other's  position  and  circumstances,  it  may  not 
lead  either  to  adopting  the  other's  judgment,  but  it  may 
lead  them  to  say  of  each  other,  "  I  think  he  is  honest  and 
means  well,  even  if  he  be  mistaken."  [Load  eheers.]  You 
may  not  thus  get  a  settlement  of  the  difficulty,  but  you  will 
get  a  settlement  of  the  quarrel.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  merely  ask 
you  to  put  yourselves  in  our  track  for  one  hour,  and  look 
at  the  objects  as  we  look  at  them  [cheers] — after  that,  form 
your  judgment  as  you  please.     [Cheers.] 

The  first  and  earliest  mode  in  which  the  conflict  took 
place  between  North  and  South  was  purely  moral.  It  was 
a  conflict  simply  of  opinion  and  of  truths  by  argument;  and 
by  appeal  to  the  moral  sense  it  was  sought  to  persuade  the 
slaveholder  to  adopt  some  plan  of  emancipation.  [Hear, 
hear.]  When  this  seemed  to  the  Southern  sensitiveness 
unjust  and  insulting,  it  led  many  in  the  North  to  silence, 
especially  as  the  South  seemed  to  apologize  for  slavery 
rather  than  to  defend  it  against  argument.  It  was  said, 
"The  evil  is  upon  us;  we  cannot  help  it.  We  are  sullied, 
but  it  is  a  misfortune  rather  than  a  fault.  [Cheers.]  It  is 
not  right  for  the  North  to  meddle  with  that  which  is  made 
worse  by  being  meddled  with,  even  by  argument  or  ap- 
peal."    That   was  the  earlier  portion   of  the   conflict.     A 


SPEECH  IN  LOXDOX.  55 1 

great  many  men  were  deceived  by  it.  I  never  myself 
yielded  to  the  fallacy.  As  a  minister  of  the  gospel  preach- 
ing to  sinful  men,  I  thought  it  my  duty  not  to  give  in  to 
this  doctrine;  their  sins  were  on  them,  and  I  thought  it 
my  duty  not  to  soothe  them,  but  rather  to  expose  them. 
[Cheers.]  The  next  stage  of  the  conflict  was  purely  polit- 
ical. The  South  were  attempting  to  extend  their  slave  sys- 
tem into  the  Territories,  and  to  prevent  free  States  from 
covering  the  continent,  by  bringing  into  the  Union  a  slave 
State  for  every  free  State.  It  was  also  the  design  and 
endeavor  of  the  South  not  simply  to  hold  and  employ  the 
enormous  power  and  influence  of  the  Central  Executive, 
but  also  to  engraft  into  the  whole  Federal  Government  a 
slave  State  policy.  They  meant  to  fill  all  offices  at  home 
and  abroad  with  men  loyal  to  slavery — to  shut  up  the  road 
to  political  preferment  against  men  who  had  aspirations  for 
freedom,  and  to  corrupt  the  young  and  ambitious  by  oblig- 
ing them  to  swear  fealty  to  slavery  as  the  condition  of  suc- 
cess. I  am  saying  what  I  know.  I  have  seen  the  progressive 
corruption  of  men  naturally  noble,  educated  in  the  doctrine 
of  liberty,  who,  being  bribed  by  political  offices,  at  last 
bowed  the  knee  to  Moloch.  The  South  pursued  a  uniform 
system  of  bribing  and  corrupting  ambitious  men  of  North- 
ern consciences.  A  far  more  dangerous  part  of  its  policy 
was  to  change  the  Constitution,  not  overtly,  not  by  external 
aggression — worse,  to  fill  the  courts  with  Southern  judges 
[shame] — until,  first  by  laws  of  Congress  passed  through 
Southern  influence,  and  secondly,  by  the  construction  and 
adjudication  of  the  courts,  the  Constitution  having  become 
more  and  more  tied  up  to  Southern  principles,  the  North 
would  have  to  submit  to  slavery,  or  else  to  oppose  it  by 
violating  the  law  and  constitution  as  construed  by  servile 
judges.  [Hear,  hear.]  They  were,  in  short,  little  by  little, 
injecting  the  laws,  constitution,  and  policy  of  the  country 
with  the  poison  and  blood  of  slavery.  [Cheers.]  I  will 
not  let  this  stand  on  my  own  testimony.  I  am  going  to 
read  the  unconscious  corroboration  of  this  by  Mr.  Stephens, 
now  the  Vice-President  of  the  present  Confederacy — one, 
to  his  credit  be  it  said,  who  at  one  time  was  a  most  sincere 
and  earnest  opponent  of  Secession.     It  is  as  follows: — 


55 2  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

"  This  step  [of  Secession]  once  taken,  can  never  be  recalled  ;  and  all  the 
baleful  and  withering  consequences  that  must  follow  will  rest  on  the  con- 
vention for  all  coming  time.  When  we  and  our  posterity  shall  see  our 
lovely  South  desolated  by  the  demon  of  war,  which  this  act  of  yours  will 
inevitably  invite  and  call  forth;  when  our  green  fields  of  waving  harvests 
shall  be  trodden  down  by  the  murderous  soldiery  and  fiery  car  of  war 
sweeping  over  our  land  ;  our  temples  of  justice  laid  in  ashes  ;  all  the  hor- 
rors and  desolation  of  war  upon  us  ;  who  but  this  convention  will  be  held 
responsible  for  it  ?  and  who  but  him  who  shall  have  given  his  vote  for  this 
unwise  and  ill-timed  measure,  as  I  honestly  think  and  believe,  shall  be 
held  to  strict  account  for  this  suicidal  act  by  the  present  generation,  and 
probably  cursed  and  execrated  by  posterity  for  all  coming  time,  for  the 
wide  and  desolating  ruin  that  will  inevitably  follow  this  act  you  now  pro- 
pose to  perpetrate  ?  Pause,  I  entreat  you,  and  consider  for  a  moment 
what  reasons  you  can  give  that  will  even  satisfy  yourselves  in  calmer 
moments — what  reasons  you  can  give  to  your  fellow-sufferers  in  the  calam- 
ity that  it  will  bring  upon  us.  What  reasons  can  you  give  to  the  nations  of 
the  earth  to  justify  it?  They  will  be  the  calm  and  deliberate  judges  in  the 
case  ;  and  what  cause  or  one  overt  act  can  you  name  or  point  on  which  to 
rest  the  plea  of  justification  ?  What  right  has  the  A'orth  assailed?  What 
interest  of  the  South  has  been  invaded?  What  justice  has  been  denied? 
and  what  claim  founded  in  justice  and  right  has  been  withheld?  Can 
either  of  you  to-day  name  one  governmental  act  of  wrong,  deliberately  and 
purposely  done  by  the  Government  of  Washington,  of  which  the  South  has 
a  right  to  complain?  I  challenge  the  answer.  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
let  me  show  the  facts  (and  believe  me,  gentlemen,  I  am  not  here  the  advo- 
cate of  the  North  ;  but  I  am  here  the  friend,  the  firm  friend  and  lover  of 
the  South  and  her  institutions,  and  for  this  reason  I  speak  thus  plainly  and 
faithfully,  for  yours,  mine,  and  every  other  man's  interest,  the  words  of 
truth  and  soberness),  of  which  I  wish  you  to  judge,  and  I  will  only  state 
facts  which  are  clear  and  undeniable,  and  which  now  stand  as  records  au- 
thentic in  the  history  of  our  country.  When  we  of  the  South  demanded  the 
slave-trade,  or  the  importation  of  Africans  for  the  cultivation  of  our  lands, 
did  they  not  yield  the  right  for  twenty  years?  When  we  asked  a  three- 
fifths  representation  in  Congress  for  our  slaves  was  it  not  granted  ?  When 
we  asked  and  demanded  the  return  of  anv  fugitive  from  justice,  or  the  re- 
covery of  those  persons  owing  labor  or  allegiance,  was  it  not  incorporated 
in  the  Constitution,  and  again  ratified  and  strengthened  in  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  of  1850  ?  But  do  you  reply  that  in  many  instances  they  have 
violated  this  compact  and  have  not  been  faithful  to  their  engagements? 
As  individual  and  local  communities  they  may  have  done  so;  but  not  by 
the  sanction  of  Government ;  for  that  has  always  been  true  to  Southern 
interests.  Again,  gentlemen,  look  at  another  fact,  when  we  have  asked 
that  more  territory  should  be  added,  that  we  might  spread  the  institution 
of  slavery,  have  they  not  yielded  to  our  demands  in  giving  us  Louisiana, 
Florida,  and  Texas,  out  of  which  four  States  have  been  carved,  and  ample 
territory  for  four  more  may  be  added  in  due  time  if  you  by  this  unwise  and 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  553 

impolitic  act,  do  not  destroy  this  hope,  and  perhaps  by  it  lose  all,  and 
have  your  last  slave  wrenched  from  you  by  stern  military  rule,  as  South 
America  and  Mexico  were,  or  by  the  vindictive  decree  of  a  universal  eman- 
cipation, which  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  follow.  But,  again,  gentle- 
men, what  have  we  to  gain  by  this  proposed  change  of  our  relation  to  the 
general  Government?  We  have  always  had  the  control  of  it,  and  can  yet, 
if  we  remain  in  it  and  are  as  united  as  we  have  been.  We  have  had  a 
majority  of  the  Presidents  chosen  from  the  South  ;  as  well  as  the  control  and 
management  of  most  of  those  chosen  from  the  North.  We  have  had  sixty 
years  of  Southern  Presidents  to  their  twenty-four,  thus  controlling  the  ex- 
ecutive department.  So  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  we  have  had 
eighteen  from  the  South,  and  but  eleven  from  the  North;  although  nearly 
four-fifths  of  the  judicial  business  has  arisen  in  the  Free  States,  yet  a 
majority  of  the  court  has  always  been  from  the  South.  This  we  have  re- 
quired so  as  to  guard  against  any  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  un- 
favorable to  us.  In  like  manner  we  have  been  equally  watchful  to  guard 
our  interest  in  the  legislative  branch  of  Government.  In  choosing  the  pre- 
siding Presidents  {pro  tern.)  of  the  Senate,  we  have  had  twenty-four  to  their 
eleven.  Speakers  of  the  House  we  have  had  twenty-three,  and  they  twelve. 
While  the  majority  of  the  representatives,  from  their  greater  population, 
have  always  been  from  the  North,  yet  we  have  so  generally  secured  the 
Speaker,  because  he,  to  a  greater  extent,  shapes  and  controls  the  legislation 
of  the  country.  Nor  have  we  had  less  control  in  every  other  department 
of  the  general  Government.  Attorney-Generals  we  have  had  fourteen, 
while  the  North  have  had  but  five.  Foreign  ministers  we  have  had  eighty- 
six  and  they  but  fifty-four.  While  three-fourths  of  the  business  which  de- 
mands diplomatic  agents  abroad  is  clearly  from  the  Free  States,  from 
their  greater  commercial  interests,  yet  we  have  had  the  principal  embassies, 
so  as  to  secure  the  world's  markets  for  our  cotton,  tobacco,  and  sugar  on 
the  best  possible  terms.  We  have  had  a  vast  majority  of  the  higher  offices 
of  both  army  and  navy,  while  a  larger  proportion  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors 
were  drawn  from  the  North.  Equally  so  of  clerks,  auditors,  and  comp- 
trollers filling  the  executive  department,  the  records  show  for  the  last  fifty 
years  that  of  the  three  thousand  thus  employed,  we  have  had  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  same,  while  we  have  but  one-third  of  the  white  popula- 
tion of  the  Republic.  Again,  look  at  another  item,  and  one,  be  assured,  in 
which  we  have  a  great  and  vital  interest ;  it  is  that  of  revenue,  or  means  of 
supporting  Government.  From  official  documents  we  learn  that  a  fraction 
over  three-fourths  of  the  revenue  collected  for  the  support  of  the  Govern- 
ment has  uniformly  been  raised  from  the  North.  Pause  now,  while  you 
can,  gentlemen,  and  contemplate  carefully  and  candidly  these  important 
items.  Leaving  out  of  view,  for  the  present,  the  countless  millions  of  dol- 
lars you  must  expend  in  a  war  with  the  North;  with  tens  of  thousands  of 
your  sons  and  brothers  slain  in  battle,  and  offered  up  as  sacrifices  upon 
the  altar  of  your  ambition — and  for  what?  we  ask  again.  Is  it  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  American  Government,  established  by  our  common 
ancestry,  cemented  and  built  up  by  their  sweat  and  blood,  and  founded  on 


554  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  broad  principles  of  right,  justice,  and  humanity?     And,  as  such,  I 
declare  here,  as  I  have  often  done  before,  and  which  has  been  repeate. 
the  greatest  and  wisest  of  statesmen  and  patriots  in  this  and  other  la 
that  it  is  the  best  and  freest  Government — the  most  equal  in  its  rig/its,  the 
just  in  its  decisions,  the  most  lenient  in  its  measures,  and  the  most  inspiring . 
principles  to  elevate  the  race  of  men,  that  the  sun  of  heaven  ever  shone  upon. 
Now,  for  you  to  attempt  to  overthrow   such  a  Government  as  this,  under 
which  we  have  lived  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century — in  which 
we  have  gained  our  wealth,  our  standing  as  a  nation,  our  domestic  safety 
while  the  elements  of  peril  are  around  us,  with  peace  and   tranquillity   ac- 
companied with  unbounded  prosperity  and  rights  unassailed — is  the  height 
of  madness,  folly,  and  wickedness,  to  which  I  can  neither  lend  my  sanction 
nor  my  vote." 

Was  there  ever  such  an  indictment  unconsciously  laid 
against  any  people  !  \Cheers.~\  Here  Mr.  Stephens,  talk- 
ing to  people  in  Georgia,  quite  unconscious  that  his 
speech  would  be  reported,  that  it  would  appear  in  the 
Northern  press,  and  be  read  in  Exeter  Hall  to  an  English 
audience — tells  you  what  has  been  the  plan  and  what  have 
been  the  effects  of  Southern  domination  on  the  national 
policy,  on  the  Government,  and  on  the  courts  during  the 
last  fifty  years.  The  object  of  Southern  policy,  early  com- 
menced and  steadily  pursued,  was  to  control  the  Govern- 
ment and  to  establish  a  slave-influence  throughout  North 
America.  Now,  take  notice  first,  that  the  North,  hating 
slavery,  having  rid  itself  of  slavery  at  a  great  cost,  and 
longing  for  its  extinction  throughout  America,  was  unable 
until  this  war  to  touch  slavery  directly.  The  North  could 
only  contend  against  slave  -policy — not  directly  against 
slavery.  Why  ?  Because  slavery  was  not  the  creature  of 
national  law,  and  therefore  not  subject  to  national  jurisdic- 
tion, but  of  State  law,  and  subject  only  to  State  jurisdic- 
tion. A  direct  act  on  the  part  of  the  North  to  abolish 
slavery  would  have  been  revolutionary.  [A  voice ;  "We 
do  not  understand  you."]  You  will  understand  me  before  I 
have  done  with  you  to-night.  [C//eers.~\  Such  an  attack 
would  have  been  a  violation  of  a  fundamental  principle  of 
State  independence.  This  peculiar  structure  of  our  Gov- 
ernment is  not  so  unintelligible  to  Englishmen  as  you  may 
think.  It  is  only  taking  an  English  idea  on  a  larger  scale. 
We  have  borrowed  it  from  you.     A  great  many  do  not  un- 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  555 

derstand  how  it  is  that  there  should  be  State  independence 
under  a  national  Government.  Now  I  am  not  closely  ac- 
quainted with  your  affairs,  but  the  Chamberlain  can  tell 
you  if  I  am  wrong,  when  I  say,  that  there  belong  to  the  old 
city  of  London  certain  private  rights  that  Parliament  can- 
not meddle  with.  Yet  there  are  elements  in  which  Parlia- 
ment— that  is,  the  will  of  the  nation — is  as  supreme  over 
London  as  over  any  town  or  city  of  the  realm.  Now,  if 
there  are  some  things  which  London  has  kept  for  her  own 
judgment  and  will,  and  yet  others  which  she  has  given  up 
to  the  national  will,  you  have  herein  the  principle  of  the 
American  Government  \cheers\  by  which  certain  local 
matters  belong  exclusively  to  the  local  jurisdiction,  and 
certain  general  matters  to  the  national  Government.  I  will 
give  you  another  illustration  that  will  bring  it  home  to 
you.  There  is  not  a  street  in  London,  but,  as  soort  as  a 
man  is  inside  his  house,  he  may  say,  his  house  is  his  castle. 
There  is  no  law  in  the  realm  which  can  lay  down  to  that 
man  how  many  members  shall  compose  his  family — how 
he  shall  dress  his  children — when  they  shall  get  up  and 
when  they  shall  go  to  bed — how  many  meals  he  shall  have 
a  day,  and  of  what  those  meals  shall  be  constituted.  The 
interior  economy  of  the  house  belongs  to  the  members  of 
the  house,  yet  there  are  many  respects  in  which  every 
householder  is  held  in  check  by  common  rights.  They 
have  their  own  interior  and  domestic  economy,  yet  they 
share  in  other  things  which  are  national  and  governmental. 
It  may  be  very  wrong  to  give  children  opium,  but  all  the  doc- 
tors in  London  cannot  say  to  a  man  that  he  shall  not  drug 
his  child.  It  is  his  own  business,  and  if  it  is  wrong  it  can- 
not be  interfered  with.  I  will  give  you  another  illustration. 
Five  men  form  a  partnership  of  business.  Now,  that  part- 
nership represents  the  national  Government  of  the  United 
States;  but  it  has  relation  only  to  certain  great  commercial 
interests  common  to  them  all.  Yet  each  of  these  five  men 
has  another  sphere — his  family — and  in  that  sphere  the 
man  may  be  a  drunkard,  a  gambler,  a  lecherous  and  in- 
decent man,  but  the  firm  cannot  meddle  with  his  morals. 
It  cannot  touch  anything  but  business  interests  that  belong 


55 6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  the  firm.  Now,  our  States  came  together  on  this  doc- 
trine— that  each  State,  in  respect  to  those  rights  and  insti- 
tutions that  were  local  and  peculiar  to  it,  was  to  have  un- 
divided sovereignty  over  its  own  affairs;  but  that  all  those 
powers,  such  as  taxes,  wars,  treaties  of  peace,  which  belong 
to  one  State,  and  which  are  common  to  all  States,  went  into 
the  general  Government.  The  general  Government  never 
had  the  power — the  power  was  never  delegated  to  it — to 
meddle  with  the  interior  and  domestic  economy  of  the 
States,  and  it  never  could  be  done. 

You  understand,  then,  that  it  was  only  that  part  of 
slavery  which  escaped  from  the  State  jurisdiction,  and 
which  entered  into  the  national  sphere,  which  formed  the 
subject  of  ante-bellum  controversy.  We  could  not  justly 
touch  the  Constitution  of  the  States,  but  only  the  policy 
of  the  national  Government,  that  came  out  beyond  the 
State  and  appeared  in  Congress  and  in  the  Territories. 
[Cheers.]  We  are  bound  to  abide  by  our  fundamental  law. 
Honor,  fidelity,  integrity,  as  well  as  patriotism,  required  us 
to  abide  by  that  law.  The  great  conflict  between  the  South 
and  North,  until  this  war  began,  was,  which  should  control 
the  Federal  or  central  Government,  and  what  we  call  the 
Territories  ;  that  is,  lands  which  are  the  property  of  the  whole 
Union,  and  have  not  yet  received  separate  State  rights. 
\_Cheers.~\  That  was  the  conflict.  It  was  not  "  Emancipation" 
or  "No  Emancipation;"  Government  had  no  business  with 
that  question.  Before  the  war,  the  only  thing  on  which 
politically  the  free  people  of  the  North  and  South  took 
their  respective  sides  was,  "  Shall  the  National  policy  be 
free  or  slave  ? "  And  I  call  you  to  witness  that  forbear- 
ance, though  not  a  showy  virtue — fidelity,  though  not  a 
shining  quality — are  fundamental  to  manly  integrity. 
[Cheers.]  During  a  period  of  eighty  years,  the  North, 
whose  wrongs  I  have  just  read  out  to  you,  not  from  her 
own  lips,  but  from  the  lips  of  her  enemy,  has  stood  faith- 
fully to  her  word.  With  scrupulous  honor  she  has  re- 
spected legal  rights,  even  when  they  were  merely  civil  and 
not  moral  rights.  The  fidelity  of  the  North  to  the  great 
doctrine  of  State  rights,  which  was  born  of  her — her  for- 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  557 

bearance  under  wrong,  insult,  and  provocation — her  con- 
scientious and  honorable  refusal  to  meddle  with  the  evil 
which  she  hated,  and  which  she  saw  to  be  aiming  at  the 
life  of  Government,  and  at  her  own  life — her  determina- 
tion to  hold  fast  pact  and  constitution,  and  to  gain  her 
victories  by  giving  the  people  a  new  National  policy — will 
yet  be  deemed  worthy  of  something  better  than  a  con- 
temptuous sneer,  or  the  allegation  of  an  "enormous  na- 
tional vanity."  [Cheers.]  The  Northern  forbearance  is 
one  of  those  themes  of  which  we  may  be  justly  proud 
["O/i,"  and  cheers] — -a  product  of  virtue,  a  fruit  of  liberty, 
an  inspiration  of  that  Christian  faith,  which  is  the  mother 
at  once  of  truth  and  of  liberty.  [Cheers.']  I  am  proud  to 
think  that  there  is  such  a  record  of  national  fidelity  as 
that  which  the  North  has  written  for  herself  by  the  pen  of 
her  worst  enemies.  Now  that  is  the  reason  why  the  North 
did  not  at  first  go  to  war  to  enforce  emancipation.  She 
went  to  war  to  save  the  National  institutions;  [cheers] 
— to  save  the  Territories;  to  sustain  those  laws,  which 
would  first  circumscribe,  then  suffocate,  and  finally  destroy 
slavery.  [Cheers^]  That  is  the  reason  why  that  most 
true,  honest,  just,  and  conscientious  magistrate,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln— 

The  announcement  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  was  received  with 
loud  and  continued  cheering.  The  whole  audience  rose  and 
cheered  for  some  time,  and  it  was  a  few  minutes  before  Mr. 
Beecher  could  proceed. 

From  having  spoken  much  at  tumultuous  assemblies  I 
had  at  times  a  fear  that  when  I  came  here  this  evening  my 
voice  would  fail  from  too  much  speaking.  But  that  fear 
is  now  changed  to  one  that  your  voices  will  fail  from  too 
much  cheering.     [Laughter^] 

How  then  did  the  North  pass  from  a  conflict  with  the 
South  concerning  a  general  slave  policy,  to  a  direct  attack 
upon  the  institutions  of  slavery  itself?  Because,  according 
to  the  foreshadowing  of  that  wisest  man  of  the  South,  Mr. 
Stephens,  they  beleaguered  the  national  Government  and 
the  national  life  with  the  institution  of  slavery — obliged  a 
sworn   President,  who  was   put  under  oath  not  to  invade 


558  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

that  institution,  to  take  his  choice  between  the  safety  and 
life  of  the  Government  itself,  or  the  slavery  by  which  it 
was  beleaguered.  [Cheers^]  If  any  man  lays  an  obstruc- 
tion on  the  street,  and  blocks  up  the  street,  it  is  not  the 
fault  of  the  people  if  they  walk  over  it.  As  the  funda- 
mental right  of  individual  self-defense  cannot  be  with- 
drawn without  immorality — so  the  first  element  of  national 
life  is  to  defend  life.  As  no  man  attacked  on  the  highway 
violates  law,  but  obeys  the  law  of  self-defense — a  law  in- 
side of  the  laws — by  knocking  down  his  assailant;  so, 
when  a  nation  is  assaulted,  it  is  a  right  and  duty,  in  the 
exercise  of  self-defense,  to  destroy  the  enemy,  by  which 
otherwise  it  will  be  destroyed.  [Hear.]  As  long  as  the 
South  allowed  it  to  be  a  moral  and  political  conflict  of 
policy,  we  were  content  to  meet  the  issue  as  one  of  policy. 
But  when  they  threw  down  the  gauntlet  of  war,  and  said 
that  by  it  slavery  was  to  be  adjudicated,  we  could  do  noth- 
ing else  than  take  up  the  challenge.  [Loud  cheers.]  The 
police  have  no  right  to  enter  your  house  as  long  as  you 
keep  within  the  law,  but  when  you  defy  the  laws  and  en- 
danger the  peace  and  safety  of  the  neighborhood  they 
have  a  right  to  enter.  So  in  our  constitutional  Govern- 
ment; it  has  no  power  to  touch  slavery  while  slavery  re- 
mains a  State  institution.  But  when  it  lifts  itself  up  out 
of  its  State  humility  and  becomes  banded  to  attack  the 
Nation,  it  becomes  a  national  enemy,  and  has  no  longer 
exemption.     [Cheers.] 

But  it  is  said,"  The  President  issued  his  proclamation  after 
all  for  political  effect,  not  for  humanity."  [Cries  of  hear, 
hear.]  Of  course  the  right  of  issuing  a  proclamation  of 
emancipation  was  political,  but  the  disposition  to  do  it  was 
personal.  [Loud  cheers.]  Mr.  Lincoln  is  an  officer  of  the 
State,  and  in  the  Presidential  chair  has  no  more  right  than 
your  judge  on  the  bench  to  follow  his  private  feelings.  [Ap- 
plause.] He  is  bound  to  ask,  "What  is  the  law  ?"  not  "What 
is  my  sympathy  ?  "  [Hear,  hear.]  And  when  a  judge  sees 
that  a  rigid  execution  or  interpretation  of  the  law  goes  along 
with  primitive  justice,  with  humanity,  and  with  pity,  he  is 
all  the  more  glad  because  his  private  feelings  go  with  his 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  559 

public  office.  [Cheers^]  Perhaps  in  the  next  house  to  a 
kind  and  benevolent  surgeon  is  a  boy  who  fills  the  night 
with  groans,  because  he  has  a  cancerous  and  diseased  leg. 
The  surgeon  would  fain  go  in  and  amputate  that  limb  and 
save  that  life;  but  he  is  not  called  in,  and  therefore  he  has 
no  business  to  go  in,  though  he  ever  so  much  wish  it. 
[Hear,  hear.]  But  at  last  the  father  says  to  him,  "  In  the 
name  of  God,  come  in  and  save  my  child;"  and  he  goes 
in  professionally  and  cuts  off  the  leg  and  saves  the  life,  to 
the  infinite  disgust  of  a  neighbor  over  the  way,  who  says, 
"  Oh,  he  would  not  go  in  from  neighborly  feeling  and  cut 
the  leg  off."  \_Loiul  applause. ~\  I  should  like  to  know  how 
any  man  has  a  right  to  cut  your  leg  or  mine  off  except 
professionally  [laughter  and  cheers] — and  so  a  man  must 
often  wait  for  official  leave  to  perform  the  noblest  offices 
of  justice  and  humanity.  Here  then  is  the  great  stone  of 
stumbling.  At  first  the  President  could  not  touch  slavery, 
because  in  time  of  peace  it  was  a  legal  institution.  How 
then  can  he  do  it  now  ?  Because  in  time  of  war  it  has 
stepped  beyond  its  former  sphere,  and  is  no  longer  a  local 
institution,  but  a  national  and  public  enemy.  [Applause.] 
Now  I  promised  to  make  that  clear:  have  I  done  it  ? 
[Hear,  hear,  and  applause^] 

It  is  said,  "Why  not  let  the  South  go?"  [Hear,  hear, 
and cheers^]  "Since  they  won't  be  at  peace  with  you,  why 
do  you  not  let  them  separate  from  you?"  Because  they 
would  be  still  less  peaceable  when  separated.  [Hear,  hear.] 
Oh,  if  the  Southerners  only  would  go  !  [Laughter.]  They 
are  determined  to  stay — that  is  the  trouble.  [Hear,  hear.] 
We  would  furnish  free  passage  to  all  of  them  if  they  would 
go.  But  we  say,  The  land  is  ours.  [Cheers.]  Let  them 
go,  and  leave  to  the  nation  its  land,  and  they  will  have  our 
unanimous  consent.      [Renewed  cheers.] 

But  I  wish  to  discuss  this  more  carefully.  It  is  the  very 
marrow  of  the  matter.  I  ask  you  to  stand  in  our  place  for 
a  little  time,  and  seeing  this  question  as  we  see  it,  afterwards 
make  up  your  judgment.      [Hear,  hear.] 

And  first,  this  war  began  by  the  act  of  the  South — firing 
at  the  old  flag  that  had  covered  both  sections  with  glory 


560  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  protection.  [A/>/>/ause.]  The  attack  made  upon  us 
was  under  circumstances  which  inflicted  immediate  severe 
humiliation  and  threatened  us  with  final  subjugation; 
The  Southerners  held  all  the  keys  of  the  country.  They 
had  robbed  our  arsenals.  They  had  made  our  treasury 
bankrupt.  They  had  possession  of  the  most  important 
offices  in  the  army  and  navy.  They  had  the  vantage  of 
having  long  anticipated  and  prepared  for  the  conflict. 
[Hear,  /tear.]  We  knew  not  whom  to  trust.  One  man 
failed,  and  another  man  failed.  Men,  pensioned  by  the 
Government,  lived  on  the  salary  of  the  Government  only 
to  have  better  opportunities  to  stab  and  betray  it.  There 
was  not  merely  one  Judas,  there  were  a  thousand  in  our 
country.  Lffear,  hear,  and  hisses.]  And  for  the  North 
to  have  lain  down  like  a  spaniel — to  have  given  up  the 
land  that  every  child  in  America  is  taught,  as  every  child 
in  Britain  is  taught,  to  regard  as  his  sacred  right  and  his 
trust — to  have  given  up  the  mouths  of  our  own  rivers  and 
our  mountain  citadel  without  a  blow,  would  have  marked 
the  North  in  all  future  history  as  craven  and  mean.  \_Loud 
cheers  and  some  hisses.] 

Second,  the  honor  and  safety  of  that  grand  experiment, 
self-government  by  free  institutions,  demanded  that  so 
flagitious  a  violation  of  the  first  principles  of  legality 
should  not  carry  off  impunity  and  reward,  thereafter 
enabling  the  minority  in  every  party  conflict  to  turn  and 
say  to  the  majority,  "  If  you  don't  give  us  our  way  we 
will  make  war."  Oh,  Englishmen,  would  you  let  a  minor- 
ity dictate  in  such  a  way  to  you  ?  [Loud  cries  of  "No, 
no,  never! "  and  cheers.]  Three  thousand  miles  off  don't 
make  any  difference,  then  ?  ["-Wo,  no."]  The  principle 
thus  introduced  would  literally  have  no  end — would  carry 
the  nation  back  to  its  original  elements  of  isolated  States. 
Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  it  should  stop  with  States. 
If  every  treaty  may  be  overthrown  by  which  States  have 
been  settled  into  a  Nation,  what  form  of  political  union 
may  not  on  like  grounds  be  severed  ?  There  is  the  same 
force  in  the  doctrine  of  Secession  in  the  application  to 
counties  as  in  the  application  to  States;  and  if  it  be  right 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  561 

for  a  State  or  a  county  to  secede,  it  is  equally  right  for  a 
town  and  a  city.  [Cheers.]  This  doctrine  of  Secession  is 
a  huge  revolving  millstone  that  grinds  the  national  life  to 
powder.  [Cheers.]  It  is  anarchy  in  velve't,  and  national 
destruction  clothed  in  soft  phrases  and  periphrastic  ex- 
pressions. [Cheers.]  But  we  have  fought  with  that  devil 
"  Slavery,"  and  understand  him  better  than  you  do.  [Loud 
cheers.]  No  people  with  patriotism  and  honor  will  give 
up  territory  without  a  struggle  for  it.  [Cheers.]  Would 
you  give  it  up  ?  [Loud  cries  of  "JVo."]  It  is  said  that  the 
States  are  owners  of  their  territory  !  It  is  theirs  to  use, 
not  theirs  to  run  away  with.  We  have  equal  right  with 
them  to  enter  it.  Let  me  inform  you  that  when  those 
States  first  sat  in  convention  to  form  a  Union,  a  resolution 
was  introduced  by  the  delegates  from  South  Carolina  and 
Virginia,  "  That  we  now  proceed  to  form  a  National  Gov- 
ernment." The  delegate  from  Connecticut  objected.  The 
New  Englanders  were  State-right  men,  and  the  South,  in 
the  first  instance,  seemed  altogether  for  a  National  Gov- 
ernment. Connecticut  objected,  and  a  debate  took  place 
whether  it  should  be  a  Constitution  for  a  mere  Confeder- 
acy of  States,  or  for  a  nation  formed  out  of  those  States. 
[A  voice:  "When  was  that?"]  It  was  in  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1787. 

He  wants  to  help  me.  [Laughter.]  I  like  such  interrup- 
tions. I  am  here  a  friend  amongst  friends.  [Cheers.] 
Nothing  will  please  me  better  than  any  question  asked  in 
courtesy  and  in  earnest  to  elucidate  this  subject.  I  am  not 
afraid  of  being  interrupted  by  questions  which  are  to  the 
point.      [Cheers.] 

At  this  convention  the  resolution  of  the  New  England 
delegates  that  they  should  form  a  Confederacy  instead  of 
a  Nation  was  voted  down;  and  never  came  up  again. 
[Cheers.]  The  first  draft  of  the  preamble  contained  these 
words:  "We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  forming  a  Nation;  "  but  as  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  feeling  between  the  North  and  South  on  the  subject, 
when  the   draft  came  to   the   committee  for   revision,  and 

they  had  simply  to  put  in  the  proper  phraseologv,  they  put 
36 


562  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

it  "  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  Union."  When,  later,  the 
question  whether  the  States  were  to  hold  their  autocracy 
came  up  in  South  Carolina — it  was  called  the  Carolina 
heresy — that  too  was  put  down;  and  never  lifted  its  head 
up  again  until  this  Secession,  when  it  was  galvanized  to  jus- 
tify that  which  has  no  other  pretense  to  justice.  [Cheers.] 
I  would  like  to  ask  those  English  gentlemen  who  hold  that 
it  is  right  for  a  State  to  secede  when  it  pleases,  how  they 
would  like  it,  if  the  county  of  Kent  should  try  the  experi- 
ment. [Hear,  hear.]  The  men  who  cry  out  for  Secession 
of  the  Southern  States  in  America  would  say,  "  Kent  se- 
ceding? Ah,  circumstances  alter  cases!"  [ Cheers  and 
laughter.]  The  Mississippi,  which  is  our  Southern  door 
and  hall  to  come  in  and  to  go  out,  runs  right  through  the 
territory  which  they  tried  to  rend  from  us.  The  South 
magnanimously  offered  to  let  us  use  it;  but  what  would 
you  say  if,  on  going  home,  you  found  a  squad  of  gypsies 
seated  in  your  hall,  who  refused  to  be  ejected,  saying, 
"  But  look  here,  we  will  let  you  go  in  and  out  on  equitable 
and  easy  terms."     [Cheers  and  laughter.] 

But  there  was  another  question  involved — the  question 
of  national  honor.  If  you  take  up  and  look  at  the  map 
that  delineates  the  mountainous  features  of  that  continent, 
you  will  find  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  Alleghany  ridge, 
beginning  in  New  Hampshire,  running  across  the  New 
England  States  through  Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia, 
stopping  in  the  Northern  part  of  Georgia.  [Hear,  hear.] 
Now,  all  the  world  over,  men  that  live  in  mountainous 
regions  have  been  men  for  liberty  [cheers] — and  from  the 
first  hour  to  this  hour  the  majority  of  the  population  of 
Western  Virginia,  which  is  in  this  mountainous  region,  the 
majority  of  the  population  of  Eastern  Tennessee,  of  West- 
ern Carolina,  and  of  North  Georgia,  have  been  true  to  the 
Union,  and  were  urgent  not  to  go  out.  They  called  to  the 
National  Government,  "We  claim  that,  in  fulfillment  of 
the  compact  of  the  Constitution,  you  defend  our  rights, 
and  retain  us  in  the  Union."  [Cheers.]  We  would  not 
suffer  a  line  of  fire  to  be  established  one  thousand  five 
hundred  miles  along  our  Southern  border  from  which,  in 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  563 

a  coming  hour,  there  might  shoot  out  wars  and  disturb- 
ances, with  such  a  people  as  the  slaveholding  South,  that 
never  kept  faith  in  the  Union,  and  would  never  keep  faith 
out  of  it.  They  have  disturbed  the  land  as  old  Ahab  of 
accursed  memory  did  [cheers  and  hisses],  and  when  Elijah 
found  this  Ahab  in  the  way,  Ahab  said,  "  It  is  Elijah  that 
has  disturbed  Israel."  [A  laugh.]  Now  we  know  the  nature 
of  this  people.  We  know  that  if  we  entered  into  a  truce 
with  them  they  would  renew  their  plots  and  violences,  and 
take  possession  of  the  continent  in  the  name  of  the  devil 
and  slavery.     [Cheers.'] 

One  more  reason  why  we  will  not  let  this  people  go  is 
because  we  do  not  want  to  become  a  military  people.  A 
great  many  say  America  is  becoming  too  strong;  she  is 
dangerous  to  the  peace  of  the  world.  But  if  you  permit 
or  favor  this  division,  the  South  becomes  a  military  nation, 
and  the  North  is  compelled  to  become  a  military  nation. 
Along  a  line  of  1,500  miles  she  must  have  forts  and  men  to 
garrison  them.  These  250,000  soldiers  will  constitute  the 
national  standing  army  of  the  North.  Now  any  nation 
that  has  a  large  standing  army  is  in  great  danger  of  losing 
its  liberties.  ["  No,  no."  Before  this  war  the  legal  size  of 
the  national  army  was  25,000;  that  was  all.  The  actual 
number  was  18,000,  and  those  were  all  the  soldiers  we 
wanted.  The  New  York  Tribune  and  other  papers  repeat- 
edly said  that  even  these  were  useless  in  our  nation.  But 
if  the  country  were  divided,  then  we  should  have  two  great 
military  nations  taking  its  place,  and  instead  of  a  paltry 
18,000  soldiers,  there  would  be  250,000  on  one  side  and 
100,000  or  200,000  on  the  other.  And  if  America,  by  this 
ill-advised  disruption,  is  forced  to  have  a  standing  army, 
like  a  boy  with  a  knife,  she  will  always  want  to  whittle 
with  it.  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  It  is  the  interest,  then,  of 
the  world,  that  the  nation  should  be  united,  and  that  it 
should  be  under  the  control  of  that  part  of  America  that 
has  always  been  for  peace  [cheers,  and  cries  of  "No,  no  "], 
that  it  should  be  wrested  from  the  control  and  policy  of  that 
part  of  the  nation  that  has  always  been  for  more  territory, 
for  filibustering,  for  insulting  foreign  nations.     [Cheers.] 


564  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

But  that  is  not  all.  The  religious-minded  among  our 
people  feel  that  in  the  territory  committed  to  us  there  is  a 
high  and  solemn  trust — a  national  trust.  We  are  taught 
that  in  some  sense  the  world  itself  is  a  field,  and  every 
Christian  nation  acknowledges  a  certain  responsibility  for 
the  moral  condition  of  the  globe.  But  how  much  nearer 
does  it  come  when  it  is  one's  own  country  !  And  the 
Church  of  America  is  coming  to  feel  more  and  more  that 
God  gave  us  this  country,  not  merely  for  material  ag- 
grandizement, but  for  a  glorious  triumph  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  [C/iet'rs.]  Therefore  we  undertook  to  rid  the 
territory  of  slavery.  Since  slavery  has  divested  itself  of 
its  municipal  protection,  and  has  become  a  declared  public 
enemy,  it  is  our  duty  to  strike  down  the  slavery  which 
would  blight  this  fair  western  land.  When  I  stand  and 
look  out  upon  that  immense  territory  as  a  man,  as  a  citi- 
zen, as  a  Christian  minister,  I  feel  myself  asked,  "  Will  you 
permit  that  vast  country  to  be  overclouded  by  this  curse? 
Will  you  permit  the  cries  of  bondmen  to  issue  from  that 
fair  territory,  and  do  nothing  for  their  liberty  ?  "  What 
are  we  doing  ?  Sending  our  ships  round  the  globe,  carry- 
ing missionaries  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  the  islands  of 
the  Pacific,  to  Asia,  to  all  Africa.  And  yet,  when  this 
work  of  redeeming  our  continent  from  the  heathendom  of 
slavery  lies  before  us,  there  are  men  who  counsel  us  to 
give  it  up  to  the  devil,  and  not  try  to  do  anything  with  it. 
Ah  !  independent  of  pounds  and  pence,  independent  of 
national  honor,  independent  of  all  merely  material  consid- 
erations, there  is  pressing  on  every  conscientious  Northern- 
er's mind  this  highest  of  all  considerations — our  duty  to 
God  to  save  that  country  from  the  blast  and  blight  of 
slavery.  [  C/wers.']  Yet  how  many  are  there  who  up,  down, 
and  over  all  England  are  saying,  "Let  slavery  go  —  let 
slavery  go  "  ?  It  is  recorded,  I  think,  in  the  biography  of 
one  of  the  most  noble  of  your  own  countrymen,  Sir.  T. 
Fowell  Buxton  \chcers\  that  on  one  occasion  a  huge 
favorite  dog  was  seized  with  hydrophobia.  With  wonder- 
ful courage  he  seized  the  creature  by  the  neck  and  collar, 
and  against   the  animal's  mightiest  efforts,  dashing  hither 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  565 

and  thither  against  wall  and  fence,  held  him  until  help 
could  be  got.  If  there  had  been  Englishmen  there  of  the 
stripe  of  the  Times,  they  would  have  said  to  Fowell  Buxton, 
"Let  him  go;"  but  is  there  one  here  who  does  not  feel 
the  moral  nobleness  of  that  man,  who  rather  than  let  the 
mad  animal  go  down  the  street  biting  children  and  women 
and  men,  risked  his  life  and  prevented  the  dog  from  doing 
evil  ?  Shall  we  allow  that  hell  hound  of  slavery,  mad, 
mad  as  it  is,  to  go  biting  millions  in  the  future?  [Cheers.] 
We  will  peril  life  and  limb  and  all  we  have  first.  These 
truths  are  not  exaggerated — they  are  diminished  rather 
than  magnified  in  my  statement;  and  you  cannot  tell  how 
powerfully  they  are  influencing  us  unless  you  were  stand- 
ing in  our  midst  in  America;  you  cannot  understand  how 
firm  that  national  feeling  is  which  God  has  bred  in  the 
North  on  this  subject.  It  is  deeper  than  the  sea;  it  is 
firmer  than  the  hills;  it  is  serene  as  the  sky  over  our  head, 
where  God  dwells.     [Cheers.] 

But  it  is  said,  "What  a  ruthless  business  this  war  of  ex- 
termination is  !  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  a  fellow  from 
America,  purporting  to  be  a  minister  of  the  gospel  of 
peace,  had  come  over  to  England,  and  that  that  fellow  had 
said  he  was  in  favor  of  a  war  of  extermination."  Well, 
if  he  said  so  he  will  stick  to  it;  [cheers] — but  not  in  the 
way  in  which  enemies  put  these  words.  Listen  to  the 
way  in  which  I  put  them,  for  if  I  am  to  bear  the  respon- 
sibility it  is  only  fair  that  I  should  state  them  in  my  own 
way.  We  believe  that  the  war  is  a  test  of  our  institu- 
tions; that  it  is  a  life-and-death  struggle  between  the  two 
principles  of  liberty  and  slavery — [cheers] — that  it  is  the 
cause  of  the  common  people  all  the  world  over.  [  Re- 
newed cheers.]  We  believe  that  every  struggling  nation- 
ality on  the  globe  will  be  stronger  if  we  conquer  this  odious 
oligarchy  of  slavery,  and  that  every  oppressed  people  in 
the  world  will  be  weaker  if  we  fail.      [Che  The  sober 

American  regards  the  war  as  part  of  that  awful  yet  glori- 
ous struggle,-  which  has  been  going  on  for  hundreds  of 
years  in  every  nation  between  right  and  wrong,  between 
virtue  and  vice,  between   liberty  and   despotism,  between 


566  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

freedom  and  bondage.  It  carries  with  it  the  whole  future 
condition  of  our  vast  continent — its  laws,  its  policy,  its 
fate.  And  standing  in  view  of  these  tremendous  realities 
we  have  consecrated  all  that  we  have — our  children,  our 
wealth,  our  national  strength^we  lay  them  all  on  the 
altar  and  say,  "  It  is  better  that  they  should  all  perish  than 
that  the  North  should  falter  and  betray  this  trust  of  God, 
this  hope  of  the  oppressed,  this  Western  civilization." 
[Cheers]  If  we  say  this  of  ourselves,  shall  we  say  less  of 
the  slaveholders  ?  If  we  are  willing  to  do  these  things, 
shall  we  say,  "  Stop  the  war  for  their  sakes  "  ?  If  we  say 
this  of  ourselves,  shall  we  have  more  pity  for  the  rebell- 
ious, for  slavery  seeking  to  blacken  a  continent  with  its 
awful  evil,  desecrating  the  social  phrase,  "  National  Inde- 
pendence "  by  seeking  only  an  independence  that  shall 
enable  them  to  treat  four  millions  of  human  beings  as 
chattels  1  [Cheers.]  Shall  we  be  tenderer  over  them  than 
over  ourselves  ?  Standing  by  my  cradle,  standing  by  my 
hearth,  standing  by  the  altar  of  the  church,  standing  by  all 
the  places  that  mark  the  name  and  memory  of  heroic  men 
who  poured  out  their  blood  and  lives  for  principle,  I  de- 
clare that  in  ten  or  twenty  years  of  war  we  will  sacrifice 
everything  we  have  for  principle.  [Cheers.]  If  the  love 
of  popular  liberty  is  dead  in  Great  Britain  you  will  not 
understand  us;  but  if  the  love  of  liberty  lives  as  it  once 
lived,  and  has  worthy  successors  of  those  renowned  men 
that  were  our  ancestors  as  much  as  yours,  and  whose  ex- 
ample and  principles  we  inherit  as  so  much  seed  corn  in 
a  new  and  fertile  land,  then  you  will  understand  our  firm, 
invincible  determination — to  fight  this  war  through,  at  all 
hazards  and  at  every  cost.  [Immense  cheering,  accompanied 
with  a  few  hisses.] 

I  am  obliged  for  this  little  diversion;  it  rests  me. 

Against  this  statement  of  facts  and  principles  no  public 
man  and  no  party  could  stand  up  for  one  moment  in 
England  if  it  were  permitted  to  rest  upon  its  own  merits. 
It  is  therefore  sought  to  darken  the  light  of  these  truths 
and  to  falsify  facts.  I  will  not  mention  names,  but  I  will 
say  this,  that  there  have  been  important  organs  in  Great 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  567 

Britain  that  have  deliberately  and  knowingly  spoken 
what  is  not  the  truth.  [Applause,  and  loud  cries  of  "The 
Times!"  (i  Three  groans  for  the  Times/"]  It  is  declared 
that  the  North  has  no  sincerity.  It  is  declared  that  the 
North  treats  the  blacks  worse  than  the  South  does.  [/Tear, 
hear.]  A  monstrous  lie  from  beginning  to  end  !  It  is  de- 
clared that  emancipation  is  a  mere  political  trick — not  a 
moral  sentiment.  It  is  declared  that  this  is  the  cruel 
unphilanthropic  squabble  of  men  gone  mad  with  national 
vanity.  [Cheers  and  hisses.]  Oh,  what  a  pity  that  a  man 
should  "fall  nine  times  the  space  that  measures  day  and 
night  "  to  make  an  apostasy  which  dishonors  his  closing 
days,  and  to  wipe  out  the  testimony  for  liberty  that  he 
gave  in  his  youth  !  But  even  if  all  this  monstrous  lie 
about  the  North — this  needless  slander — were  true,  still  it 
would  not  alter  the  fact  that  Northern  success  will  carry 
liberty — Southern  success,  slavery.  [Cheers.]  For  when 
society  dashes  against  society,  the  results  are  not  what 
the  individual  motives  of  the  members  of  society  would 
make  them — the  results  are  what  the  institutions  of  society 
make  them.  When  your  army  stood  at  Waterloo,  they 
did  not  know  what  were  the  vast  moral  consequences  that 
depended  on  that  battle.  It  was  not  what  the  individual 
soldiers  meant  or  thought,  but  what  the  British  empire — 
the  national  life  behind,  and  the  genius  of  that  renowned 
kingdom  which  sent  that  army  to  victory — meant  and 
thought.  [Hear,  hear].  And  even  if  the  President  were 
false — if  every  Northern  man  were  a  juggling  hypocrite — 
that  does  not  change  the  Constitution;  and  it  does  not 
change  the  fact  that  if  the  North  prevails,  she  carries 
Northern  ideas  and  Northern  institutions  with  her. 
[Cheers.] 

But  I  hear  a  loud  protest  against  war.  [Hear,  hear.] 
Ladies  and  gentlemen,  Mr.  Chairman, — there  is  a  small 
band  in  our  country  and  in  yours — I  wish  their  number 
were  quadrupled — who  have  borne  a  solemn  and  painful 
testimony  against  all  wars,  under  all  circumstances;  and 
although  I  differ  with  them  on  the  subject  of  defensive 
warfare,  yet  when   men  that   rebuked  their  own   land,  and 


568  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

all  lands,  now  rebuke  us,  though  I  cannot  accept  their 
judgment,  I  bow  with  profound  respect  to  their  consist- 
ency. [Hear,  hear,  and  cheers.}  But  excepting  them,  I 
regard  this  British  horror  of  the  American  war  as  some- 
thing wonderful.  [Renewed  cheers  and  laughter.]  Why,  it 
is  a  phenomenon  in  itself  !  On  what  shore  has  not  the 
prow  of  your  ships  dashed  ?  [/dear,  hear.]  What  land  is 
there  with  a  name  and  a  people,  where  your  banner  has 
not  led  your  soldiers  ?  [Hear,  hear.~\  And  when  the  great 
resurrection  reveille  shall  sound,  it  will  muster  British 
soldiers  from  every  clime  and  people  under  the  whole 
heaven.  [Cheers.']  Ah!  but  it  is  said,  This  is  a  war  against 
your  own  blood.  [Hear,  hear.]  How  long  is  it  since  you 
poured  soldiers  into  Canada,  and  let  all  your  yards  work 
night  and  day  to  avenge  the  taking  of  two  men  out  of  the 
Trent?  [Loud  applause.]  Old  England  shocked  at  a  war  of 
principle  !  She  gained  her  glories  in  such  wars.  [Cheers.] 
Old  England  ashamed  of  a  war  of  principle  !  Her  national 
ensign  symbolizes  her  history — the  cross  in  afield  of  blood. 
[Cheers.]  And  will  you  tell  us — who  inherit  your  blood, 
your  ideas,  and  your  high  spirits  [cheers],  that  we  must  not 
fight?  [Cheers.]  The  child  must  heed  the  parents,  until 
the  parents  get  old  and  tell  the  child  not  to  do  the  thing 
that  in  early  life  they  whipped  him  for  not  doing.  And 
then  the  child  says,  "  Father  and  Mother  are  getting  too 
old;  they  had  better  be  taken  away  from  their  present 
home  and  come  to  live  with  us."  [Cheers  and  hisses.]  Per- 
haps you  think  that  the  old  island  will  do  a  little  longer. 
[Hisses.]  Perhaps  you  think  there  is  coal  enough.  Per- 
haps you  think  the  stock  is  not  quite  run  out  yet;  but 
whenever  England  comes  to  that  state  that  she  does  not 
go  to  war  for  principle,  she  had  better  emigrate  and  we 
will  give  her  room.     [Laughter.] 

I  have  been  very  much  perplexed  what  to  think  about 
the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  in  respect  to  the  South.  I 
must,  I  suppose,  look  to  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 
English  people.  I  don't  believe  in  the  Times.  [Groans  for 
the  "Times;"  groans  for  the  "Telegraph."  You  cut  my  poor 
sentence  in  two,  and  all  the  blood  runs  out  of  it.      [Laugh- 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  569 

ter.]  I  was  just  going  to  say  that  like  most  of  you  I  don't 
believe  in  the  Times,  but  I  always  read  it.  [Laughter.] 
Every  Englishman  tells  me  that  the  Times  is  no  exponent 
of  English  opinion,  and  yet  I  have  taken  notice  that  when 
they  talk  of  men,  somehow  or  other  their  last  argument  is 
the  last  thing  that  was  in  the  Times.  [Laughter.]  I  think 
it  was  the  Times  or  Tost  that  said,  that  America  was  sore, 
because  she  had  not  the  moral  sympathy  of  Great  Britain, 
and  that  the  moral  sympathy  of  Great  Britain  had  gone 
for  the  South.  ["No,  no"]  Well,  let  me  tell  you,  that 
those  who  are  represented  in  the  newspapers  as  favorable 
to  the  South  are  like  men  who  have  arrows  and  bows  strong 
enough  to  send  the  shafts  3,000  miles;  and  those  who  feel 
sympathy  for  the  North  are  like  men  who  have  shafts,  but 
have  no  bows  that  could  shoot  them  far  enough.  [Hear.] 
The  English  sentiment  that  has  made  itself  felt  on  our 
shores  is  the  part  that  slandered  the  North  and  took  part 
with  the  South;  and  if  you  think  we  are  unduly  sensitive, 
you  must  take  into  account  that  the  part  of  English  senti- 
ment carried  over  is  the  part  that  gives  its  aid  to  slavery 
and  against  liberty.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  shall  have  a  different 
story  to  tell  when  I  get  back. 

The  assembly  rose,  and  for  a  few  moments  hats  and  handker- 
chiefs were  waved  enthusiastically  amidst  loud  cheering.  [A 
voice:  "  What  about  the  Russians?"     Hear,  hear.] 

A  gentleman  asks  me  to  say  a  word  about  the  Russians 
in  New  York  harbor.  As  this  is  a  little  private  confidential 
meeting  [laughter],  I  will  tell  you  the  fact  about  them. 
[Laughter.]  The  fact  is  this — it  is  a  little  piece  of  coquetry. 
[Laughter.]  Don't  you  know  that  when  a  woman  thinks 
her  suitor  is  not  quite  attentive  enough,  she  takes  another 
beau,  and  flirts  with  him  in  the  face  of  the  old  one  ? 
[Laughter.]  New  York  is  flirting  with  Russia,  but  she  has 
got  her  eye  on  England.  [Cheers.]  Well,  I  hear  men  say, 
this  is  a  piece  of  national  folly  that  is  not  becoming  on  the 
part  of  people  reputed  wise,  and  in  such  solemn  and  im- 
portant circumstances.  It  is  said  that  when  Russia  is  now 
engaged  in  suppressing  the  liberty  of  Poland  it  is  an  inde- 
cent  thing   for  America  to  flirt  with    her.      I  think  so  too. 


57°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

[Loud  cheers.]  Now  you  know  what  we  felt  when  you  were 
flirting  with  Mr.  Mason  at  your  Lord  Mayor's  banquet. 
[Cheers.]  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  it  did  not  do  us  any  hurt 
to  have  you  Englishmen  tell  us  our  faults.  I  hope  it  don't 
do  you  Britishers  any  hurt  to  have  us  tell  you  some  of 
yours.  [A  laugh.]  Let  me  tell  you  my  honest  sentiments. 
England,  because  she  is  a  Christian  nation,  because  she 
has  the  guardianship  of  the  dearest  principles  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  ought  to  be  friendly  with  every  nation 
and  with  every  tongue.  But  when  England  looks  out  for 
an  ally  she  ought  to  seek  for  her  own  blood,  her  own  lan- 
guage, her  own  children.  [Cheers.]  And  I  stand  here  to 
declare  that  America  is  the  proper  and  natural  ally  of 
Great  Britain.  [Cheers.]  I  declare  that  all  sorts  of  alli- 
ances with  Continental  nations  as  against  America  are 
monstrous,  and  that  all  flirtations  of  America  with  pan- 
doured  and  whiskered  foreigners  are  monstrous,  and  that 
in  the  great  conflicts  of  the  future,  when  civilization  is  to 
be  extended,  when  commerce  is  to  be  free  round  the  globe, 
and  to  carry  with  it  religion  and  civilization,  then  two  flags 
should  be  flying  from  every  man-of-war  and  every  ship, 
and  they  should  be  the  flag  with  the  cross  of  St.  George 
and  the  flag  with  the  stars  of  promise  and  of  hope. 
[Cheers.] 

Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  when  anybody  tells  you  that 
Mr.  Beecher  is  in  favor  of  war  you  may  ask,  "  In  what  way 
is  he  in  favor  of  war  ? "  And  if  any  man  says  he  seeks  to 
sow  discord  between  father  and  son  and  mother  and 
daughter  you  will  be  able  to  say,  "  Show  us  how  he  is 
sowing  discord."  If  I  had  anything  grievous  to  say  of 
England  I  would  sooner  say  it  before  her  face  than  behind 
her  back.  I  would  denounce  Englishmen,  if  they  were 
maintainers  of  the  monstrous  policy  of  the  South.  How- 
ever, since  I  have  come  over  to  this  country  you  have  told 
me  the  truth,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  bear  back  an  assurance 
to  our  people  of  the  enthusiasm  you  feel  for  the  cause  of 
the  North.  And  then  there  is  the  very  significant  act  of 
your  Government — the  seizure  of  the  rams  in  Liverpool. 
[Loud  cheers.]     Then  there  are  the  weighty  words  spoken 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  571 

by  Lord  Russell  at  Glasgow,  and  the  words  spoken  by  the 
Attorney-General.  [Cheers.]  These  acts  and  declarations 
of  policy,  coupled  with  all  that  I  have  seen,  and  the  feeling 
of  enthusiasm  of  this  English  people,  will  warm  the  heart 
of  the  Americans  in  the  North.  If  we  are  one  in  civiliza- 
tion, one  in  religion,  one  substantially  in  faith,  let  us  be 
one  in  national  policy,  one  in  every  enterprise  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel  and  for  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind.    [Cheers.] 

I  thank  you  for  your  long  patience  with  me.  ["  Go  on  !  " 
Ah  !  when  I  was  a  boy  they  used  to  tell  me  never  to  eat 
enough,  but  always  to  get  up  being  yet  a  little  hungry.  I 
would  rather  you  go  away  wishing  I  had  spoken  longer 
than  go  away  saying,  "What  a  tedious  fellow  he  was  !" 
[A  laugh.]  And  therefore  if  you  will  not  permit  me  to 
close  and  go,  I  beg  you  to  recollect  that  this  is  the  fifth 
speech  of  more  than  two  hours'  length  that  I  have  spoken, 
on  some  occasions  under  difficulties,  within  seven  or  eight 
days,  and  I  am  so  exhausted  that  I  ask  you  to  permit  me 
to  stop.     [Great  cheering.] 

Professor  Newman  then  rose  and  moved  the  following  resolu- 
tion : — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  meeting  presents  its  most  cordial  thanks  to  the 
Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  for  the  admirable  address  which  he  has  deliv- 
ered this  evening,  and  expresses  its  hearty  sympathy  with  his  reprobation 
of  the  slaveholders'  rebellion,  his  vindication  of  the  rights  of  a  free  Gov- 
ernment, and  his  aspirations  for  peace  and  friendship  between  the  English 
people  and  their  American  brethren  ;  and  as  this  meeting  recognizes  in  Mr. 
Beecher  one  of  the  early  pioneers  of  negro  emancipation,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  and  successful  of  the  champions  of  that  great  cause,  it 
rejoices  in  this  opportunity  of  congratulating  him  on  the  triumph  with 
which  the  labors  of  himself  and  his  associates  have  been  crowned  in  the 
anti-slavery  policy  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  cabinet." 

After  some  earnest  words  by  Professor  Newman,  Rev.  Newman 
Hall,  and  Mr.  G.  Thompson,  the  motion  was  then  carried  amidst 
loud  cheers,  only  three  hands  being  held  up  against  it. 

Mr.  Beecher  briefly  acknowledged  the  vote  of  thanks. 

The  Rev.  W.  M.  Bunting  moved,  and  Sir  Charles  Fox  seconded, 
a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Chairman,  which  was  unanimously  passed, 
and  the  proceedings  then  terminated. 


572  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


OUTSIDE   THE   HALL. 

The  scene  outside  Exeter  Hall  that  evening  was  of  an  extraor- 
dinary description.  The  lecture  had  been  advertised  to  com- 
mence at  seven  o'clock,  and  it  was  announced  that  the  hall  doors 
would  be  opened  at  half-past  six.  The  crowd,  however,  began  to 
assemble  as  early  as  five  o'clock,  and  before  six  o'clock  it  be- 
came so  dense  and  numerous  as  completely  to  block  up,  not 
only  the  footway,  but  the  carriage  way  of  the  Strand ;  and  the 
committee  of  management  wisely  determined  at  once  to  throw 
open  the  doors.  A  great  rush  took  place,  and  the  hall,  in  every 
available  part,  became  filled  to  overflowing  in  a  few  minutes.  No 
perceptible  diminution,  however,  was  made  in  the  crowd,  and  at 
half-past  six  there  were  literally  thousands  of  well-dressed  per- 
sons struggling  to  gain  admission,  in  spite  of  the  placards  exhib- 
ited announcing  the  hall  to  be"  quite  full."  The  policemen  and 
hall-keepers  were  powerless  to  contend  against  this  immense 
crowd,  who  ultimately  filled  the  spacious  corridors  and  staircases 
leading  to  the  hall,  still  leaving  an  immense  crowd  both  in  the 
Strand  and  Burleigh  Street.  At  ten  minutes  before  seven  o'clock 
Mr.  B.  Scott,  the  City  Chamberlain,  and  the  chairman  of  the 
meeting,  accompanied  by  a  large  body  of  the  committee  of  the 
Emancipation  Society,  arrived,  but  were  unable  to  make  their 
way  through  the  crowd,  and  a  messenger  was  dispatched  to  the 
Bow  Street  Police  station  for  an  extra  body  of  police.  About 
thirty  of  the  reserve  men  were  immediately  sent,  and  those  aided 
by  the  men  already  on  duty  at  last  succeeded  in  forcing  a  passage 
for  the  chairman  and  his  friends. 

Mr.  Beecher  at  this  time  arrived,  but  was  himself  unable  to 
gain  admittance  to  the  hall  until  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  time 
appointed  for  the  commencement  of  his  address.  He  bore  his 
detention  in  the  crowd  with  great  good  humor,  and  was  rewarded 
with  a  perfect  ovation,  the  crowd  pressing  forward  in  all  direc- 
tions to  shake  hands  with  him.  He  was  at  last  fairly  carried  into 
the  hall  on  the  shoulders  of  the  policemen,  and  the  doors  of  the 
hall  were  at  once  closed,  and  guarded  by  a  body  of  police,  who 
distinctly  announced  that  no  more  persons  would  be  admitted, 
whether  holding  tickets  or  not.  This  had  the  effect  of  thinning 
to  some  extent  the  crowd  outside ;  but  some  two  thousand  or 
more  people  still  remained  eager  to  seize  on  any  chance  of  ad- 
mission that  might  arise.  At  a  quarter-past  seven  a  tremendous 
burst  of   cheers  from   within  the  building  announced   that  Mr. 


SPEECH  IN  LONDON.  573 

Beecher  had  made  his  appearance  on  the  platform.  The  cheer- 
ing was  taken  up  by  the  outsiders,  and  re-echoed  again  and 
again. 

The  bulk  of  the  crowd  had  now  congregated  in  Burleigh  Street, 
which  was  completely  filled,  and  loud  cries  were  raised  for  some 
member  of  the  Emancipation  Committee  to  address  them.  The 
call  was  not  responded  to.  But  several  impromptu  speakers 
mounted  upon  the  shoulders  of  some  workingmen  addressed  the 
people  in  favor  of  the  policy  of  the  North,  and  their  remarks 
were  received  with  loud  cheering  from  the  large  majority  of 
those  present.  One  or  two  speakers  raised  their  voices  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  South,  but  these  were  speedily  dislodged  from 
their  positions  by  the  crowd,  whose  Northern  sympathies  were 
thus  unmistakably  exhibited.  Every  burst  of  cheers  that  re- 
sounded from  within  the  hall  was  taken  up  and  as  heartily  re- 
sponded to  by  those  outside.  Indeed,  they  could  not  have  been 
more  enthusiastic  had  they  been  listening  to  the  lecturer  himself. 
This  scene  continued  without  intermission  until  the  close  of 
the  meeting.  When  Mr.  Beecher  and  his  friends  issued  from 
the  building  they  were  again  received  with  loud  cheers.  A  call 
for  a  cheer  for  Abraham  Lincoln  was  responded  to  with  genuine 
English  heartiness.  During  the  evening  a  large  number  of  pla- 
cards denouncing  in  strong  language  the  President,  the  North, 
and  its  advocates  were  posted  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  hall. 
A  strong  body  of  police  were  stationed  in  the  Strand  and  Bur- 
leigh Street,  but  no  breach  of  the  peace  occurred  calling  for  their 
interference. 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,   LONDON. 

October  23,  1863. 


Between  two  and  three  hundred  gentlemen,  chiefly  ministers  of 
various  denominations,  met  Mr.  Beecher  at  breakfast,  at  Radley's 
Hotel,  upon  the  invitation  of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence 
on  American  Affairs,  for  the  purpose  of  wishing  him  farewell 
prior  to  his  departure  to  the  United  States.  The  chair  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Baptist  W.  Noel. 

The  Chairman  said  that  they  were  met  to  express  their  sympa- 
thy with  the  country  of  which  their  guest  was  a  citizen,  with  the 
Government  which  he  upheld,  and  with  the  great  movement  of 
which  he  was  an  ardent  supporter.  Mr.  Beecher  had  been  for 
manv  years  a  brave  advocate  of  the  oppressed,  a  manly  patriot, 
and  he  had  shown  during  his  stay  in  England  aboldnessnot  easily 
daunted,  and  a  good  temper  that  no  provocation  could  disturb. 
[App/ause.] 

Dr.  F.  Tomkins,  the  secretary  of  the  Committee  of  Correspond- 
ence, read  several  letters  from  gentlemen  who  were  unable  to  be 
present,  but  who  wished  to  express  their  sympathy  with  the  ob- 
jects of  the  meeting. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Waddington  read  an  Address,  portions  of  which 
are  here  given  : — 

To  the  Christian  Church  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher. 

Dear  Brethren,— At  a  very  numerous  assembly  of  ministers  and  other 
Christian  gentlemen,  held  this  morning,  to  bid  your  beloved  pastor  an  af- 
fectionate farewell,  it  was  desired  by  an  unanimous  vote  of  the  meeting 
that  we  should  forward  to  you  the  subjoined  copy  of  an  address  given  on 
the  occasion.     .     .     . 

The  following  is  the  address  adopted  at  the  meeting: — 

"Sir, — I  am  requested  by  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  on  Amer- 
ican Affairs,  to  give  a  brief  but  full  expression  of  the  sentiments  of  fraternal 
regard  we  cherish  toward  our  distinguished  guest,  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  and  to  the  deep  svmpathy  we  feel  for  his  countrymen,  now  suf- 
fering the  innumerable  calamities  of  civil  war.     .     .     . 

"  We  tender  to  Mr.  Beecher  our  warmest  acknowledgments  for  the  serv- 
ice he   has  rendered  to  the   cause  of  truth,  of  right,  and  of  liberty  by  his 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  575 

manliness,  high  moral  courage,  admirable  temper,  clear  intelligence,  sound 
argument,  and,  above  all,  by  the  kindliness  of  his  spirit. 

"  It  is  known  to  us  that  even  those  who  are  opposed  to  war  under  all 
circumstances,  frankly  acknowledge  that  the  tendency  of  Mr.  Beecher's 
public  speeches  in  Manchester,  in  Glasgow,  in  Edinburgh,  in  Liverpool, 
and  pre-eminently  in  London,  has  been  to  produce  in  the  highest  degree 
international  good  will. 

"  He  has  sought  not  to  irritate  but  to  convince.  He  has  administered 
rebuke  with  mingled  fidelity  and  affection.  He  has  been  courteous  without 
servility.  He  has  met  passion  with  patience,  prejudice  with  reason,  and 
blind  hostility  with  glowing  charity.  He  has  cast  the  seed  of  truth  amidst 
the  howling  tempest  with  a  clear  eye  and  a  steady  hand — the  effect  will, 
we  doubt  not,  be  seen  after  many  days.     .     .     . 

"  In  this  cause  we  recognize  in  Mr.  Beecher  a  faithful  witness  and  a  true 
soldier.  From  the  time  that  he  stood  up  as  a  youth  to  plead  in  Indian- 
apolis for  the  liberation  of  those  who  are  in  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage, 
until  he  confronted  his  opponents  in  Liverpool,  he  has  evinced  the  sternest 
fidelity,  the  most  unfaltering  courage,  with  the  most  consummate  skill.  Our 
estimate  of  the  services  he  has  rendered,  is  enhanced  by  the  remembrance 
of  his  forbearance  and  moderation  at  many  a  critical  juncture.  He  urged 
the  claim  of  the  negro  years  ago  against  the  selfishness  of  those  who  would 
exclude  him  from  the  labor  market  in  New  York — and  no  man  has  spoken 
in  more  conciliatory  terms  of  the  misguided  men  of  the  South,  so  long  as 
the  attempt  at  reconciliation,  without  the  sacrifice  of  principle,  seemed  to  be 
possible.  If  the  energy  of  Mr.  Beecher  is  terrible  in  the  hour  of  conflict, 
no  one  knows  better  than  himself  that  'calmness  hath  great  advantage.' 

"  In  the  openness  of  the  rebukes  uttered  by  Mr.  Beecher  in  this  country, 
we  have  the  guaranty  that  he  will  at  home  stand  to  his  testimony  as  to 
what  is  sound  in  the  heart  of  Old  England.     .     . 

"  We  know  that  when  the  telegraph  signals  his  arrival  in  American 
waters  thousands  will  go  out  to  bid  him  welcome,  and  in  their  joyful  salu- 
tations they  will  not  regard  our  testimony  as  impertinent  when  we  say,  that 
no  man  could  have  served  the  cause  we  love  better,  and  that  he  has  said 
nothing  we  could  wish  him  to  retract.  We  adopt  in  conclusion  his  own 
words  on  the  memorable  20th  of  October:  'Let  there  be  one  alliance — if 
not  in  form — yet  of  heart,  sympathy,  and  love  between  parent  and  child — 
for  civil  liberty — for  Christian  civilization — for  the  welfare  of  the  world 
which  yet  groans  and  travails  in  pain,  but  whose  redemption  draweth  nigh.' 

"  With  sentiments  of  fraternal  sympathy  and  the  most  affectionate 
Christian  regard, 

"  We  are,  dear  Brethren,  faithfully  yours, 

"  In  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the  Meeting, 
"BAPTIST  W.  NOEL,  M.A.,  Chairman. 

"  BENJAMIN  SCOTT,  F.R.A.S.,  Chamberlain  of  London,  Treasurer. 
"FREDK.  TOMKINS,  M.A.,  D.C.L.,  Secretary. 
"  JOHN  WADDINGTON,  D.D  ,  Mover  of  the  Address. 

"  Radley's  Hotel,  London,  Oct.  23d,  1863." 


576  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

The  Address  was  carried  by  acclamation,  the  company  standing. 
Mr.  Beecher,  whose  rising  was  the  signal  for  protracted  and 
enthusiastic  cheering,  replied  to  the  address  as  follows  : — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen, — I  propose  this  morning 
to  say  a  good  many  things  on  a  good  many  subjects,  and 
I  am  influenced  in  the  direction  in  which  I  shall  begin  by 
the  request  of  the  esteemed  brother  who  has  been  pleased 
to  honor  me  this  morning,  and  to  confer  a  favor  upon  me 
which  I  shall  never  forget.  \Cheers?[  In  conversation 
with  our  chairman  I  made  some  statements  which  he  said 
would  have  weight  with  you,  and  I  therefore  consented  to 
make  them  again.  That,  gentlemen,  is  my  introduction. 
[Cheers. ~\ 

Now  I  wish  it  to  be  understood  as  a  matter  of  fact  that 
this  Secession  is  rebellion,  even  judged  according  to  the 
principles  and  professions  of  the  South  hitherto.  Let  me 
then  go  back  and  state  generally  that  the  South  as  a  whole 
never  has  believed  in  Secession.  On  the  contrary,  it  has 
been  condemned  again  and  again  in  all  the  Southern 
States  but  one,  and  has  been  only  held  by  a  small  section 
throughout  the  country.  Until  this  rebellion,  in  fact,  it 
has  never  been  held  that  the  Constitution  gives  the  right 
to  a  State  to  secede.  When  the  Convention  of  1787  came 
together  to  amend  the  Articles  of  the  Constitution,  the 
first  thing  they  had  to  do  was  to  ascertain  what  their  own 
power  was,  and  what  was  the  province  of  their  action,  and 
the  question  arose  whether  they  could  proceed  to  institute 
a  national  Government.  That,  I  believe,  was  almost  the 
first  question  brought  before  them.  After  a  good  deal  of 
debate  it  was  determined,  almost  unanimously,  that  they 
should  proceed  to  make  a  national  Government  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  perpetual  Confederation.  And  what  is 
remarkable  is  this,  that  the  proposition  for  a  National  as 
distinguished  from  a  Confederated  Government  was  made 
by  the  delegates  from  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  and  it 
was  opposed  by  Connecticut  and  some  others — I  forget 
which — of  the  Northern  States.  It  was  debated  thor- 
oughly, and  the  Northern  proposition  that  we  should  con- 
tinue a  mere  Confederation  in  perpetuity  was  voted  down 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  S77 

by  an  immense  majority,  and  it  was  voted  in  express 
terms — though  it  does  not  appear  so  verbally  in  our  Con- 
stitution— that  they  should  proceed  to  form  a  National 
Government  in  distinction  from  a  Confederated  Govern- 
ment. After  the  resolution  was  passed  it  was  put — like 
all  the  other  resolutions — into  the  hands  of  what  was 
called  the  revising  committee,  and  they,  as  a  kind  of  ver- 
bal compromise,  introduced  the  present  phraseology,  put- 
ting the  words  "  Union  "  and  "  United  States  "  in  the  place 
of  "  Nation."  The  change  was  unfortunate,  but  it  was 
purely  the  work  of  the  committee  of  revision,  whereas  the 
Convention  themselves  had  voted  the  word  "  Nation." 
And  there  never  was  any  change  in  that  until  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's day;  but  Mr.  Calhoun's  doctrine  was  repudiated  in 
Virginia  and  Georgia,  and,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  in  every 
one  of  the  Southwestern  States  it  was  in  a  minority.  It 
was  also  repudiated  by  our  courts,  and  by  the  national 
Government  itself  it  was  judged  that  nullification  was 
itself  a  nullity.  [Cheers.]  Therefore,  the  South  in  going 
into  rebellion  has  not  been  following  out  a  doctrine  held 
by  it  from  the  first,  but  has  suddenly  reversed  its  own 
principles,  gone  against  the  records  of  its  own  parties,  and 
dragged  in  this  alleged  right  of  a  State  to  secede,  as  a 
mere  excuse,  against  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  [Hear,  hear.']  I  have  the  right  therefore 
to  say  to  you  as  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  as  men  who  be- 
lieve in  the  powers  that  be,  and  in  the  legitimacy  of  unop- 
pressive  governments,  that  this  is  nothing  more  or  less 
than  a  rebellion.     So  much  for  that.     [Cheers.] 

And  now,  my  Christian  brethren,  I  feel  I  have  freedom 
here.  [Rencived  cheers.]  There  are  some  things,  you  know, 
that  one  can  say  in  a  lecture-room  that  one  cannot  say  in 
the  pulpit,  and  there  are  things  which  a  man  can  say  in  a 
social  festival  meeting  of  this  kind  that  he  cannot  say  on  a 
platform  before  a  mingled  audience,  where  he  is  liable  to 
have  a  sentiment  cut  in  two  by  a  hoot  or  a  hiss.  [Laugh- 
ter.] Now  I  want  to  introduce  some  matters  here  that 
would  not  well  suit  a  public  meeting.  I  wish  to  acknowl- 
edge the   many  kind  providences  which  have  attended  me 

37 


578  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

at  every  step  since  I  have  been  in  England.  I  go  home,  not 
for  the  first  time  believing  in  a  special  Providence,  but  to 
be  once  more  a  witness  to  my  people  to  the  preciousness 
and  truth  of  the  doctrine  "God  present  with  us."  In 
ways  unexpected,  and  as  if  the  very  voice  of  God  had 
sounded  in  my  ears,  I  have  been  frequently  assisted 
during  my  sojourn  in  this  country.  When  I  returned 
from  the  Continent  I  had  not  spoken  in  public  during  the 
previous  twenty  weeks.  I  began  my  course  by  addressing 
about  six  thousand  people  in  Manchester.  I  then  went  to 
Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  and  Liverpool.  The  reception  I  met 
with  at  the  latter  town  was  very  different  from  the  "  Wel- 
comes "  of  the  other  centers  of  commerce.  I  did  not  feel 
the  slightest  animosity  towards  the  people  of  Liverpool. 
I  saw  that  those  who  opposed  me  were  merely  partisans. 
\Cheers.~\  I  knew  that  the  people  of  Liverpool  were  on  the 
right  side.  I  remember  that  in  the  midst  of  the  wild  up- 
roar at  the  Liverpool  meeting  I  felt  almost  as  if  a  door  had 
been  thrown  open,  and  a  wind  had  swept  by  me.  I  never 
prayed  more  heartily  in  my  life  than  I  prayed  for  my  op- 
ponents in  the  midst  of  that  hurricane  of  interruption. 
But  it  so  affected  my  voice  that  a  reaction  came  upon 
me  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  and  I  was  almost  speechless 
on  Monday.  I  felt  all  day  on  Monday  that  I  was  coming 
to  London  to  speak  to  a  public  audience  but  my  voice  was 
gone;  and  I  felt  as  though  about  to  be  made  a  derision  to 
my  enemies — to  stand  up  before  a  multitude,  and  be  un- 
able to  say  a  word.  It  would  have  been  a  mortification  to 
anybody's  natural  pride.  I  asked  God  to  restore  me  my 
voice,  as  a  child  would  ask  its  father  to  grant  it  a  favor. 
But  I  hoped  that  God  would  grant  me  His  grace,  to  enable 
me,  if  it  were  necessary  for  the  cause,  that  I  should  be  put 
to  open  shame,  to  stand  up  as  a  fool  before  the  audience. 
When  I  got  up  on  Tuesday  morning,  I  spoke  to  myself  to 
try  whether  I  could  speak  and  my  voice  was  quite  clear. 
[Cheers.~\  Many  might  say  this  was  because  I  slept  in  a 
wet  jacket,  but  I  prefer  to  feel  that  I  had  a  direct  interpo- 
sition in  my  favor.     \Checrs.~\ 

Last  night  I  was  saying  to  myself,  "  I  am  going  among 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  579 

Christian  ministers,  and  I  should  wish  to  represent  to  them 
the  state  of  things  in  New  York,"  when  my  servant 
brought  to  me  a  letter  from  America,  from  the  superin- 
tendent of  my  Sabbath-school — my  dear  friend  Mr.  Bell, 
of  Scotland,  by  the  by,  \laughtef\  but  he  is  a  good  man 
notwithstanding.  [Laughter.]  He  said,  "  It  may  be  that 
you  will  have  occasion  to  refer  to  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee who  inquired  into  the  case  of  the  colored  people 
who  suffered  from  the  riots,"  and  so  he  forwarded  their  re- 
port to  me.  A  gentleman  who  has  been  my  opponent  for 
the  last  sixteen  years — a  gentleman  who,  because  he 
thought  I  was  opposed  to  the  best  interests  of  America, 
hated  me  with  Christian  fervor — \laughter\ — was  appointed 
on  the  committee.  The  testimony  that  he  gave  to  the 
committee  as  to  that  riot  was  that,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  leaders,  it  was  the  work  of  Irishmen.  The  papers,  for 
prudential  reasons,  did  not  put  that  forward  in  New  York. 
It  was  no  more  an  American  riot  than  if  it  had  taken  place 
in  Cork  or  Dublin.  Therefore,  when  misinformed  per- 
sons in  England  say  this  riot  is  a  specimen  of  what  Amer- 
icans can  do,  I  say  it  is  a  specimen  of  what  can  be  done  by 
foreigners,  and  by  ignorance  and  misrepresentation.  Some 
of  the  most  eminent  names  in  New  York  are  on  the  com- 
mittee— many  of  them  devoted  members  of  the  Democratic 
party,  strongly  opposed  to  the  Republican  party  move- 
ment. They  collected  upwards  of  $47,000  for  the  imme- 
diate relief  of  these  poor  blacks.  The  men,  women,  and 
children  who  were  relieved  amounted  to  some  12,000.  A 
committee  was  appointed  at  once  among  the  lawyers  of 
New  York,  who  gratuitously  offered  their  services  to  make 
out  the  claims  of  all  property  of  the  blacks  that  was  de- 
stroyed. There  were  2,000  claimants  who  appeared,  and 
their  case  was  put  into  legal  train  without  any  expense  to 
themselves.  [C/ieers.]  The  aggregate  of  their  claims  in 
the  city  of  New  York  was  $145,000.  The  committee's  re- 
port contains  the  following  account  of  the  martyrdom  of  a 
poor  black  child  during  the  riots: — 

"  Early  in  the  month  of  May  a  boy  of  some  seven  summers  presented  him- 
self for  admission  to  the  Sunday-school  of  the  Church  of  the  Mediator  in 


580  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

this  city.  From  the  first  Sunday  he  was  the  object  of  special  interest  on 
the  part  of  both  his  pastor  and  teacher.  Always  punctual  in  his  attend- 
ance, tidy  in  appearance,  and  eager  to  learn,  he  soon  won  the  affection  of 
all  his  fellows  in  the  infant  class  to  which  he  belonged.  But  though  comely, 
he  was  black.  The  prejudice  which  his  color  excited  amongst  those  of 
meaner  mold  he  quickly  disarmed  by  his  quiet,  respectful,  Christian  man- 
ner. He  was  a  child-Christian.  What  more  lovely  is  there  on  earth ! 
What  more  highly  esteemed  is  there  in  heaven !  Little  did  those  who  thus 
casually  met  him  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  imagine  the  witness  of  suffering 
God  had  purposed  to  perfect  in  him !  At  the  time  of  the  late  riot  he  was 
living  with  an  aged  grandmother  and  widowed  mother  at  No.  — ,  East 
28th  street.  On  Wednesday  morning  of  that  fearful  week  a  crowd  of  ruf- 
fians gathered  in  the  neighborhood,  determined  on  a  work  of  plunder  and 
death.  They  stole  everything  they  could  carry  with  them,  and,  after  threat- 
ening and  affrighting  the  inmates,  set  fire  to  the  house.  The  colored  peo- 
ple, who  had  the  sole  occupancy  of  the  building,  were  forced  in  confusion 
into  the  midst  of  the  gathering  crowd.  And  then  the  child  was  separated 
from  his  guardians.  He  was  alone  among  lions.  But  ordinary  humanity, 
common  decency,  had  exempted  a  child  so  young  anywhere  from  brutality. 
But  no.  No  sooner  did  they  see  his  unprotected,  defenseless  condition 
than  a  company  of  fiendish  men  surrounded  him.  They  seized  him  in  their 
fury,  and  beat  him  with  sticks,  and  bruised  him  with  heavy  cobble-stones. 
But  one,  ten-fold  more  the  servant  of  Satan  than  the  rest,  rushed  at  the 
child,  and  with  the  stock  of  a  pistol  struck  him  on  the  temple  and  felled 
him  to  the  ground.  A  noble  young  fireman — God  bless  the  firemen  for 
their  manly  deeds — a  noble  young  fireman  by  the  name  of  M'Govern  in- 
stantly came  to  the  rescue,  and  single-handed  held  the  crowd  at  bay. 
Taking  the  wounded  and  unconscious  boy  in  his  arms,  he  went  to  the  house 
of  an  American  citizen  close  by  and  asked  to  have  him  received.  But  on 
her  knees  the  woman  begged  him  not  to  leave  the  dying  sufferer  with  her 
'lest  the  mob  should  tear  her  to  pieces.'  It  was  a  suffering  Saviour  in  the 
person  of  His  humblest  child.  Naked  and  wounded,  and  a  stranger,  they 
took  him  not  in.  But  a  kind-hearted  German  woman  made  him  a  sharer  of 
her  poverty.  With  more  than  a  mother's  care  did  she  nurse  the  forsaken  one. 
A  physician  was  called,  and  both  night  and  day  she  faithfully  watched  over 
the  bed  of  him  outcast  from  his  brethren.  Our  hearts  bless  her  for  her 
goodness  to  our  child.  By  name  she  is  as  yet  unknown,  but  by  her  deeds 
well  known  and  well  beloved.  His  distracted  mother  found  her  cherished 
boy  in  these  kind  hands.  And  when  she  saw  him  in  the  earnest  simplicity 
of  her  spirit  she  kneeled  in  prayer  to  thank  God  for  the  fulfillment  of  His 
promise.  'God  hath  taken  him  up.'  The  lad  lingered  until  Thursday 
evening,  when  the  Saviour  released  him  from  his  sufferings;  and  'the  child 
was  caught  up  to  God  and  the  throne.'  This  is  the  pastor's  memorial  to 
little  Joseph  Reed,  a  martyr  by  the  brutality  and  inhumanity  of  men,  to  the 
cause  of  law,  and  order,  and  right.  A  tablet  to  his  memory  shall  be  placed 
on  the  walls  of  the  Sunday-school  room  to  which  he  loved  to  come.  Those 
who  were  kind  to  him  we  count  as  benefactors  to  us.     May  the  God  of  all 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  581 

grace  richly  reward  them  with  the  blessings  of  His  love.  Buried  on  earth 
without  prayer,  but  with  praises  welcomed  in  Heaven,  the  chosen  loved 
child  of  the  family,  '  Joseph,  is  not.'  " 

The  colored  people  sent  in  their  thanks  to  the  committee. 
There  are  blacks  who  can  write  as  beautiful  English  as  the 
white  people  of  America,  and  amongst  the  blacks  there 
are  men  as  high-minded  as  any  to  be  found  among  white 
men.  Some  people  have  said  that  blacks  are  the  con- 
necting link  between  monkeys  and  white  men.  Well, 
if  monkeys  have  endowments  such  as  I  have  seen  in  black 
men,  all  I  can  say  is,  that  it  is  time  to  begin  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  monkeys.  \Laughter^\  Take  as  an  example  of 
their  intelligence  the  following  address: — 

"Gentlemen,  we  have  learned  that  you  have  decided  this  day  to  bring  to 
a  close  the  general  distribution  of  the  funds  so  liberally  contributed  by  the 
merchants  of  New  York  and  others  for  the  relief  of  the  colored  sufferers 
of  the  late  riots,  which  have  recently  disgraced  our  city.  We  cannot  in 
justice  to  our  feelings  permit  your  benevolent  labors  to  terminate,  even 
partially,  without  offering  some  expression  of  our  sincere  gratitude  to  the 
Universal  Father  for  inspiring  your  hearts  with  that  spirit  of  kindness  of 
which  we  have  been  the  recipients  during  the  severe  trials  and  persecutions 
through  which  we  have  passed.  When  in  the  pursuit  of  our  peaceful  and 
humble  occupations  we  had  fallen  among  thieves,  who  stripped  us  of  our  rai- 
ment and  had  wounded  us,  leaving  many  of  us  half  dead,  you  had  compassion 
on  us.  You  bound  up  our  wounds,  and  poured  in  the  oil  and  wine  of 
Christian  kindness,  and  took  care  of  us.  You  hastened  to  express  your  sym- 
pathy for  those  whose  fathers,  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers  had  been  tortured 
and  murdered.  You  also  comforted  the  aching  hearts  of  our  widowed  sis- 
ters, and  soothed  the  sorrows  of  orphan  children.  We  were  hungry  and 
you  fed  us.  We  were  thirsty  and  you  gave  us  drink.  We  were  made  as 
strangers  in  our  own  homes  and  you  kindly  took  us  in.  We  were  naked 
and  you  clothed  us.  We  were  sick  and  you  visited  us.  We  were  in  prison 
and  you  came  to  us.  Gentlemen,  this  generation  of  our  people  will  not, 
cannot, forget  the  dreadful  scenes  to  which  we  allude,  nor  will  they  forget 
the  noble  and  spontaneous  exhibition  of  charity  which  they  excited.  The 
former  will  be  referred  to  as  one  of  the  dark  chapters  of  our  history  in  the 
Empire  State  and  the  latter  will  be  remembered  as  a  bright  and  glorious 
page  in  the  records  of  the  past.  In  the  light  of  public  opinion  we  feel  our- 
selves to  be  among  the  least  in  this  our  native  land,  and  we  therefore 
earnestly  pray  that  in  the  last  great  day  the  King  may  say  to  you  and  to  all 
who  have  befriended  us,  '  Inasmuch  as  you  have  done  it  to  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren  you  have  done  it  unto  me  ;  come,  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of 


582  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  world.'  But  as  great  as  have  been  the  benefits  that  we  have  received 
from  your  friendly  and  unlooked  for  charity,  they  yet  form  but  the  smaller 
portion  of  the  ground  of  our  gratitude  and  pleasure.  We  have  learned  by 
your  treatment  of  us  in  these  days  of  our  mental  and  physical  affliction 
that  you  cherished  for  us  a  kindly  and  humane  feeling  of  which  we  had  no 
knowledge.  You  did  not  hesitate  to  come  forward  to  our  relief  amid  the 
threatened  destruction  of  your  own  lives  and  property.  You  obeyed  the 
noblest  dictates  of  the  human  heart,  and  by  your  generous  moral  courage 
you  rolled  back  the  tide  of  violence  that  had  well  nigh  swept  us  away. 
This  ever  memorable  and  magnanimous  exhibition  of  heroism  has  had  the 
effect  to  enlarge  in  our  bosoms  the  sentiment  of  undying  regard  and  esteem 
for  you  and  yours.  In  time  of  war  or  peace,  in  prosperity  or  in  adversity, 
you  and  our  great  State  and  our  beloved  country  may  count  us  among 
your  faithful  friends,  and  the  proffer  of  our  labors  and  our  lives  shall  be 
our  pleasure  and  our  pride.  If  in  your  temporary  labors  of  Christian 
philanthropy,  you  have  been  induced  to  look  forward  to  our  future  destiny 
in  this  our  native  land,  and  to  ask  what  is  the  best  thing  we  can  do  for  the 
colored  people — this  is  our  answer.  Protect  us  in  our  endeavors  to  obtain 
an  honest  living.  Suffer  no  one  to  hinder  us  in  any  department  of  well- 
directed  industry,  give  us  a  fair  and  open  field,  and  let  us  work  out  our  own 
destiny,  and  we  ask  no  more.  We  cannot  conclude  without  expressing  our 
gratification  at  the  manner  in  which  the  arduous  and  perplexing  duties  of 
your  office  have  been  conducted  ;  we  shall  never  forget  the  Christian  and 
gentlemanly  bearing  of  your  esteemed  secretary,  Mr.  Vincent  Colver,  who 
on  all  occasions  impressed  even  the  humblest  with  the  belief  that  he  knew 
and  felt  he  was  dealing  with  a  crushed  and  heart-broken  people.  We  also 
acknowledge  the  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  that  has  characterized  the 
conduct  of  all  the  gentlemen  in  the  office  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties. 
We  desire  likewise  to  acknowledge  the  valuable  services  contributed  by  the 
gentlemen  of  the  legal  profession,  who  have  daily  been  in  attendance  at  the 
office  to  make  out  the  claims  of  the  sufferers  free  of  charge.  In  the  name  of 
the  people  we  return  thanks  to  all.  In  conclusion,  permit  us  to  assure  you 
that  we  will  never  cease  to  pray  to  God  for  your  prosperity,  and  that  of 
every  donor  to  the  Relief  Fund.  Also  for  the  permanent  peace  of  our 
country,  based  upon  liberty,  and  the  enjoyment  of  man's  inalienable  rights, 
for  the  preservation  of  the  American  Union,  and  for  the  reign  of  that  right- 
eousness in  the  hearts  of  the  people  that  saves  from  reproach  and  exalteth 
the  nation." 

Let  this  document  be  an  answer  to  the  harsh  things  that 
some  people  have  said  of  the  colored  people  in  New  York. 
I  regard  my  reception  of  this  document  last  night  as  provi- 
dential, because  it  reached  me  just  in  time  to  read  to  this 
meeting.  [Cheers.]  I  should  have  wished,  had  the  time 
permitted,  to  make  a  statement  respecting  what  is  doing 
for  the  freed  colored  people  in  South  Carolina,  and  in  and 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  583 

about  Norfolk.  I  have  a  son  in  the  army,  who  has  had 
an  opportunity  of  seeing  something  in  that  respect.  In 
schools,  attended  by  thousands  of  colored  people,  adult 
and  young,  education  is  given  without  fee  orreward  by 
highly  educated  and  pious  men  and  women.  My  son  has 
narrated  to  me  many  beautiful  testimonies  of  the  piety  of 
the  old  colored  people  who  attend  these  schools,  and  the 
great  interest  they  take  in  the  education  of  the  young 
colored  people.  One  old  colored  saint  with  white  hair 
made  some  remarks  to  him  which  struck  me  very  much. 
He  said,  "  We  shall  never  get  any  good  by  this  education, 
massa;  we  expect  to  suffer  as  long  as  we  live;  but  our 
children  will  get  the  benefit  of  this  education."  Now, 
think  of  this  old  saint  having  passed  his  life  in  slavery, 
and  being  in  a  position  in  which,  had  his  master  lived,  he 
would  have  had  a  refuge  for  his  old  age.  Think  of  him 
now  thrown  out  in  his  old  age,  in  a  state  of  liberty,  it  is 
true,  but  with  powers  ill  qualified  to  use  it,  saying,  "  We 
have  been  praying  for  this  all  our  lives,  and  now  our  chil- 
dren are  going  to  get  it."     [C/iccrs.] 

I  cannot  go  into  details  respecting  the  state  of  the  freed- 
men  along  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi;  but  I  may  say 
this  comprehensively,  that  the  churches  of  the  North  are 
taking  up  their  burden  and  awakening  to  their  duty. 
They  understand  what  is  required  of  them,  and  are  deter- 
mined not  to  let  the  men  come  out  of  slavery  and  feel  that 
they  are  worse  off  than  when  they  were  in  it.  I  don't  pre- 
tend to  say  that  our  people  have  not  made  mistakes  and 
blunders;  but,  judging  by  the  ordinary  manner  in  which 
persons  in  difficult  circumstances  conduct  themselves,  I  do 
say  that  the  Christian  churches  in  America  of  all  denomi- 
nations are  stirred  up  by  the  spirit  of  their  Master  to  do 
their  duty  to  the  colored  men  of  the  North  and  South. 
\Cheers.~\ 

I  now  proceed  to  another  topic  that  is  very  pleasant  to 
me.  I  want  you  to  see  how  American  Christians  and 
ministers  have  felt  during  the  whole  of  this  war.  I  have 
here  an  immense  amount  of  matter — [spreading  out  a 
number  of  printed  sheets  and  cuttings  from  newspapers  on 


584  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  table] — and  if  you  don't  believe  me,  I  will  read  it  all 
to  you.  [Laughter.]  I  shall  first  read  extracts  from  the 
reports  of  various  ecclesiastical  bodies  in  America  in  1861, 
the  first  yaar  of  the  war.  I  have  not  packed  or  garbled 
them — indeed,  they  have  not  been  put  together  by  me,  but 
by  a  friend  in  Manchester.  I  may  read  perhaps  those 
which  are  least  to  the  point;  but  I  want  you  to  see  what 
has  been  the  feeling  of  our  Christian  churches.  I  also 
want  to  show  you  another  thing.  Many  of  you  are  op- 
posed to  war.  [Hear,  hear.']  Now  I  must  say  that  for  any 
Englishmen  to  be  opposed  on  principle  to  war  is  a  greater 
mark  of  sincerity  and  frankness  than  anything  I  know  of. 
[Laughter.]  You  Englishmen  are  always  fighting.  Why, 
3^ou  have  two  wars  on  hand  now,  and  I  hardly  know  the 
time  when  you  have  not  had  one.  The  testimony  there- 
fore of  those  of  you  who  are  opposed  to  war  is  worthy  of 
double  attention.  [Hear,  and  laughter.]  But  really  you 
talk  to  us  in  America  about  war  as  though  it  were  just  as 
pleasant  to  us  as  a  summer  by  the  sea-side;  as  though  it 
were  nothing  to  us  to  have  our  sons  killed,  or  brought 
home  wounded  or  maimed,  or  to  have  a  widow  coming 
home  to  her  father's  house  with  her  helpless  children. 
Some  people  seem  to  think  that  the  North  is  in  such  a  sav- 
age fury,  that  nothing  tickles  them  more  than  to  hear  of  the 
slaughter  of  3,000  or  4,000  men.  Oh,  gentlemen,  war  is 
more  terrible  by  far  than  anything  which  comes  home  to 
you.  [Hear,  hear.]  You,  who  send  armies  to  China  to 
fight,  or  to  the  Continent,  do  not  see  what  war  is.  Let 
war  ravage  your  own  island, — let  it  come  upon  London, 
and  penetrate  into  your  own  homes,  while  the  wounded  and 
maimed  are  lying  around  you  on  every  side,  or  brought 
into  your  houses, — then  you  will  realize  what  war  is.  Do 
you  suppose,  brethren,  that  we  love  the  war  for  itself  ?  Do 
you  suppose  that  anything  but  the  very  strongest  principle 
could  lead  us  to  submit  to  it  ?  [Hear,  hear.]  I  do  not  wish 
you  to  accept  these  statements  on  my  testimony,  but  will 
read  to  you  a  few  extracts  which  will  show  you  how  these 
matters  were  talked  about  in  1861.  The  following  is  from 
the  report  adopted  by  Ripley  Presbytery: — 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  585 

"  More  than  two  hundred  years  have  passed  away  since  the  buying  and 
selling  of  human  beings  as  property  commenced  in  this  country,  and  the 
slave  trade  was  allowed  to  be  continued  twenty  years  after  the  formation 
of  the  National  Constitution.  What  a  system  of  murder!  What  multi- 
tudes have  been  murdered  in  procuring  slaves  in  Africa!  How  vast  the 
number  that  died  in  the  passage  to  this  country!  How  much  death  has 
been  occasioned  by  change  of  climate,  by  excessive  labor,  by  starvation,  and 
by  direct  violence  and  cruel  scourging !  Have  not  millions  of  human  be- 
ings suffered  death  in  the  most  horrible  forms,  under  the  operation  of  the 
systeni  of  slavery  in  this  country  during  the  last  200  years  ?  Does  not  the 
blood  of  millions  lie  upon  this  nation  ?  " 

The  report  goes  on  to  make  an  attack  on  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  and  to  enunciate  the  obligation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  protect  the  four  millions  or  more  of  colored 
people,  and  to  secure  their  rights  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution.     It  then  says: — 

"  We  now  enter  our  solemn  protest  against  all  compromises  with  the  mon- 
strous system  of  oppression  existing  in  the  slaveholding  States,  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  barbarous  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  the  giving  of  aid  in  any 
form  to  the  system  of  slavery." 

The  following  is  from  the  report  of  the  Maine  Confer- 
ence in  May,  1861  (after  Mr.  Lincoln's  call  for  armed  sup- 
port):— 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  not  cease  to  pray  that  Divine  wisdom  may  guide 
our  rulers — that  the  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth  may  give  success  to  our  arms 
and  establish  the  right — that  our  sons  and  brothers  who  have  so  nobly  re- 
sponded to  the  call  of  their  country  in  this  hour  of  peril,  may  be  under  His 
peculiar  care — that  we  will  supplicate  God  to  interpose,  to  overrule,  that 
these  trying  events  may  speedily  result  in  permanent  peace — the  liberation 
of  the  enslaved,  and  the  '  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound.'  " 

I  turn  now  to  the  session  of  the  General  Association 
held  in  Indianapolis,  my  old  home.  I  will  give  only  one 
resolution: — 

"Resolved,  That  as  Christian  men,  having  a  living  faith  in  the  superin- 
tending providence  of  Almighty  God,  we  recommend  the  churches  to  be 
more  instant  in  prayer  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Government,  the  integrity 
of  the  Union,  the  perpetuity  of  those  principles  of  liberty  upon  which  it  is 
founded,  not  forgetting  those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,  and  especially 
for  the  preservation  and  spiritual  welfare  of  those  who  have  volunteered  in 
defense  of  their  country." 

Now  I  turn  to  the  General  Association  of  Congrega- 
tional churches  of  Illinois: — 


5S6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

"Resolved,  That  as  the  war  is  but  the  ripe  and  bitter  fruit  of  slavery,  we 
trust  the  American  people  will  demand  that  it  shall  result  in  relieving  our 
country  entirely  and  forever  of  that  sin  and  curse,  that  the  future  of  our 
nation  may  never  again  be  darkened  by  a  similar  night  of  treason." 

Then  follows  a  resolution  urging  the  churches  to  attend 
to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  army.  Here  is  a  resolution 
from  the  Welsh  Congregational  Churches: — 

"Resolved,  That  wo  hope  and  pray  that  God  in  Mis  wise  and  beneficent 
providence  may  overrule  the  present  disturbances  in  our  country  to  hasten 
the  overthrow  of  slavery,  which  disgraces  our  land  and  threatens  the  exist- 
ence ot  our  Government." 

One  from  Pennsylvania: — 

"Resolved,  That  we  regard  the  war  in  which  our  country  is  now  engaged 
as  a  conflict  between  freedom  and slavery,  and  the  advocates  of  slavery  have 
tendered  the  issue,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  friends  of  liberty  both  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  State,  to  accept  the  issue  directly  and  give  it  the  promi- 
nence before  God  and  the  world   that  rightfully  belongs  to  it." 

These  resolutions,  you  will  mark,  were  all  passed  before 
the  proclamation  of  emancipation.  The  following  is  from  the 
General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches  in  New 
York:— 

"Whereas,  the  immediate  occasion  of  this  rebellion  and  its  fomenting 
spirit  was  the  determination  of  its  leaders  to  secure  and  perpetuate  the  system 
of  slavery:  and,  whereas,  there  can  be  no  guaranty  of  peace  and  prosperity 
in  the  Union  while  slavery  exists, — therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  we  rejoice  in  every  act  and  declaration  of  the  Govern- 
ment that  brings  freedom  to  any  of  the  enslaved,  and  earnestly  hope  for 
some  definite  and  reliable  measure  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  the  conclu- 
sion of  this  great  conflict  for  the  support  of  the  Government  and  the  Union. 

"Whereas,  in  His  good  providence  God  has  opened  the  way  for  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  enslaved  in  this  land,  either  by  the  instructions  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  military  commanders  to  enfranchise  all  slaves  within  their 
several  districts,  or  by  general  proclamation  of  the  President,  or  by  Act  of 
(  'ingress  under  the  state  of  war, — therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  our  duty  as  Christian  patriots  in  all  proper  ways 
to  urge  this  measure  upon  the  attention  of  the  Government,  and  to  pray  for 
its  consummation,  lest  the  condemnation  of  those  who  knew  their  duty  to 
the  poor  and  oppressed,  and  did  it  not,  should  be  visited  upon  the  nation." 

I  read  this  to  show  you  that  while,  on  the  one  hand,  they 
were  conscious  of  their  obligations  to  the  Government  and 
nation,  they  had  also  their  convictions  of  humanity  towards 
the  oppressed.      [If ear,  /tear.]     In  1S62,  these  deliverances 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  587 

became  stronger  and  clearer  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  Then  we  come  to  1863,  and  first  I  will 
refer  to  the  report  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church — the 
most  immovable  church  in  the  world.  They  come  out, 
however,  in  a  most  unmistakable  manner.  The  Methodist 
Church  has  covered  itself  with  perpetual  honor — thanks 
be  to  God  for  their  fidelity.  Page  after  page  of  their  re- 
ports is  made  up  of  resolutions  on  the  subject  full  of  clear 
instructions  as  to  Christian  duty.  Here  is  the  testimony 
of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union: — 

"Resolved,  That  the  developments  of  the  year  since  elapsed,  in  connec- 
tion with  this  attempt  to  destroy  the  best  government  on  earth,  have  tended 
onlv  to  deepen  our  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  sentiments  which  we  then 
expressed,  and  which  we  now  and  here  solemnly  reiterate  and  re-affirm. 

"Resolved,  That  the  authors,  aiders,  and  abettors,  of  this  slaveholders'  re- 
bellion, in  their  desperate  efforts  to  nationalize  the  institution  of  slavery,  and 
to  extend  its  despotic  sway  throughout  the  land,  have  themselves  inflicted  on 
that  institution  a  series  of  most  terrible  and  fatal  and  suicidal  blows,  from 
which  we  believe  it  can  never  recover,  and  they  have  themselves  thus  fixed 
its  destiny  and  hastened  its  doom  ;  and  that,  for  thus  overruling  what  ap- 
peared at  first  to  be  a  terrible  national  calamity,  to  the  production  of  re- 
sults so  unexpected  and  glorious,  our  gratitude  and  adoration  are  due  to 
that  wonder-working  God,  who  still  '  maketh  the  wrath  of  men  to  praise 
him,  while  the  remainder  of  that  wrath  he  restrains.' — Psalm  76,  verse  10." 

And  there  is  much  more  to  the  same  purpose.  Then  I 
have  one  from  Vermont,  and  one  from  Maine,  which  is 
scarcely  cold  yet.  [Hear,  hear.~\  It  is  a  most  honorable  utter- 
ance, drawn  up  I  think  by  Dr.  Dwight,  of  Portland,  a  de- 
scendant of  the  honorable  and  well-known  Dr.  Dwisfht. 
But  I  will  not  read  all  these  documents,  which  are,  however, 
quite  at  your  service,  if  you  wish  to  inspect  them.  I  have 
not  counted  them,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  two  hun- 
dred of  them,  and  if  you  read  them  all  you  would  say  there 
were  a  thousand.  [Laughter  and  cheers.']  I  seek  by  this 
not  so  much  to  make  an  argument  as,  what  is  better  a 
great  deal,  to  produce  in  you  the  moral  conviction  that 
the  American  churches,  under  great  difficulties,  having 
been  involved  in  a  trying  crisis,  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion, through  their  representatives,  that  this  rebellion 
ought  to  be  crushed,  and  that  slavery  should  be  destroyed 
with    the  rebellion.     I    have    not    seen    Dr.    Massie,  but  I 


588  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

know  that  now  he  has  been  to  America,  and  seen  there 
things  with  his  own  eyes,  he  is  prepared  to  come  to  the 
same  conclusion.  I  know  that  he  is  an  honest  man,  and  I 
am  sure  that  an  honest  man  could  come  to  no  other. 
[Hear,  hear.] 

And  now  it  is  not  a  question  with  us  whether  this  war 
should  stop.  We  are  not  going  to  stop  this  war,  whatever 
you  do.  You  have  not — let  me  say — stood  up  for  us  so 
strongly  for  the  last  two  or  three  years  that  you  can  influ- 
ence us  now  to  stop  the  war.  [Hear,  and  laughter ^\  I 
don't  pretend  to  say  that,  considering  your  own  difficulties, 
you  have  not  taken  the  right  path.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  see  a 
great  many  things  in  your  internal  affairs  here  in  England 
that  I  was  not  aware  of  before.  We  thought  that  you  were 
all  well-informed  on  this  question,  and  that  you  sat  in  your 
ease  and  arrogance — allow  me  to  say  what  I  would  say  in 
the  States — and  that  having  thus  settled  your  principles 
you  refused  to  make  an  application  of  them  to  the  States 
which  needed  them  more  than  any  other  country  in  the 
world.  [Cheers.]  Now,  I  find  that  you  are  far  from  well- 
informed,  and  it  is  a  great  comfort  to  me  to  know  that 
your  conduct  has  not  all  arisen  from  depravity.  I  shall  go 
back  and  say,  "  You  must  not  think  that  England  simply 
refused  to  bear  witness  to  her  own  principles.  She  is  yet 
in  the  battle  herself  about  this  question,  not  as  to  slavery, 
but  as  to  her  own  institutions,  and  if  she  had  borne  wit- 
ness, as  some  of  her  people  would  have  done,  it  would  have 
created  a  party  movement."  I  shall  not  discuss  whether 
there  was  not  higher  ground  to  take  than  this,  and  whether 
England  should  not  have  risen  in  the  providence  of  God 
and  occupied  it,  but  you  are  men,  and  we  are  men,  and  we 
are  glad  to  find  a  reason  for  not  being  angry  with  you. 
[Cheers.]  This  has  been  our  feeling  in  the  past,  and  it  has 
been  unlike  a  common  national  feeling.  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  uneducated  and  passionate  men  have  their  preju- 
dices and  bitternesses,  while  the  intelligent  classes  have 
their  better  opinions  and  judgments.  But  it  has  been  the 
reverse  with  us.  Those  that  have  felt  the  most  grief  and 
indignation  with  England  have  been  just  the  educated  and 


FAREWELL  BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  589 

Christian  public,  who  have  felt,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
that  England  has  been  selfishly  cold  and  cruel.  I  don't 
intend  to  say  whether  that  has  been  your  state  or  not.  I 
am  not  here  to  make  a  case  against  you.  I  am  a  Christian 
amongst  Christians.  I  am  for  doing  what  will  unite  us,  if 
we  have  not  been  united  before,  [cheers]  and  what  will  keep 
our  countries  together  in  Christian  fellowship.  [Renewed 
cheers.]  And  somebody  ought  to  tell  you  this;  a  great 
many  would  think  it,  and  would  not  have  grace  to  say  it 
plainly  to  you.  [Hear.]  But  God  has  strengthened  me 
to  speak  my  mind  to  you,  dear  Christian  brethren,  and  to 
tell  you,  that,  so  far  as  your  influence  has  gone  hitherto,  it 
has  all  been  against  liberty  and  for  slavery.  I  do  not  mean 
that  that  is  what  you  meant,  but  I  do  say  that  was  the 
effect  of  your  conduct  in  America.  From  one  cause  or 
another,  unfortunately,  the  moral  influence  of  Christians 
in  England,  with  individual  exceptions  which  I  live  to  re- 
member, has  been  on  the  side  of  slavery  and  against  those 
who  were  struggling  to  put  it  down.  Now  I  know  that  in 
such  an  hour  as  this,  and  in  the  presence  of  Christ,  who  is 
in  our  midst,  you  will  receive  such  a  statement  from  me  in 
the  same  spirit  as  I  make  it.  [Cheers.]  I  know  that  you 
will  give  this  subject  your  consideration, — that  you  will 
revise  your  opinions,  if  need  be,  and  not  allow  yourselves 
to  be  influenced  by  a  commercial  bias,  nor  by  unscrupulous 
papers.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  wish  you  to  understand  how  much 
harm  has  been  done  on  our  side,  too,  by  "the  copper- 
smith." [Hear,  hear.]  I  beg  of  you  to  examine  this  ques- 
tion of  duty  to  God's  people — of  duty  to  God.  Yea,  I  will 
humble  myself  for  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  fellowship  of 
the  body  of  Christ,  and  beg  of  you  for  your  sakes  to  ex- 
amine this  fairly.  We  wish  not  to  be  separated  from  the 
English  people.  [Loud  cheers.]  We  want  to  see  the  old 
links  rubbed  brighter.      [Renewed  cheers.] 

Let  me  tell  you,  however,  we  cannot  stop  this  war — not 
if  you  were  to  line  our  shores  with  fleets,  which  I  know 
you  will,  not  do;  not  if  you  were  to  fill  Canada  with  your 
armies,  which  I  know  you  will  not;  not  if  you  remain  still 
indifferent  or  adverse.     That  would   make   no  difference; 


59°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

but  is  there  not  to  be  unity  between  the  Christians  of 
England  and  America  ?  [C/iters.]  You  say  that  we  have 
retorted  upon  you,  and  said  bitter  things.  Do  you  recollect 
that  wonderful  passage  in  Scott's  "Antiquary,"  where  a 
certain  hero  had  lost  his  son  and  was  next  morning  found 
by  the  Antiquary  engaged  in  a  work  on  which,  having  met 
with  insuperable  difficulties,  he  vented  his  grief  and  rage, 
although  it,  of  course,  was  in  no  respect  to  blame?  [Ifear, 
and  laughter. ,]  How  natural  a  thing  it  is  to  vent  our  impa- 
tience and  grief  upon  our  own  property  or  upon  our  own 
friend.  And  when  we  had  seen  our  children  slaughtered — 
Oh!  what  noble  children  have  fallen  in  this  war — what  tears 
have  fallen  from  us  day  and  night, — and  when  we  found 
treachery  in  the  Government  and  on  every  side,  we  did 
hope  to  have  received  some  sympathy;  but  instead  of  that, 
the  wind  that  came  from  England  was  as  cold  as  Green- 
land; and  if,  when  we  were  disappointed,  we  said  bitter 
things  of  England,  because  we  loved  her  and  expected  her 
to  support  freedom,  may  God  forgive  us!      [Cheers.] 

You  will  ask  me  what  can  be  done.  Well,  in  the  first 
place,  let  me  say,  dear  Christian  brethren,  that  I  thank  you 
very  much  for  the  kind  things  you  have  said  and  done  for 
me.  But  I  certainly  would  feel  it  to  be  a  thousand  times 
better,  if  every  Christian  minister  and  Christian  brother 
would  consent,  as  the  result  of  my  importunity,  to  open 
this  matter  on  his  knees  before  God.  I  have  great  faith  in 
the  guiding  spirit  of  God.  I  do  not  believe  he  will  allow 
his  dear  people  of  England  to  go  wrong  on  this  question. 
Then,  next,  I  ask  you  to  remember  us  in  your  prayers.  I 
do  not  mean  in  those  circuitous  ubiquities  that  take  in 
everybody  and  everything.  But  I  ask  you  to  pray  for  the 
North  as  for  those  that  you  believe  to  be  doing  a  great 
work  for  God.  Pray  for  the  North  as  you  would  have 
prayed  for  the  Covenanters,  for  the  old  Nonconformists, 
for  the  old  Puritans,  for  Christians  in  any  age  whose  duty 
it  became  to  resist  unrighteousness,  corruption,  and  wrong. 
Pray  for  them  as  for  men  in  that  dark  trouble  in  which 
God  frequently  leaves  His  people  before  the  daylight  comes 
and  the  glory  of  victory  is  showered   down  upon  them. 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  591 

[Cheers.]  But  when  the  trumpet  sounds  for  peace,  and 
what  are  left  of  us  are  gathered  together,  and  there  are  to 
be  congratulations,  and,  as  it  were,  divisions  of  God's 
spoils,  I  do  not  want  that  you  should  be  left  out.  I  desire 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  misinformation  regarding 
this  conflict  3,000  miles  off,  for  the  future  there  may  be  no 
possible  mistake — that  there  will  be  eye  to  eye,  heart  to 
heart,  and  hand  to  hand.  We  of  the  North  represent  your 
civilization.  In  the  South,  now  seeking  to  become  inde- 
pendent, there  is  not  a  point  of  sympathy  that  can  attach 
her  to  England,  [/fear,  hear.]  If  the  North  prevail  in  this 
conflict,  and  the  Union  be  restored,  there  is  not  one  single 
point  of  religion  and  civilization  in  the  whole  cyclopoedia 
of  English  attainments  honorable,  noteworthy,  and  world- 
renowned,  which  would  not  find  something  corresponding 
thereto  among  us. 

This  train  of  remark  might  be  indefinitely  continued,  but 
it  is  unnecessary.  I  shall  go  home  certainly  with  a  much 
lighter  heart  than  if  I  had  not  spoken  in  England,  and  had 
not  through  my  labor  here — too  brief  for  my  own  comfort 
— been  permitted  to  see  so  much  of  the  interior  and  better 
feeling  of  so  many  Christians  in  England.  Before  I  sit 
down  let  me  say  that  I  would  name  all  those  honorable 
names — John  Stuart  Mill,  Professors  Cairnes,  Goldwin 
Smith  and  Newman,  Baptist  Noel,  Newman  Hall,  and 
other  well-known  and  honored  names — I  would  name  them 
all  but  that  there  are  so  many  whom  I  would  wish  to 
thank,  whose  names  I  either  do  not  know  or  have  forgotten, 
that  if  I  were  to  try  and  enumerate  those  who  have  done 
us  good  and  Christian  service,  I  should  do  injustice  to 
many.  And  for  the  same  reason  I  will  not  mention  the 
papers  and  magazines  that  have  been  towers  of  strength 
to  us.  Yet  we  will  remember  them;  and  the  day  will  ar- 
rive, I  trust,  when  those  who  have  labored  for  us  in  ad- 
versity will  come  to  our  shores,  and  we  will  treat  them  so 
well  that  you  never  shall  see  them  back  again.  [Loud 
and  prolonged  applause. ,] 

Several  of  the  gentlemen  present  made  brief  and  cordial  re- 
marks, when  Mr.  Beecher  said  that  a  question   in   writing  had 


592  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

been  handed  up  to  him  from  a  highly  esteemed  minister  to  this 
effect,  "  What  is  to  be  the  end  of  this ;  is  it  to  be  a  war  of  exter- 
mination ?  "  "  Now,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  "  I  am  glad  of  this  ques- 
tion. So  long  as  there  is  a  fraction  of  hope  on  the  part  of  the 
South  that  the  core  cannot  be  reached,  it  will  form  a  center  of 
cohesion  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  conviction  enters  their  mind  that 
slavery  must  come  to  an  end,  they  will  dissolve  in  that  very  hour. 
We  have  to  go  on  righting,  until  this  conviction  is  produced. 
You  talk  of  extermination !  Well,  the  South  has  lost  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  out  of  a  population  of  five  millions  of 
white  men.  You  might  as  well  say  that  a  father  is  killing  his  son 
when  he  strikes  him  one  or  two  blows  as  a  punishment.  The 
North  is  not  trying  to  carry  moral  conviction  by  force,  but  it  is 
trying  to  uphold  the  Government  and  to  put  down  a  wild  attempt 
to  destroy  it.  We  are  trying  by  legitimate  warfare  to  produce  an 
impression  that  the  struggle  on  behalf  of  slavery  is  hopeless  ;  and 
let  me  say,  that  when  men  here  cry  '  Stop  the  war,'  when  such 
cry  reaches  America,  it  means  '  Let  the  South  have  its  own  way.'  " 
{Hear,  Itear.] 

Another  written  question,  the  purport  of  which  was  whether 
the  tariff  was  no  ground  of  Secession,  was  handed  to  Mr.  Beecher, 
who  replied,  "  Certainly  not ;  if  any  man  in  American  were  to 
say  that  the  tariff  had  anything  to  do  with  this  Secession  we 
should  put  him  in  a  lunatic  asylum."     [Cheers  and  laughter^ 

After  other  interesting  interchanges  and  remarks,  Mr.  George 
Thompson  moved  the  following  resolution  : — 

"  That  this  meeting  of  Christian  ministers  and  Christian  laymen,  as- 
sembled to  testify  their  respect,  admiration,  and  esteem  for  the  character 
and  anti-slaverv  labor  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  having  listened 
with  the  deepest  interest  to  his  important  statements,  and  wise  and  weighty 
counsel,  desire  to  tender  to  him  their  warmest  thanks  for  the  faithfulness, 
affection,  and  fervor  with  which  he  has  addressed  them.  They  would 
testify  to  the  importance  and  timeliness  of  his  recent  public  speeches,  and 
while  regretting  that  he  cannot  remain  to  render  additional  service  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  freedom  in  this  country,  would  wish  him  God-speed  on 
his  return  to  his  native  land,  and  would  assure  him  that  they  in  future  will 
cherish  an  affectionate  remembrance  of  his  short  but  truly  friendly  and 
most  useful  visit." 

He  felt  peculiar  pleasure  in  submitting  that  resolution.  He  had 
been  permitted  on  three  occasions  to  listen  to  their  guest,  and  he 
had  each  time  learned  something  with  regard  to  the  merits  of  the 
question  which  he  did  not  know  before.  He  was,  perhaps  more 
than  any  living   Englishman,  an   American;  and  though  he  had 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LONDON.  593 

had,  in  years  past,  to  say  some  faithful  things  there,  and  had  suf- 
fered personally  in  consequence,  when  the  hour  of  her  trial  came 
he  felt  towards  her  only  as  a  faithful  friend.  He  regretted  that 
those  whose  duty  it  was  to  lead  public  opinion  in  this  country  did 
not  in  all  respects  do  their  duty,  but  he  could  confirm  the  state- 
ments of  his  friend  Mr.  Wilks,  that  every  Englishman  who  really 
understood  America  had  given  a  sound  and  true  utterance  upon 
this  great  question.  .  .  .  With  regard  to  America,  it  must 
gladden  the  hearts  of  all  to  notice  the  wonderful  change  that  had 
come  over  the  country  on  the  slavery  question  during  the  last  three 
years.  For  one  thing  especially  he  begged  to  thank  Mr.  Beecher — 
that  whether  in  his  own  pulpit  or  on  an  English  platform,  he  had  al- 
ways generously,  nobly,  justly  labored  in  the  field  so  bravely  oc- 
cupied by  his  father  before  him,  bearing  his  testimony  on  behalf 
of  truth  and  liberty.     [Loud  applause] 

The  Rev.  J.  Graham  seconded  the   motion,  which  was  carried 
by  acclamation,  the  company  standing. 

38 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,   MANCHESTER. 

October  24,  1863. 


The  Union  and  Emancipation  Society  entertained  Mr.  Beecher 
at  a  public  breakfast,  on  Saturday,  the  24th  of  October,  1863,  and 
there  was  a  very  large  attendance.  In  the  absence  of  T.  B.  Pot- 
ter, Esq.,  the  President,  Mr.  George  L.  Ashworth,  the  Mayor  of 
Rochdale,  occupied  the  chair. 

After  the  initiatory  services  had  been  fulfilled  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Parker  and  the  Rev.  T.  G.  Lee,  Mr.  Edwards,  one  of  the  secreta- 
ries, read  extracts  from  letters  of  regret  for  non-attendance  from 
Messrs.  John  Bright,  W.  E.  Forster,  and  other  members  of  Par- 
liament and  prominent  men. 

The  Chairman  said  they  were  met  together  not  so  much  to 
make  speeches  as  to  show  by  their  presence  their  sympathy  for 
the  distinguished  gentleman  who  had  honored  them  with  his 
company.  They  were  met  together  to  give  the  lie  to  that  which 
had  for  some  time  been  current  in  the  country,  namely,  that  the 
people  of  England  had  no  sympathy  with  the  principles  and 
cause  which  their  guest  had  so  long  and  so  manfully  espoused, 
and  which  they  were  now  met  to  show  they  were  prepared  to 
defend  and  maintain.  \Applaiise?\  He  deemed  it  a  matter  of  the 
deepest  humiliation  that  there  was  in  this  country  even  a  small 
section  of  our  countrymen  who  were  prepared  publicly  to  avow 
the  slightest  amount  of  sympathy  with  that  atrocious  and  wicked 
system  of  slavery;  and  whatever  faults  we  might  have  to  find 
with  the  Government  of  this  country — and  I  am  one  who  thinks 
it  is  far  from  perfection — still  on  the  question  of  maintaining  a 
strict  neutrality  with  America,  on  the  whole  it  deserved  our 
warmest  support  and  sympathy.  [Cheers.]  It  would  have  been 
impossible  for  Mr.  Beecher  to  have  selected  a  time  more  appro- 
priate and  opportune  for  visiting  this  country  than  the  present 
juncture,  in  order  to  render,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  an  opportunity  to  Englishmen — at  least  a  vast  ma- 
jority of  them — of  expressing  their  honest  sympathy  with  the 
cause  of  the  North.  The  speeches  which  Mr.  Beecher  had  de- 
livered in  the  more   important  cities  of  this  great  country,  had 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  595 

gone  a  long  way  towards  enlightening  us  on  many  points  on 
which  great  ignorance  prevailed.  These  speeches  had  dispelled 
much  that  has  deceived  and  misled  us,  and  he  (the  mayor)  be- 
lieved, in  the  language  of  one  of  the  letters  just  read,  that  there 
would  be  a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  people  in  England  who 
would  rally  round  the  standard  of  liberty,  and  show  to  the  North- 
ern portion  of  the  States  that  they  have  our  sympathies,  and  that 
slavery  to-day  was  with  us  just  what  it  had  been  in  times  past,  a 
thing  we  viewed  with  the  utmost  abhorrence.  [Loud  cheers.] 
We  could  not  look  upon  that  struggle  now  going  on  in  America 
with  feelings  other  than  those  of  the  strongest  sorrow.  We  could 
not  contemplate  the  vast  sacrifices  of  life  and  blood  without  feel- 
ing the  deepest  commiseration.  But  if,  in  this  mighty  and 
gigantic  struggle,  the  result  was  what  he  hoped  and  believed  it 
would  be — the  entire  and  permanent  abolition  of  slavery,  then 
terrible  and  vast  as  the  sacrifices  had  been,  that  result  would 
compensate  for  all.  [Cheers]  Let  there  be  no  mistake  on  this 
subject.  Let  us  render  all  the  moral  support  we  can  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  and  show  them  by  our  prayers,  sympathies,  and 
kindly  expressions  of  affection  that  we  feel  for  them  in  their 
present  fearful  conflict,  and  let  us  uphold  the  hands  of  our  Gov- 
ernment in  maintaining  a  strict  and  impartial  neutrality.  [Loud 
cheers.] 

Mr.  Francis  Taylor  said  he  had  been  requested  to  move  a  reso- 
lution which  was  a  speech  in  itself,  and  which  would  render  it 
quite  unnecessary  that  he  should  detain  them  with  any  length- 
ened remarks.  The  resolution  was  :  "  That  we  tender  our  thanks 
to  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  for  the  able,  eloquent,  and 
manly  addresses  he  has  delivered  to  thousands  of  our  fellow 
countrymen,  on  the  present  national  crisis  in  the  United  States 
of  America  ;  and  express  our  belief  that  the  majority  of  the  in- 
telligent men  in  this  kingdom  unmistakably  sympathize  with  the 
friends  of  freedom  in  America,  and  approve  of  every  effort  made 
to  maintain  free  and  constitutional  government.  We  further  ex- 
press our  desire  that  he  may  be  spared  to  reach  his  native  land  in 
health  and  strength;  and  we  assure  him  he  will  take  with  him 
the  friendship  of  many  on  this  side  the  Atlantic,  who  will  honor 
his  name  and  remember  him  with  affection."  [Cheers.]  This 
resolution  certainly  required  no  words  of  his  to  recommend  it  to 
the  hearty  approval  of  the  company,  and  he  was  equally  sure 
that  Mr.  Beecher,  the  gentleman  referred  to  in  the  resolution, 
needed  no  compliment  either  from  the  mover  of  the  resolution 
or  from  any  other  person.     Certainly  had  not  Mr.  Beecher  estab- 


596  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

lished  for  himself  a  reputation  which  would  endure  for  all  time, 
before  he  visited  our  shores,  the  addresses  he  had  delivered  to 
crowded  audiences  since  his  arrival  would  have  secured  for  him 
our  most  hearty  approval,  and  have  entitled  him  to  every  ex- 
pression which  the  resolution  contained.  There  was  one  point  in 
the  resolution  to  which  for  a  moment  he  (Mr.  Taylor)  wished  to 
refer.  It  stated  that  "  the  majority  of  the  intelligent  people  of 
this  country  unmistakably  sympathized  with  the  friends  of  free- 
dom in  America,  and  approved  of  every  effort  to  maintain  free 
and  constitutional  government."  [CAeers.]  Since  Mr.  Beecher 
addressed  the  audience  in  our  Free-trade  Hall,  and  in  various 
other  places  in  the  kingdom,  comments  had  been  made  on 
these  meetings  by  various  newspapers  throughout  the  coun- 
try. It  was  asserted  by  the  Times,  and  by  its  humble  fol- 
lower in  Manchester  [laughter],  that  notwithstanding  all  the  en- 
thusiasm expressed  at  these  meetings,  they  really  meant  nothing 
at  all ;  that  Mr.  Beecher  would  make  a  great  mistake  if  he 
assumed  that  in  consequence  of  large  attendances  at  these  meet- 
ings, public  opinion  in  this  country  sympathized  with  his  friends 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  All  he  (Mr.  Taylor)  had  to 
say  was  this:  Let  Mr.  James  Spence  in  the  advocacy  of  the 
Southern  cause  in  England,  try  the  experiment ;  let  him  go  round 
to  the  large  cities  in  this  country  and  call  public  meetings,  at 
which  all  who  choose  might  attend  ;  and  let  him  thus  test  public 
opinion  and  see  whether  it  went  with  the  South.  [Loud  cheers, 
and  a  voice:  "Let  him  take  Liverpool  first, ."] 

When  he  (Mr.  Taylor)  presided  at  the  meeting  in  the  Free- 
trade  Hall,  he  stated  before  Mr.  Beecher  addressed  the  assembly 
that  if  any  person  wished  to  ask  Mr.  Beecher  any  questions  after 
the  proceedings  had  terminated  that  person  would  be  at  perfect 
liberty  to  do  so,  and  Mr.  Beecher  would  be  ready  to  answer  the 
questions  so  put  to  him.  Mr.  Beecher  himself  made  a  similar 
offer  in  the  course  of  his  speech  but  not  one  person  presented 
himself  to  ask  any  question.  [Cheers.]  It  appeared  however  that 
some  gentleman  calling  himself  "  a  traveler" — whether  he  was  at 
the  meeting  or  not  was  not  known — if  he  were,  probably  he  was 
one  of  the  bellowing  bulls  that  disturbed  the  back  settlements  of 
the  hall.  [Loud  cheers.}  Well,  this  person  instead  of  availing 
himself  of  the  opportunity  of  putting  his  questions  in  person, 
sneaked  off  to  the  columns  of  a  sympathizing  newspaper  in  Man- 
chester and  said  "  it  was  impossible  to  get  a  straightforward 
answer  from  Mr.  Beecher  respecting  the  treatment  of  colored 
people  in  the  North."     Now,  if  this  gentleman  had  appeared  on 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  597 

the  platform  at  the  Free-trade  Hall  to  put  these  questions,  he 
would  have  found  no  difficulty  in  getting  a  straightforward 
answer,  and  no  doubt  Mr.  Beecher  would  so  far  notice  this  ques- 
tion as  to  give  during  the  remarks  he  was  about  to  make  an 
answer  that  would  satisfy  every  one.  [Loud  cheers.']  He  had 
much  pleasure  in  moving  the  resolution  he  had  read. 

Mr.  John  Patterson,  of  Liverpool,  said  that  man  must  be  very 
ill  informed  indeed  upon  an  important  subject,  if  he  had  not  heard 
of  the  life  labors  as  well  as  "  Life  Thoughts  "  of  Mr.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  [Applause.]  Among  the  glorious  chapters  which 
adorned  the  page  of  humanity  was  a  chapter  which  recorded  the 
life  and  labors  of  the  "fanatical  abolitionists"  of  America.  He 
for  one  gladly  embraced  the  opportunity  now  afforded  to  him  in 
this  assembly  of  "  fanatical  abolitionists  "  [laughter] — to  tender 
his  thanks  to  Mr.  Beecher  not  only  for  what  that  gentleman  had 
done  in  England,  but  for  what  he  and  his  friends  had  done  in 
America  during  the  past  twenty-five  years.  During  the  few 
weeks  of  the  past  summer  which  he  spent  in  America  he  had  the 
pleasure  of  being  introduced  to  Mr.  Beecher  at  his  own  church, 
and  of  telling  him  that  the  people  in  England  believed  that 
America  was  much  indebted  to  him  and  men  like  him  for  having 
the  courage  to  stand  up  before  the  world  and  rebuke  the  inatten- 
tions and  presumptions  of  one  of  the  basest  and  foulest  Con- 
federacies that  ever  disgraced  humanity.  [Loud cheers.]  It  was 
important  that  we  in  England  should  speak  out  unmistakably, 
as  well  as  be  spoken  to  by  the  eloquent  mouthpiece  of  American 
abolitionists.  ...  In  England  we  were  now  pretty  much  as 
we  always  were — the  minority  only  possessed  of  power  and  priv- 
ilege. But  education  was  being  now  more  generally  diffused, 
although  many  men  had  it  forced  down  their  throats.  Some  only 
desired  that  the  people  should  be  so  much  educated  as  to  make 
them  subservient  to  selfish  purposes,  while  the  men  who  repre- 
sented the  really  educated  intelligence  of  the  country  desired  that 
the  people  of  England  should  not  be  merely  what  Beresford 
Hope  wished,  a  "well  fed,  well  clothed  church  peasantry"  [loud 
laughter]  —  but  rather  a  free,  intelligent,  industrious,  and  self- 
elevating  people.  [Cheers.]  We  owed  great  thanks  and  obliga- 
tions to  the  men  who  came  to  us  with  not  only  "  40-parson  "  but 
500-parson  power  across  the  Atlantic  and  who  spoke  words  of 
truth,  soberness,  and  logical  demonstration,  although  opposed  by 
the  Times,  Telegraph,  and  Manchester  Guardian.  [Laughter  and 
hisses.]  Many  persons  would  say  that  the  opposition  given  to 
Mr.  Ward  Beecher  demonstrated  the  futility  of  his  endeavoring 


59S  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  speak  to  the  men  of  England.  It  showed  rather  the  force  with 
which  he  has  spoken  to  them,  and  he  (Mr.  Patterson)  stood 
there,  a  Liverpool  man,  to  say  that  the  reception  Mr.  Beecher 
met  with  in  Liverpool,  exhibiting  as  it  did  all  the  vileness  that 
still  clung  around  them — all  the  miserable  tradition  of  an  intol- 
erant Toryism  that  pervaded  a  portion  of  the  community;  yet  it 
showed  still  further  how  high  the  intelligence  of  Liverpool  had  risen 
— how  amazingly  its  middle  class  had  risen,  and  how,  if  Liverpool 
men  were  true  to  themselves,  they  could  trample  under  foot  that 
ancient  and  rotten  tradition.  [Loud  cheers.]  That  meeting  in 
Liverpool  was  open  as  the  day.  It  had  been  stated  that  it  was 
packed.  It  was  untrue.  Every  opportunity  was  given  to  any 
man  to  attend  ;  and  pains  were  taken  by  their  opponents  to  enlist 
men  to  come  there  for  the  purpose  of  opposition.  But  a  lament- 
able failure  the  opposition  was.  [Cheers.]  Not  one-seventh  of 
that  audience  held  up  their  hands  in  opposition  to  the  vote. 
Whilst  he  thoroughly  sympathized  with  Mr.  Beecher,  and  felt  an- 
noyed that  a  gentleman  in  his  position  and  from  such  a  distance 
should  be  obliged  to  contend  with  the  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus 
[loud  laughter],  yet  he  rejoiced  for  the  sake  of  liberty  that  the 
meeting  was  held.  [Cheers.]  Many  meetings  have  been  held,  but 
the  people  of  Liverpool  had  pronounced  by  tremendous  major- 
ities in  favor  of  the  North.     [Loud  cheers.] 

The  resolution  was  supported  by  several  speakers,  and  passed 
with  acclamation. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  rose  to  return  thanks,  and  was 
enthusiastically  cheered.     He  said  : — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen — I  wish  I  could  say  ladies 
and  gentlemen.  But  I  begin  again — Mr.  Chairman  and 
gentlemen — \A  voice:  The  ladies  are  represented  by  the  gentle- 
men.] No  man  can  ever  represent  a  woman.  [Boisterous 
laughter  and  cheers.]  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  this  morn- 
ing to  avow  myself  in  some  sense  a  convert.  While  I  have 
seen,  and  still  see  in  England,  even  more  perhaps  than  you 
will  admit  of  prejudice  and  misconception,  I  have  been 
made  aware  of  some  prejudices  and  much  misconception 
in  myself,  and  in  other  honest  men  whom  I  may  fairly  be 
said  to  represent;  and  it  is  not  the  smallest  triumph  of  this 
short  course  of  two  weeks  during  which  I  have  been  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  England,  that  I  have  gained  the  vic- 
tory over  my  own   past   impressions  and    am   prepared   to 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  599 

admit  some  things  that  I  have  stoutly  denied  to  English- 
men of  my  own  congregation,  who  used  to  say  to  me, 
grieved  but  not  angered  at  the  things  I  said  about  En- 
gland, "  You  do  not  know  Old  England."  I  used  as 
sturdily  to  say,  "  I  do."  But  now  I  shall  say  to  them,  very 
humblv,  "  I  did  not."     [Cheers.] 

I  have  been  called  to  speak  on  a  question  which  is  very 
broad,  very  intricate,  and  multitudinous  in  its  contents, 
because  the  question  of  America  is  simply  the  total  ques- 
tion of  human  society.  It  begins  at  the  top  and  goes  to 
the  bottom,  and  back  again  from  the  bottom  to  the  top; 
from  the  circumference  to  the  center,  and  from  the 
center  to  the  circumference;,  for  there  is  nothing  in 
political  economy,  philosophy,  human  right,  or  what- 
ever can  spring  out  of  this  wonderful  being  —  man  — 
in  society,  that  is  not  involved  directly  or  indirectly  in  this 
great  American  struggle.  And  in  speaking  upon  a  ques- 
tion so  broad,  it  was  quite  impossible  to  speak  exhaustive- 
ly :  the  only  thing  that  I  have  exhausted  has  been  myself. 
[Laughter.]  It  has  been  quite  impossible  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, a  stranger  in  a  strange  community,  not  alto- 
gether cognizant  of  the  prejudice  or  the  wants  or  shades 
of  thought  in  a  community,  to  speak  upon  this  large  ques- 
tion so  as  always  to  meet  the  requisitions  of  my  audience. 
I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  interruption,  which  I  have  taken 
very  kindly — which  even  in  its  worst  form  at  Liverpool,  I 
do  them  the  justice  to  say,  was  rather  an  exhibition  of 
party  feeling  than  of  personal  malignity  [cheers];  —  and 
although  it  made  my  work  very  hard,  God  is  my  witness  it 
did  not  excite  in  my  mind  the  slightest  animosity  towards 
them,  still  less  towards  that  very  noble  community  which 
they  misrepresented  on  that  occasion. 

There  is  another  matter  I  wished  to  speak  of  ;  and  that 
is,  that  the  reports  of  my  speeches  are  not  authoritative, 
nor  can  they  be  so,  until  they  have  passed  under  my  re- 
vision. And  I  wish  to  say  that  no  man  here  is  so  much 
indebted  to  a  class  of  men  much  abused  and  very  little 
understood,  but  to  whom  I  owe  lasting  obligations — I  mean 
reporters  for  newspapers.     They  are   young  men  who  are 


600  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

generally  sent  out  into  meetings  of  all  kinds,  where  men 
are  divided,  and  where  questions  are  discussed  with  warmth 
and  excitement  at  untimely  hours;  and  who,  usually 
crammed  into  the  most  inconvenient  situations,  are  obliged 
to  take  down  either  the  whole  or  a  part  of  what  is  spoken 
upon  arguments  on  which  they  have  not  been  thoroughly 
read,  exercising  at  the  same  time  an  immediate  judgment 
as  to  what  should  be  omitted,  or  what  the  wants  of  their 
newspaper  oblige  them  to  produce.  Then  they  are  hur- 
ried back  in  the  midnight  hour  to  write  out  that  which  is 
so  lately  taken,  and  often  because  it  is  not  presented  next 
morning  as  some  would  wish,  men  blame  them,  and  impute 
ill  motives.  [Loud  laughter  and  cheers.]  Now,  I  am  a|  news- 
paper man  myself,  and  have  been  made  familiar  with  the 
life  and  difficulties  which  beset  the  corps  of  reporters.  I 
have  followed  the  reports  of  my  speeches  in  England,  but 
have  never  in  a  single  speech  seen  that  which  led  me  to 
believe  that  any  reporter  had  intentionally  misrepresented 
what  I  had  said.  I  have,  however,  seen  the  editorial  col- 
umn, where  I  know  that  the  editor,  thinking  he  was  sup- 
porting a  certain  party,  misrepresented  both  my  facts  and 
principles.  [C/ieers.]  And,  if  there  are  reporters  present, 
I  desire  to  express  through  them  my  sense  of  the  obliga- 
tion under  which  I  lie  to  their  kindness  and  fidelity  in  this 
visit.  [Cheers.]  Yet,  for  reasons  I  have  stated,  my 
speeches  generally  occupying  more  than  two  hours,  and 
passing  generally  very  rapidly  over  many  great  topics,  and 
all  having  naturally  to  appear  next  morning,  when  the 
paper  could  not  afford  to  put  in  a  verbatim  report,  the 
reports,  while  presenting  the  general  tenor  of  my  speeches, 
have  had  such  inevitable  imperfections  as  to  make  them 
not  exactly  the  things  upon  which  to  base  an  attack  upon 
me.      \CJiecrs^\ 

I  wish  now,  in  the  opening  remarks  which  I  shall  make, 
to  explain  to  you  precisely  the  thing  which  I  have  at- 
tempted to  do  in  England.  I  have  attempted — it  is  the 
keynote — the  inward  keynote  of  my  whole  progress  here — 
I  have  attempted  to  use  my  information,  and  the  position 
which   you   have   been   kind  enough  to  secure  for  me,  to 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  60 1 

promote  a  better  understanding  and  a  lasting  peace  be- 
tween these  two  great  nations.  [Loud  cheers^]  There  have 
been  therefore  a  great  many  things  I  might  have  said,  and 
feelings  I  might  have  expressed,  which  I  have  not.  But  I 
have  endeavored  to  bring  all  things  to  the  bar  of  a  manly- 
judgment,  and  to  say  those  things  which  would  draw  closer 
the  bonds  of  amity.  [Cheers.']  Even  in  the  cases  where  I 
have  brought  up  matters  on  which  your  judgment  and 
mine  have  differed,  and  still  differ,  it  was  not  so  much  to 
go  back  and  argue  them  upon  the  merits  of  the  question 
as  it  was  to  put  you  in  possession  of  the  American  stand- 
point, that  you  might  see,  if  we  did  err,  what  was  the  reason 
of  our  erring.  [Cheers.]  I  wish,  for  instance,  to  illustrate 
it  by  one  single  case,  and  that  was  the  Trent  difficulty.  I 
think  it  was  in  Manchester  I  mentioned  the  strong  feeling 
that  existed  in  America  upon  this  point.  And  the  London 
Daily  News — a  paper  to  which  I  should  be  glad  to  express 
the  great  obligations  of  American  citizens  [cheers] — if  I 
were  not  afraid  it  might  be  employed  against  it  to  dimin- 
ish its  influence  with  Britons  ["  No,  no"] — I  say  that 
paper  in  a  friendly  spirit  criticised  my  utterances,  and 
said  that  it  would  damage  my  testimony  with  English  peo- 
ple to  be  so  far  wrong  and  mistaken  in  facts  about  that 
question;  and  that  it  would  damage  my  testimony  amongst 
English  people  on  questions  with  which  I  was  better  in- 
formed. They  did  not  specify,  however,  what  was  my 
mistake.  Now,  I  want  just  to  specify  to  you  how  we 
Americans  looked  at  that  transaction,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  ourselves  right  and  you  wrong,  but  to  ask  you 
as  I  shall,  when  I  have  made  my  statement,  if  you  had 
been  in  our  situation,  and  things  looked  to  you  as  they 
did  to  us,  would  you  not  have  felt  as  we  did  ?  Is  not  that 
fair  ?     [Cheers.] 

You  will  recollect,  then,  that  an  American  naval  vessel 
by  accident — if  there  be  such  things  as  accidents — over- 
hauled an  English  mail  steamer  and  took  from  it  two  men 
who  represented  themselves  as  ambassadors  from  the  so- 
called  Confederate  Government  to  the  courts  of  England 
and  France  respectively.     I  remember  very  well,  when  the 


602  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ship  came  from  Europe — and  the  tidings  spread  across 
America  as  quick  as  lightning  could  flash,  that  for  a  day 
or  two  the  universal  feeling  was,  "Here's  a  stupendous 
joke."  Everybody  laughed.  It  struck  the  comical  feeling 
of  the  nation  that  these  two  men  should  have  started  off  to 
represent  the  Confederates  at  St.  James's,  and  in  Paris, 
and  instead,  had  found  themselves  in  Fort  Lafayette. 
[Laughter.]  And  there  was  a  feeling  of  immense  good 
nature,  and  even  jollity.  Then,  after  two  or  three  days, 
some  lawyer-men  began  to  inquire  in  the  papers,  "What 
is  the  law  on  this  subject  ?  It  may  be  a  very  good  joke, 
but  what  says  the  law?"  We  began  to  draw  down  our 
faces  and  say,  "  Sure  enough  there  is  an  England,  and  she 
will  have  a  word  to  say.  What  then  is  the  law?"  Then 
began  to  be  quoted  what  the  English  doctrine  was;  our 
papers  began  to  be  filled  with  English  precedents  and  En- 
glish conduct,  and  there  was  a  universal  feeling  that  we 
had  acted  according  to  English  precedent.  [Cheers.]  That 
conviction  is  yet  unchanged;  and  never  will  be  changed,  because  it 
was  the  fact.     [Cheers!] 

But  I  had  the  opportunity  of  knowing  from  my  position, 
both  as  preacher,  lecturer,  and  editor,  that  the  feeling  of 
the  people  was,  "  We  are  going  to  do  what  is  right  now, 
whatever  it  is.  If  we  are  in  the  wrong,  we  shall  concede 
this  matter;  but  if  we  are  in  the  right,  we  will  not  budge 
an  inch,  neither  by  bullying  nor  intimidation."  And  the 
moment  the  information  came  to  our  shores  of  these  facts, 
Mr.  Seward  addressed  a  confidential  communication  to 
Mr.  Adams,  instructing  him  to  read  the  same  to  Earl 
Russell,  the  purport  of  which  was,  that  this  had  been  done 
without  the  privity  or  assent  of  the  American  Government, 
who  were  prepared,  on  the  statement  of  England's  wishes, 
to  settle  this  matter  amicably.  Mr.  Adams  read  that  to 
Earl  Russell,  and  it  lay  nine  or  ten  days  quiet.  The  letter 
being  confidential,  Mr.  Adams  scrupulously  avoided  speak- 
ing of  it:  but  it  leaked  out  nevertheless  that  there  had 
been  a  communication  from  the  American  Government  to 
the  English,  and  everybody  was  asking  what  was  its  nature. 
This  communication  having  been  read,  I  think,  on  the  19th 


FAREWELL  BREAKFAST,   MANCHESTER.  603 

of  December,  it  would  be  about  the  29th  that  your  Morn- 
ing Post — which  is  supposed  to  be  a  semi-official  organ — 
declared  that  there  had  been  a  communication  from  the 
American  Government,  but  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Trent  affair.  And,  whereas  it  was  a  communication 
expressly  on  that  and  nothing  else,  to  this  hour  that  paper 
has  never  explained  nor  retracted  that  malicious  and  de- 
liberate falsehood.  From  that  point,  I  believe,  compli- 
cation began.  But  there  was  something  before  that. 
[Cheers.]  Even  before  that  message  came  from  Washing- 
ton, and  before  the  British  Government  had  heard  what 
we  had  to  say,  orders  had  issued  that  British  troops  should 
repair  to  Canada,  and  the  navy  and  dockyards  were  put 
on  double  labor.  England  lias  never  shown  want  of 
promptness  and  spirit;  but  I  believe  you  can  find  no  other 
case  in  English  history  in  which  a  misunderstanding  be- 
tween ships  of  two  nations  has  been  treated  with  similar 
precipitancy,  not  waiting  to  hear  explanations,  but  prepar- 
ing war,  or  threatening  war,  before  you  could  possibly 
have  the  real  facts. 

As  to  what  took  place  on  the  other  side,  I  am  alleged  to 
have  been  all  wrong  when  I  said  the  American  Govern- 
ment showed  instant  disposition  to  make  reparation;  be- 
cause, on  the  other  hand  we  heaped  honors  on  Captain 
Wilkes  all  through  the  nation.  When  we  thought  we  were 
right,  we  did;  but  after  we  found  out  by  the  declaration 
of  our  own  Government  that  we  were  wrong,  point  me  to 
one  instance,  in  which  even  the  slightest  popular  assembly 
undertook  to  traverse  the  decision  of  our  Government  by 
showing  attention  to  Captain  Wilkes  ?  As  to  whether  we 
did  not  use  all  possible  speed,  let  us  see  what  were  the 
facts.  Mr.  Seward  wrote  to  the  English  Government  say- 
ing we  were  prepared  to  settle  the  matter  satisfactorily  to 
them,  and  awaited  their  demands.  Many  say:  we  ought 
not  to  have  waited  their  demands,  but  given  up  the  men 
instantly.  But  there  were  conflicting  doctrines  as  to  the 
rights  of  Governments  over  contraband  of  war  in  neutral 
vessels.  There  was  the  British  doctrine  and  there  was  the 
American   doctrine.     From    1S07  certainly   to  1813,  and  I 


604  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

know  not  how  much  longer,  the  British  doctrine  was  that 
you  had  a  right  to  condemn  a  neutral  vessel  without  bring- 
ing her  into  a  prize  court.  That  was  the  British  doctrine 
and  practice  down  to  within  a  few  years.  I  think  the  last 
recognized  case — I  won't  undertake  to  say  it  is  the  last 
case — is  that  in  which  England  acted  upon  the  American 
doctrine,  when  they  took  a  Bremen  vessel  and  condemned 
her  in  an  English  court  because  she  was  bringing  the  crew 
of  a  wrecked  Russian  vessel  home  from  Japan.  She  was 
condemned  by  a  prize  court,  and  that  is  the  first  instance  I 
know  of  the  American  doctrine  being  acted  on  by  the  En- 
glish Government  or  navy.  Now,  when  Mr.  Seward  wrote 
to  Mr.  Adams  he  said  thus:  Here  is  the  old  British  doc- 
trine, which  they  have  never  given  up  technically,  and  here 
is  the  American.  Which  of  the  two  is  the  British  Govern- 
ment going  to  take  with  respect  to  Mr.  Mason  and  Mr. 
Slidell  ?  If  their  own,  we  have  committed  no  offense,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  to  be  said;  if  our  doctrine,  evi- 
dently we  must  wait  for  them  to  make  their  own  election. 
I  ask  you,  then,  was  that  not  a  courteous  and  just  reason 
for  waiting  till  the  overture  should  proceed  from  the  En- 
glish Government  instead  of  from  ours,  as  to  what  should 
be  done  in  the  case  of  these  men  ?     \Checrsi\ 

Now,  all  these  facts  are  perfectly  known  to  our  people, 
and  I  ask  you  not  to  renew  this  old  subject.  It  is  past  for 
good,  I  hope,  and  it  rests  in  peace.  But  then,  I  want  you 
so  far  to  review  these  facts  as  that  when  men  say,  "  The 
Americans  have  shown  an  arrogant  and  intemperate  spirit 
towards  Great  Britain,  without  reason,  in  that  Trent  af- 
fair,"—  I  want  you  then  to  say,  "  Every  man,  and  I  for 
one  if  I  had  been  an  American,  should  have  felt  just  as 
they  felt."  \Cheers.~\  But  I  want  to  say  one  thing  more, 
and  it  is  this:  that  we  were  all  very  much  surprised  when 
Mr.  Seward  issued  his  decision.  So  it  was  and  so  it 
stands.  I  make  these  explanations  in  the  furtherance  of  a 
better  understanding  between  us,  so  that  there  may  be  no 
unpleasant  memory,  and  no  coal  that  has  not  gone  out  in 
the  embers  and  ashes  of  this  old  question.     [Loud  cheers.~\ 

Also  I  wish  to  revert  to  a  certain  topic,  because  I  am  in- 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  605 

formed  that  I  have  been  destroyed  by  several  papers,  body 
and  soul,  honor  and  reputation,  because  of  gross  and  in- 
tentional misstatements  made  in  Edinburgh.  I  cannot  tell 
the  paper  that  has  originated  it,  nor  would  I  if  I  could. 
I  am  informed  that  my  statements  made  respecting  the 
circulation  of  money  were  totally  at  variance  with  the  fact. 
Now  all  I  can  say  is,  if  these  statements  were  not  correct, 
I  certainly  should  be  guilty  of  ignorance,  though  not  in- 
tentionally. Let  me  then  state  to  you,  availing  myself  of 
this  opportunity,  what  I  understand  about  the  condition 
of  the  North  fiscally,  and  of  material  prosperity  in  this 
time  of  war.  My  venerable  and  excellent  friend,  Dr. 
Massie,  is  present  \cheers\ — and  I  speak  as  before  one 
who  knows  the  truth,  and  although  I  have  never  till  this 
morning  seen  him— may  I  see  him  a  thousand  times  here- 
after— though  I,  of  course,  know  nothing  of  his  opinions, 
yet  I  know  he  is  an  honest  man,  and  I  know  what  an 
honest  man  must  say  in  respect  of  certain  points  in  our 
American  affairs.  I  say  he  will  not  rebuke  me  for  saying 
there  never  was  a  time  of  such  material  or  moral  prosper- 
ity as  in  the  North  at  this  time.  Burdened  as  we  are  with 
war,  there  never  was  a  time  when  husbandry  was  carried 
on  with  more  alacrity  or  success,  when  every  conceivable 
form  of  productive  industry,  and  of  manufacturing  through 
its  whole  range,  was  more  pressed  by  demand.  It  is  not 
as  it  was  in  Manchester  just  before  this  war,  when  you  had 
manufactured  far  beyond  the  consumption  of  your  custom- 
ers. It  is  not  speculative.  There  never  was  a  time  when 
monetary  affairs  were  so  easy,  and  I  think  so  healthy,  not- 
withstanding the  contrary  opinion  of  the  editor  of  the 
Times''  money  articles.  You  say,  we  shall  come  to  a  crash. 
It  may  be  we  shall,  though  we  are  going  to  it  by  a  very 
pleasant  way.     \Laughter^\ 

But  are  we  doing  this  upon  an  inflated  paper  currency, 
without  a  proper  basis  and  proper  security?  Paper  must 
represent  convertible  property.  Is  there  more  paper  in 
circulation  in  the  North  than  there  is  actual  and  available 
property  in  the  North  which  it  represents  ?  On  that  sub- 
ject I  declare  it  makes  no   difference   whether  paper  is  is- 


606  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

sued  by  State  banks,  or  individual  brokers,  or  the  National 
Government;  if  there  is  never  more  paper  than  is  needed, 
all  then  is  safe,  for  there  is  no  more  paper  than  thev  have 
means  to  convert.  Again,  you  may  always  issue  more 
paper  than  you  can  convert  in  any  one  day.  Three  bills 
to  one  pound  of  bullion  is  a  safe  measure.  The  exact  state 
of  affairs  in  the  North  was,  that  this  uprising  so  deranged 
business  that  it  compelled  a  universal  settlement.  I  don't 
know  how  it  is  in  England;  but  in  America  we  need  a 
financial  judgment  day  once  in  ten  years,  and  we  get  it. 
These  crashes,  although  in  one  way  of  looking  at  them 
they  are  unfavorable,  in  another  are  always  beneficial.  A 
new  country  must  have  credit.  As  countries  grow  old  and 
rich,  they  can  contract  it  more  and  more,  but  a  new  coun- 
try, that  has  its  resources  to  develop,  requires  credit,  and 
with  it  you  must  have  the  attendant  evils  of  intense  stimu- 
lation of  hopeful  and  sanguine  natures.  Once  in  ten  years 
you  work  out,  so  that  the  thing  comes  clear  round.  There 
is  a  kind  of  miscellaneous  crash,  in  which  every  man  picks 
up  his  own.  The  bubble  is  broken — the  paper  is  gone; 
and  the  property  remains.  The  man  that  yesterday  said, 
This  is  my  house,  does  not  say  so  to-morrow:  but  the  com- 
munity is  not  hurt;  the  property  is  there — the  difference  is 
that  the  owners  have  shifted.  \Laughter^\  Now,  what  of 
these  commercial  reverses?  It  is  said  they  are  unhealthy, 
but  it  is  not  of  that  kind  of  unhealthiness  that  many  political 
economists  have  believed;  and  these  periodical  settlements 
are  always  salutary.  We  had  a  settlement  in  1857,  and 
there  was  the  less  at  the  beginning  of  this  war  to  be  set- 
tled. But  what  there  was,  we  swept  out  of  the  way.  And 
since  the  day  when  the  infant  colony  of  Plymouth  Bay  had 
to  pay  fifty  percent,  for  money  loaned  to  her  in  England,  I 
do  not  believe  there  has  ever  been  so  sound  a  state  of  busi- 
ness in  the  North  as  to-day.  And  your  business  men  in 
Manchester  will  see  that  these  reasons  work  that  way. 
One  thing  more:  the  thing  does  not  stop  there.  As  there 
is  more  or  less  of  uncertainty  in  the  commercial  world, 
men  will  no  longer  go  on  the  credit  system  as  before. 
They  are  buying  for  cash;  then  going  home  and  selling  for 


FAREWELL    BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  607 

cash.  Some  of  you  in  Manchester  can  say  whether  it  is 
not  the  case  here  to  an  extent  never  before  known,  that 
American  merchants  are  buying  for  cash.  The  business  is 
taking  that  direction;  certainly  it  is  in  America.  Not  that 
there  may  not  be  facts  the  other  way,  but  this  is  in  the  main 
true.  Suppose  there  come  by  and  by  further  financial 
difficulties,  how  are  you  going  to  bankrupt  a  nation  which 
has  no  foreign  debts?  You  recollect  the  story  of  the 
Frenchman  in  Boston.  He  had  got  money  enough  and 
goods  enough,  but  thought  a  man  ought  to  fail  when  he 
could  not  collect  his  debts.  We  may  fail  so,  but  I  don't 
see  any  other  form  of  bankruptcy  awaiting  us. 

Our  Government  is  issuing  bonds  that  are  largely  be- 
coming the  basis  of  the  whole  banking  system  of  the  North. 
The  Government  bonds  become  the  securities  of  our  State 
banks.  They  issue  Government  notes  as  their  circulation, 
and  although  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  Government 
notes  in  circulation  they  are  taking  the  place  of  the  individ- 
ual State  bank  notes  we  have  been  driving  in.  I  do  not  pro- 
fess to  be  fully  informed,  but  my  impression  is,  there  is  no 
more  paper  money  in  circulation  now  than  there  has  been 
at  many  periods  in  American  history,  only  it  is  not  a  circu- 
lation of  individual  banks,  nor  of  States;  it  is  a  circulation 
of  the  total  United  States:  and  whereas  before  these  bills 
had  the  security  of  what  was  in  the  vault  of  the  individual 
bank  or  of  the  State,  now  the  guaranty  of  these  bills  with 
the  same  circulation  is  the  guaranty  of  the  credit  and  total 
property  of  the  United  States.  [J/rar.]  Neither  can  I  state 
(as  I  should  have  done  if  I  had  supposed  I  was  to  be  called 
on  for  these  facts)  exactly  how  much  has  been  invested; 
but  probably  four  or  five  hundred  millions  of  the  capital 
of  the  North,  not  invested  already  in  business,  has  been 
invested  in  what  are  called  Government  securities,  which 
are  just  your  "consols"  over  again.  Our  people  feel  two 
things  —  first,  that  our  Government  must  stand;  and, 
secondly,  that  it  will  stand,  and  it  is  safe  to  invest  in  it. 
\Cheers.~\  Our  savings  banks,  insurance  companies,  trust- 
fund  commissioners,  and  men  who  have  in  charge  the 
money  of  widows  and  orphans — old  men  who  wish   to  se- 


608  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

cure  themselves  against  contingencies  and  bankruptcies, 
men  who  have  sums  in  hand  and  are  looking  about  for  in- 
vestment, are  showing  that  of  all  securities  none  seems  io 
them  so  sound  as  the  faith  and  credit  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States.  [Loud  cheers^]  And  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested  in  that  way;  so  that 
I  may  say  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  a  lien 
upon  all  the  inoperative  capital  of  the  North  and  West, 
and  it  has  become  the  interest  of  every  business  man 
and  every  moneyed  man  in  the  whole  Northern  States, 
to  maintain  the  Government  as  the  way  to  maintain 
himself. 

If  it  be  said  (as  it  has  been)  that  I  have  stated  that  the 
Government  paper  had  been  issued  as  only  three  to  one  of 
bullion,  I  reply  that  I  never  made  any  statement  on  that 
question  at  all.  But  since  the  Central  Government  issued 
this  paper — since  it  represents  not  only  what  has  been  paid 
in  for  these  bonds  as  invested,  but  represents  also  the  total 
available  property  of  the  Federation  itself,  it  is  a  better  cir- 
culation tJian  that  of  local  banks,  which  do  issue  three  papers  to 
one  pound  of  bullion:  that  is  what  I  meant  to  say  at  Edin- 
burgh, whether  I  said  it  or  not.  And  it  is  what  I  say  in 
this  great  capital  of  business  in  England.  I  cannot,  of 
course,  speak  authoritatively  in  this  matter.  I  am  not  a 
financier,  I  am  not  a  banker,  but  a  clergyman  and  a  patriot 
only.  If  you  were  to  get  hold  of  a  man  who  knew  a  great 
deal  more,  he  would  state  the  matter  still  more  strongly. 
[Applause.]  If  there  is  anything  I  have  inadvertently  omitted 
to  notice  on  this  fiscal  question,  I  shall  be  ready  to  attend 
to  any  question  that  may  be  put  to  me  now.  [Mr,  Beecher 
paused,  and  then  resumed.]  I  may  presume,  then,  that  you 
are  satisfied.      [Applause.] 

Now  there  is  some  art  in  speaking  so  as  to  relieve  one 
subject  against  another,  and,  having  given  you  a  few  words 
upon  currency,  and  a  sound  state  of  business  in  the  North, 
I  will  turn  to  that  letter  in  one  of  your  local  papers,  to 
which  my  friend  Mr.  Taylor  referred,  containing  those 
three  questions,  which  the  writer  says  have  never  received 
straightforward    answers.     I    will  endeavor    to   show   you 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  609 

what  a  straightforward  answer  is.  The  first  question  is, 
"  Do  colored  persons  ever  attend  your  church  in  Brook- 
lyn ? "  Yes,  by  scores  and  hundreds.  [Cheers?^  Second, 
"  If  so,  where  do  they  sit  ?  "  Wherever  they  can  get  a  seat. 
[Cheers  and  laughter.]  Allow  me  to  say  our  church  will 
hold  but  three  thousand,  and  it  is  extremely  difficult  for 
anyone  to  get  a  seat.'  I  have  said  humorously,  in  ex- 
postulating with  our  people,  that  they  are  sometimes  im- 
patient of  having  so  little  use  of  their  own  pews,  for  which 
they  pay  an  inordinate  rent,  "  Gentlemen,  you  know  very 
well  when  you  rent  pews  here  what  it  means;  you  pay 
three  hundred  dollars  for  a  pew  for  the  sake  of  sitting  in 
the  aisle,  and  you  knew  it  when  you  bought  your  pew." 
It  is  expressly  stipulated  that  if  a  man  is  not  in  his  pew  to 
occupy  it  within  a  certain  number  of  minutes  before  the 
service  begins,  he  forfeits  his  right  to  sit  there.  It  is  in  his 
article  of  sale.     We  have  from  sixteen  to  twenty-five  active 

* 

and  enterprising  men  whose  sole  business  is  to  seat  people 
in  our  church;  and  sometimes,  when  there  is  a  public  ques- 
tion involving  great  interests,  the  entrances  to  the  church 
are  thronged  for  hours  before  the  doors  are  open.  Well; 
when  our  own  pewholders  have  to  bustle  for  their  own 
seats,  because  strangers  may  come  an  hour  beforehand; 
when  this  has  been  going  on  for  sixteen  continuous  years 
— if  you  ask  me  whether  we  take  colored  people  by  pla- 
toons, and  walk  them  up  and  seat  them  on  a  platform — 
why,  no;  we  don't  treat  them  any  better  than  white  folks. 
[Loud  laughter  and  cheers.]  We  treat  them  just  as  we  do  white 
folks.  [Cheers.]  Now,  let  me  say  this:  I  have  never  exerted 
any  direct  influence  on  this  subject;  it  has  only  been  the 
Christian  feeling  and  good  sense  of  my  own  parishioners 
that  have  led  them  to  determine  their  line  of  action  to- 
wards colored  people  within  the  body  of  the  church.  And 
what  does  it  mean  ?  I  have  never  yet  known  an  instance 
in  which  a  colored  man  was  refused  a  seat,  if  he  were 
properly  dressed,  well  behaved,  and  modestly  asked  for  a 
seat.  I  have  myself  invited  Frederick  Douglass  and  other 
colored  men  to  sit  in  my  own   pew.     Sometimes   one   says 

to  me, — "  I  would  come,  but  I  am  afraid."     But  I  give  him 
39 


6 jo  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  note  to  one  of  my  friends  and  then  he  finds  no  trouble. 
To  make  so  much  of  it,  would  seem  as  if  I  was  boasting  of 
the  liberality  of  our  people.  It  is  just  a  matter  of  course, 
of  Christian  common  sense.  If  my  answer  is  not  straight- 
forward,  it  is  because  I  had  to  go  round  to  get  all  this. 
[Cheers  and  laughter .]  Third,  "  Have  you  ever  seen  any 
(that  is,  colored  people)  amongst  your  congregation;  and 
would  they  be  allowed  to  sit  in  any  pew  of  your  church, 
or  intermingle  with  your  white  hearers  ?  "  If  my  people 
were  like  the  man  who  wrote  this  letter,  they  would  not  be 
permitted  to  sit  a  moment  there.  [Cheers.]  That  is  not  a 
mere  jibe.  I  will  tell  you  in  a  moment  why  I  make  that 
remark.  But  I  have  seen  them,  not  once  or  twice,  or  fifty, 
but  hundreds  of  times.  I  tell  you  the  truth,  gentlemen, 
though  we  are  not  better  than  hundreds  of  other  churches. 
We  have  been  led  by  acquiescence  in  those  great  truths 
preached  in  Plymouth  Church: — that  man  is  not  what  he  is 
on  account  of  title,  education,  or  wealth,  but  because  God 
made  him  and  loves  him,  and  God  will  redeem  him  to  im- 
mortality and  glory.  [Cheers.]  And  that  broad  ground 
has  led  us  to  feel  insensibly,  more  and  more,  that  a  man  in 
the  house  of  God  is  to  be  treated  as  we  would  treat  that 
man  on  the  threshold  of  the  judgment  day.  And  now, 
these  words  will  go  back  to  America,  and  I  shall  have  them 
set  down  to  me  there,  and  I  shall  stand  to  every  word  I 
have  said  on  America. 

The  close  of  the  letter,  containing  these  queries,  is  as 
follows:  "  I  could  multiply  instances  to  almost  any  extent 
of  brutality  towards  the  colored  people  in  the  North, 
and  of  kindness  and  indulgence  towards  them  in  the 
South,  which  I  witnessed  during  a  long  and  protracted 
tour  through  the  States.  Though  my  original  antipathy 
to  slavery  was  never  eradicated,  I  came  to  this  conclusion, 
— that  a  Slave  in  the  South  was  a  far  gayer  and  happier 
creature  than  a  free  black  in  the  North."  There  you  have 
it.  Ah  !  there  never  was  a  serpent  yet  that  was  taught  to 
speak  in  human  language  that  first  or  last  the  sibilation 
did  not  come  out.  Whenever  I  find  a  man  undertake  to 
tell  me,  that  any  human  creature,  considered  in  the  totality 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  611 

that  makes  up  a  man,  in  his  body  and  soul — in  his  loves, 
independence,  and  purities — in  his  relation  to  time  and 
eternity — is  a  better  man  in  slavery  than  he  is  out  of  it,  I 
say,  "Thou  son  of  the  devil,  get  thee  behind  me."  [Loud 
cheering.}  On  the  other  side,  let  me  say  pointedly,  that  the 
treatment  of  the  blacks  in  the  North  was  bad — that  we 
imbibed  prejudice  from  the  South  —  that  the  poison  of 
slavery  in  every  fiber  of  our  body  wrought  out  bad  laws 
and  usages;  nevertheless,  the  party  now  predominant  throughout 
the  North,  though  once  a  small  minority,  has  fought  up  against 
that  prejudice  and  wrong,  until  at  last  it  is  in  ascendency:  and 
Englishmen  are  asked  no?v  to  strike  us,  who  have  been  martyrs 
for  freedom,  because  of  the  prejudices  which  came  from  the  men 
who  are  noxv  in  rebellion.  [Great  cheering.}  And  I  avow,  there 
is  a  good  deal  of  work  yet  to  be  done.  We  do  not  appear 
before  you  as  a  saintlike  people;  we  are,  just  like  you,  in 
the  midst  of  struggles  where  all  sorts  of  influences  are  in 
combination.  We  have  fought  so  far  with  complete  suc- 
cess -thanks  to  God;  but  it  is  not  done  yet.  There  are 
many  things  we  need  to  change,  and  are  trying  to  change. 
All  we  ask  is,  that  when  our  faces  are  as  it  were  turned 
towards  Jerusalem,  you  will  not  stop  us.     [Loud  cheers.} 

And  I  say  still  further,  that  in  respect  to  that  riot  which 
took  place  in  New  York,  and  so  much  used  adversely  to 
us,  I  here,  and  accountable  for  what  I  say,  declare  my  con- 
viction that  that  riot  was  nothing  in  the  world  but  the  sore 
made  by  a  foreign  blister  put  on  our  body.  The  rioters 
were  as  a  body  unquestionably  Irishmen.  [Cheers.}  But 
you  must  not  think  I  am  saying  this  in  any  ill-will  to  them. 
These  Irish  laborers  come  to  us  poor  and  uneducated  creat- 
ures, easily  led  by  more  intelligent  men,  men  who  work 
through  their  passions.  By  corrupt  Americans,  I  am 
ashamed  to  say,  they  have  been  assiduously  taught  that 
the  emancipation  of  the  slave  would  take  away  from  them 
the  market  of  labor,  and  that  emancipation  would  bring 
the  whole  South  Northward;  which  is  just  the  opposite  to 
the  truth,  that  it  is  likely  to  take  the  whole  colored  North 
Southward.  But  they  have  been  stuffed  with  falsehood  in 
the  most  offensive  forms,  for  the  purpose  of  making  them 


612  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

mischievous;  hence  with  the  sting  of  the  draft  just  about 
to  be  put  on  them,  there  was  a  wild  furious  uprising  of  the 
Irish  immigrants.  It  was  very  cruel  and  wicked,  but  so 
cruel  and  wicked  a  thing  was  never  done  with  so  much 
excuse  for  the  wicked  actors  as  this.  They  were  blind, 
ignorant,  misled  creatures,  who  thought  they  were  fight- 
ing not  so  much  against  the  blacks  as  for  themselves.  I 
make  these  excuses  for  them  therefore,  and  I  say  this  riot 
was  an  Irish  riot,  just  as  much  as  if  it  had  occurred  in 
Dublin  or  Cork,  instead  of  New  York.  [Hear,  hear.] 
When  Archbishop  Hughes  was  called  upon  to  address 
them  and  stop  it,  the  street  before  the  Archiepiscopal  res- 
idence was  alive  with  the  crowded  thousands;  his  speech 
was  reported,  and  he  never  intimated  that  he  thought  any- 
body else  was  engaged  but  Irishmen.  He  took  it  for 
granted  it  was  they;  he  never  excused  them  in  any  way 
by  the  oppression  they  had  suffered  in  Old  Ireland.  From 
beginning  to  end  it  is  taken  for  granted  it  was  the  work  of 
Catholic  Irish,  and  he  was  blaming  them  in  his  very 
maternal  and  gentle  way  for  doing  such  naughty  things. 
[Laughter.]  But  what  was  the  conduct  of  the  city  of  New 
York  ?  Between  forty  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  sub- 
scribed to  relieve  the  wants  of  those  suffering  colored  peo- 
ple in  a  few  days.  A  large  committee  was  appointed  from 
the  most  respectable  merchants,  men  of  the  highest  busi- 
ness integrity,  and  of  the  utmost  honor  and  purity  in 
private  life.  I  marked  every  one  of  them  as  the  men  who 
have  been  my  opponents  from  the  beginning  of  this  agita- 
tion for  sixteen  years — men  who  are  intensely  conservative, 
or  as  we  call  them,  "  Old  Hunkerish."  [Laughter  and 
cheers.]  But  these  men  had  their  eyes  so  opened  by  the 
riot,  that  they  followed  their  noble  and  generous  instincts, 
so  as  not  only  to  give  their  money,  but  to  avow  as  plainly 
as  words  can  say:  "  It  has  come  to  this.  If  the  colored 
people  are  thus  violently  treated,  we  will  put  ourselves  be- 
tween them  and  their  assailants,  and  they  shall,  as  long  as 
we  live,  have  the  right  to  labor  in  freedom."  [Loud  cheers.] 
A  body  of  lawyers  volunteered  to  receive  and  put  into 
legal  form  the  complaints  of  every  colored  man  who  had 


FAREWELL  BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  613 

lost  property:  according  to  our  law,  the  municipality  is 
responsible  for  every  cent  of  property  damaged  in  the 
riot;  and  there  have  been  145,000  to  150,000  dollars*  in- 
volved in  the  complaints  already  made,  or  making;  and 
legal  proceedings  have  cost  the  colored  people  not  a  cent. 
[Cheers.~\  The  letter  of  thanks  they  wrote,  which  I  believe 
will  appear  in  the  papers,  is  a  composition  of  the  most 
poetical  English,  and  consummate  Christian  kindness, 
showing  what  the  grace  of  God  can  make  appear  in  the 
hearts  of  outcast  men.  \Cfieersi\  Read  that  letter  in  the 
report  of  the  committee  which  has  just  reached  this  coun- 
try, and  the  reply  of  Mr.  McKenzie,  and  see  how  an  Old 
Hunker  can  speak.  When  I  get  back,  I  mean,  the  first 
thing,  to  go  to  Mr.  McKenzie's  store  and  ask  him  to  honor 
me  by  shaking  hands. 

Are  there  any  other  questions  about  these  blacks  ? 

Mr.  Hauglfton,  of  Dublin:  "Are  we  to  understand  that  the 
practice  in  your  own  church  is  the  universal  practice  in  America; 
that  the  black  man  is  as  respected  in  other  churches  as  in  yours?" 

No,  sir,  I  cannot  say  that  it  is.  Many  of  our  churches 
are  filled  with  men  who  are  the  first  merchants  of  New 
York,  or  are  politicians.  The  position  of  the  black  man  is 
regulated  mainly  by  the  fact  that  he  is  the  football  ban- 
died between  side  and  side;  to  treat  him  with  public  atten- 
tion has  been  to  abandon  one  political  party,  and  seem  to 
show  confidence  in  the  other  side.  In  many  churches  of 
New  York — I  cannot  speak  positively,  but  my  impression 
is — they  would  not  be  received  except  in  a  particular  pew; 
but  a  tendency  has  now  been  established,  and  is  every 
week  increasing,  to  receive  them  when  they  come  into  the 
churches.  It  is  a  process  begun.  Dr.  Massie  confirms  my 
statement.  I  do  not  want  to  make  out  our  case  any  better 
than  it  is.  We  do  not  move  in  perfection  as  the  saints  in 
glory  do;  all  you  can  ask  of  men  is,  Are  they  in  the  right 
direction,  and  making  progress  ?     [Cheers. ~\ 

I  want  now  to  add  a  word  or  two  with  respect  to  some 
questions  proposed  to  me  last  week.     A  Mr.  David  M'Crae, 

*The  total  amount  that  the  city  of  New  York  had  to  pay  for  property 
destroyed  in  that  riot  was  about  $2,000,000. 


6 1 4  PA  TRIO  TIC  A  DDRESSES. 

I  think,  of  Glasgow,  proposed  a  question  as  to  the  Consti- 
tution which  I  did  not  then  quite  understand.  The  gist 
of  it,  as  far  as  I  remember,  is  this:  Speaking  of  the 
fugitive  slave  clause  of  the  Constitution — his  question 
was,  Are  you  fighting  for  the  Constitution  with  that  clause 
in  it  ?  If  you  are,  how  do  you  pretend  that  you  are  fight- 
ing for  liberty  ?  Secondly,  if  you  are  fighting  for  Eman- 
cipation, you  are  fighting  against  that  Constitution,  and 
how  do  you  condemn  the  seceded  States  ?  I  will  answer 
by  a  statement  of  facts,  and  leave  you  to  settle  the  logic. 

What  is  the  relation  of  our  Constitution  to  slavery  ?  It 
contains  two  clauses:  one  is  the  fugitive  slave  clause;  the 
other  is  the  three-fifths  representation  clause.  I  will  take 
the  last  first.  That  clause  does  not  legalize  slavery.  It 
merely  says  (as  if  the  founders  of  the  Constitution  recog- 
nized it  as  a  fact,  but  not  a  doctrine  or  principle),  "  five 
men  other  than  free  whites  shall  count  for  fhree  votes." 
Now  what  is  the  origin  of  that  ?  When  we  first  formed 
our  present  Constitution,  having  had  ten  years'  trial  of 
what  was  called  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  difficulty 
that  struck  the  Government,  as  it  strikes  every  Govern- 
ment, was,  "  How  can  you  raise  funds  to  carry  on  the  Gov- 
ernment?" First,  taxes  were  laid  on  the  lands  in  all  the 
country.  But  it  was  found  impossible  to  obtain  the  sta- 
tistics which  were  requisite  for  levying  the  tax  justly,  and 
therefore  they  must  change  their  system.  It  was  then  pro- 
posed they  should  tax  the  people  per  capita.  Then  came 
the  question:  as  the  vast  majority  are  white  and  free  in 
the  North,  and  as  an  immense  proportion  in  the  South  are 
slaves,  if  you  should  tax  according  to  the  free  whites,  the 
North  would  pay  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  taxes,  and  the 
South  only  one-twentieth  part,  having  the  monopoly  of 
wealth.  Therefore  the  North  said,  in  assessing  the  taxes 
you  must  call  every  able  bodied  black,  as  well  as  white 
man,  one.  The  South  said,  "No,  we  are  willing  to  count 
four  as  one."  That  was  the  extreme  position  taken  on  that 
side,  and  you  see  just  how  it  was.  It  was  on  a  question 
of  raising  money,  whether  the  tax  should  be  raised  on  the 
whole   black   population   or  not,  or  whether  it  should  be 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  615 

raised  on  a  white  voting  population,  excluding  Indians  and 
slaves.  And  it  was  Mr.  Madison  who  proposed  a  middle 
term  as  the  compromise.  He  said,  "  Five  shall  count  three 
instead  of  one  counting  one,  or  four  counting  one."  So  it 
was  settled  that  in  laying  taxes  on  the  South,  there  should 
be  three  men  taxed  where  there  are  five  black  men  in  the 
South.  But  in  settling  the  basis  for  taxation,  they  settled 
at  the  same  time  the  basis  for  representation.  A  few  years 
afterwards  we  ceased  to  raise  our  revenue  by  taxation  at  all, 
and  the  very  thing  on  which  this  compromise  had  been 
made  ceased  to  exist.  Then  came  in  the  unexpected  opera- 
tion of  this  clause  on  representation,  which  was  a  shadowy 
sequence  scarcely  understood  at  first  to  be  of  much  impor- 
tance, but  had  become  of  prime  importance  when  the  North 
was  represented  in  Congress  by  a  representation  of  men 
(voters)  alone,  while  the  South  was  represented  both  in  the 
number  of  men  and  the  amount  of  property.  The  South 
is  represented  both  in  property  and  in  men;  the  North  sim- 
ply in  men,  and  not  in  property.  This  clause  thus  became, 
by  an  unforeseen  accident,  of  strength  to  the  South.  To- 
morrow, if  slavery  totally  ceased,  that  Constitution  would 
not  have  to  be  changed  in  a  single  letter  in  that  regard. 
There  is  nothing  that  guarantees  or  perpetuates  it,  or  car- 
ries the  consequence  along  with  it  as  inevitable. 

The  other  clause  on  slavery  in  the  Constitution,  concern- 
ing rendition  of  fugitives,  appeared  in  our  history  first 
when  New  England,  which  was  just  as  much  slave-owning 
as  the  South,  formed  the  first  rudimental  Union.  So 
jealous  were  the  States  of  their  individual  sovereignty,  that 
nothing  but  external  wars  and  difficulties  drove  them  to- 
gether, and  they  passed  the  substance  of  this  fugitive  slave 
clause.  It  did  not  appear  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
in  1777,  but  in  1787  the  present  Constitution  took  away 
from  each  State  the  right  to  pass  laws  in  contravention  of 
laws  existing  in  other  States;  that  is  to  say,  no  man  held 
to  service  in  one  State  shall  be  discharged  .therefrom  by 
another  State  into  which  he  may  go.  It  was  a  law  for  the 
peace  of  the  whole  Union,  taking  away  the  power  of  one 
State  to  nullify  the  laws  of  another   State.     Congress  and 


616  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  Federal  Power  are  not  even  alluded  to  in  the  clause. 
Then  it  went  on  to  provide  that  such  persons  shall,  upon 
proper  proof,  be  rendered  up  again  to  their  claimants,  on 
whom  the  proof  was  purposely  left.  That  is  the  fugitive 
slave  clause.  In  the  convention  where  it  was  adopted,  it 
was  attempted  to  include  this  clause  in  the  one  that  in  our 
present  Constitution  precedes  it,  namely,  in  Section  2  of 
Article  IV.:  "A  person  charged  in  any  State  with  treason, 
felony,  or  other  crime,  who  shall  flee  from  justice  and  be 
found  in  another  State,  shall,  on  demand  of  the  executive 
authority  of  the  State  from  which  he  fled,  be  delivered  up 
to  be  removed  to  the  State  having  jurisdiction  of  the 
crime."  The  State  executive  can  only  have  conference 
with  the  executive  of  another  State,  so  where  there  were 
crimes  and  felonies,  the  Article  requires  that  the  executive 
of  one  State  shall  demand  of  the  executive  of  another  to 
deliver  the  criminal  up.  And  it  was  attempted  to  intro- 
duce into  this  the  words,  "and  persons  held  to  servitude;" 
but  this  was  unanimously  voted  down,  on  the  ground  that 
there  was  no  more  reason  to  constrain  the  Government  to 
return  any  slave,  than  to  ask  them  to  return  any  ox  or  ass, 
and  they  would  not  push  the  States  to  that  indignity. 
Then  the  next  clause  is  the  following:  "  No  person  held  to 
service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws  thereof,  escap- 
ing into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regu- 
lation therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due."  When  it  was  first  in- 
troduced, the  terms  were  "  any  person  held  to  servitude, 
or  in  servitude."  The  first  attempt  was  to  reject  that. 
Why  ?  Because  it  was  declared  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  should  not  recognize  slavery.  Mr. 
Madison  has  left  his  impartial  and  unquestionable  au- 
thority on  the  subject,  that  the  day  was  anticipated  when 
slavery  should  cease;  and  the  builders  of  the  Constitution 
so  framed  it,  that  while  it  knew  how  to  steer  round  slavery 
while  it  existed,  it  should  be  whole  and  perfect  when 
slavery  ceased.  [C/ieers.]  The  Northern  view,  in  reference 
to  the  operation  of  this,  was  that   if  a  slave   escaped  from 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  617 

Maryland  into  Pennsylvania,  and  the  master  found  his 
slave  there,  and  brought  proof  before  magistrate  and  jury 
that  it  was  his  beast  of  burden,  he  should  take  it  back  if 
he  could.  Thus  it  left  the  man  to  manage  his  own  prop- 
erty without  being  hindered  or  obstructed.  What,  then, 
is  the  objection  we  take  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850 
(not  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  but  a  law  of  the  Federal 
Congress)?  That  to  please  the  South  it  was  laid  down  to  be  a 
duty  of  the  whole  United  States  to  hunt  the  slave  down  without 
proof,  and,  at  the  mere  summons  of  the  claimant,  to  deliver  up 
the  person  claimed  and  saddle  the  costs  on  the  population  of  the 
United  States.  I  answer  then,  in  respect  to  this  whole  sub- 
ject, that  if  to-morrow  slavery  should  cease  by  the  force 
of  arms,  the  Constitution  is  not  touched,  nor  is  a  right 
that  is  guaranteed  by  this  Constitution  impaired;  for  as 
long  as  slavery  exists  there  is  an  article  which  gives  a  man 
the  right  to  go  and  find  his  slave  and  take  him  back  with- 
out molestation,  and  that  is  bad  enough;  but  if  to-morrow 
slavery  ceases  to  exist,  what  change  is  there  to  be  made  ? 
For  our  courts  have  construed  that  the  term  "persons  held 
to  service  "  includes  all  apprentices  under  indenture,  and 
that  a  slave  is  included  in  that,  not  as  a  slave,  but  by 
virtue  of  the  fact  that  he  is  held  to  service. 

Are  we  then,  by  maintaining  the  Constitution,  maintaining 
slavery  ?  No,  not  at  all — slavery  does  not  exist  in  the  Con- 
stitution, nor  by  virtue  of  it.  It  has  been  settled  a  hun- 
dred times  by  the  lawyers  of  every  slave  State  that  slavery 
is  a  local  (State)  institution,  and  can  exist  only  by  local 
statutes.  Nay,  the  very  conflict  between  the  South,  under 
Mr.  Douglas,  and  the  nascent  Republican  party,  was 
whether  slavery  should  be  local  and  municipal,  or  na- 
tional. They  tried  to  make  it  national;  that  was  the  last 
form  of  the  political  conflict  between  North  and  South — 
they  seeking  to  show  that  the  Constitution  did  indorse 
slavery,  and  we  saying  the  Constitution  never  did,  and 
never  shall.  I  don't  know  whether  Mr.  M'Crae  will  think 
I  have  answered  his  question,  but  I  am  sure  I  have  tried  to 
give  you  grounds  and  facts  on  which  every  man  can  an- 
swer it  for  himself.     [Cheers.] 


6l8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Mr.  Haughton  asked — "Is  it  not  the  case  that  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  and  his  party  have  invariably  maintained  that  the  Con- 
stitution is  in  favor  of  slavery;  have  not  the  judges  of  your  land 
so  interpreted  the  Constitution,  and  has  not  your  Supreme  Court 
decided  that  the  black  man  has  no  rights  which  the  white  man  is 
bound  to  respect?" 

No  questions  could  be  more  pertinent.  We  all  admit 
that  slavery  existed  as  a  fact  when  the  present  Constitution 
was  adopted;  that  two  clauses  were  introduced  to  meet 
certain  practical  difficulties  arising  out  of  local  slavery  in 
its  relation  to  federal  government.  The  framers  of  the 
Constitution  undertook  to  recognize  the  bare  political  fact 
of  slave -property  then  existing  in  some  States.  They 
undertook  to  form  a  Constitution  which  should  in  the 
widest  scope  represent  liberty,  yet  should  not  abruptly  de- 
stroy slavery,  but  should 'neither  encourage  nor  help  it. 
Now,  in  every  slave  State  that  has  given  a  definition  of 
slavery,  it  is  declared  to  be  the  condition  in  which  a  man 
ceases  to  be  a  man  and  becomes  a  chattel — a  thing,  not  a 
being  or  person.  With  this  definition  before  them,  when 
the  Constitution  was  in  formation,  after  debate  and  full 
explanation  of  what  they  meant,  they  declared  they  would 
not  put  into  the  Constitution  a  description  or  allusion  to 
slavery  that  should  characterize  it  by  its  technical  term,  but 
only  by  terms  that  brought  it  out  of  "  chattelhood  "  into 
mere  "  subordination."  Therefore  in  our  Constitution 
slaves  are  called  "  persons,"  always.  This  was  no  acci- 
dent— no  indiscriminate  use  of  words.  [Cheers.~\  It  was 
done  by  men  who  said  among  themselves,  "  Not  many 
years  can  pass  before  slavery  will  cease;"  and  what  they 
tried  to  do  was  to  have  a  Constitution  that  could  hold 
together  and  keep  us  afloat  for  the  moment,  but  yet  should 
not  give  countenance  to  slave -doctrines.  When  a  man 
undertakes  to  steer  a  ship  he  does  not  necessarily  include 
in  his  ideas  of  successful  shipbuilding  all  the  shoals  and 
sand-banks  that  may  impede  its  voyage;  and  when  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed,  the  formers 
merely  made  two  provisions  in  order  that  local  State  rights 
might  be  divested  of  their  power  of  general  mischief. 


FAREWELL  BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  619 

Now,  as  to  public  sentiment.  There  has  been  recently  a 
small  body  of  men  who  held  that  our  Constitution  did  not 
recognize  slavery  as  doctrine  or  fact.  I  differ  with  them: 
it  does  recognize  it  as  fact,  but  not  as  doctrine.  Other 
people  say,  "  No  matter  whether  the  Constitution  does  or 
does  not;  courts  that  bind  us  have  declared  that  it  does; 
therefore  let  us  break  the  Union  in  two  to  clear  ourselves 
from  complicity  with  it."  That  was  the  party  of  Mr.  Gar- 
rison, and  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips.  The  great  middle-class 
have  said  this:  "  Slavery  is  dying,  bound  to  die;  free  men 
made  a  Constitution  for  liberty,  and  made  it  so  that  while 
slavery  was  dying  the  Constitution  need  not  be  wrecked 
by  running  on  it." 

As  to  the  decisions  of  the  judges,  allow  me  to  say  that 
our  Federal  courts  have  been  packed  by  Southerners; 
while  the  North  has  had  either  to  accomplish  this  change 
by  revolutionary  process,  or  to  do  it  by  peaceable  methods, 
such  as  are  organized  in  the  Constitution  itself.  We  knew 
perfectly  well  it  was  part  of  the  plan  of  the  South  by  pack- 
ing the  courts,  and  by  process  of  construction,  to  transmute 
liberty  into  slavery  in  our  laws,  and  in  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  land.  That  was  what  we  believed  and  prophe- 
sied. We  warned  the  nation,  and  they  would  not  be 
warned.  That  declaration  was  construed  into  slander  of 
the  courts  and  of  men  in  authority,  when  I  made  it,  up  and 
down  through  the  land,  and  said,  "The  South  are  taking 
away  your  Constitution  by  dry-rot  [cheers] — but  give  us 
time,  and  we  will  by  popular  discussions  reverse  this  policy, 
and  fill  Congress  and  the  courts  with  different  men,  and 
then  we  will  reconstrue  it  back  again,  and  we  will  find  yet 
the  voice  of  liberty  that  shall  stand  by  the  Constitution, 
and  say  unto  the  bondsman,  '  Come  forth,'  and  he  shall 
come  forth,  and  stand  among  living  men,  a  man  again." 
[Cheers.]  This  was  my  doctrine  as  distinguished  from 
that  of  Mr.  Phillips  and  Mr.  Garrison.  I  have  said,  "  Give 
us  time;  there  are  in  our  Constitution  and  in  our  nation 
those  elements  which  will  bring  back  to  us  liberty  in  the 
Constitution  itself."  The  South  knew  it  just  as  well  as 
the  North.     [Cheers.]     But  they  lay  in  wait  and  watched, 


620  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  the  moment  that  discussion  had  produced  a  majority 
for  us  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected,  they  rebelled.  What- 
ever else  you  may  say  about  Southern  men,  it  must  be 
said  that  they  are  as  sagacious  as  children  of  darkness. 
[Cheers.]  And  we  said:  "So  long  as  our  courts  are  cor- 
rupted and  construe  the  Constitution  adverse  to  liberty, 
we  cannot  help  ourselves.  Wherever  they  do  wrong  to  us, 
we  will  bear  the  wrong;  but  when  they  command  us  to  do 
wrong  to  others,  we  will  not;  we  will  take  a  remedy;  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time  when  we  put  this  thing  right."  We 
said,  "Wait  —  there  is  liberty  in  patience:"  they  said, 
"  There  is  safety  only  in  rebellion;"  so  they  rebelled.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

[Another  inquiry  was  lie  re  addressed  to  Mr.  Beecher  as  to 
the  Bred  Scott  decision.']  The  friends  of  the  judge  who 
made  that  decision  have  thought  it  convenient  to  deny  that 
he  ever  used  the  words  imputed  to  him,  that  the  black 
man  has  no  rights  which  whites  are  bound  to  respect;  but 
whether  he  did  or  not,  it  is  universally  conceded  by  our 
lawyers  that  it  was  not  the  point  before  the  court,  but  an 
extra-judicial  opinion.  He  was  a  Maryland  slaveholding- 
judge:  the  very  instrument  by  which  the  South  meant  to 
transmute  our  institutions.  But  what  he  said  was  his  own 
opinion,  not  a  legal  decision. 

[Another  questioner  asked  if  the  Fugitive  Slave  Latu  of  1850 
was  still  part  of  the  Constitution.]  It  never  was  part  of  the 
Constitution.  In  England  your  Constitution  is  what  your 
Parliament  determines  to  be  law;  in  America  our  Consti- 
tution is  what  was  originally  written.  There  is  a  marked 
distinction  between  law  founded  on  written  principles,  and 
those  written  principles,  that  we  call  the  Constitution,  to 
which  all  laws  must  conform;  so  that  if  your  Parliament 
had  passed  a  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  it  would  become  part  and 
parcel  of  the  British  Constitution,  but  with  us  the  State  Con- 
stitution and  the  National  Constitution  stand  unchanged  by 
legislation.  If  the  Constitution  is  contravened  by  laws,  State 
or  Federal,  based  on  other  than  the  principles  it  enunciates, 
the  courts  set  them  aside.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is  simply 
a  law,  not  a  part  of  the  Constitution ;  which  we  hold  to  be  an 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  621 

outrage,  yet  inoperative,  as  having  no  power  beyond  the 
year  in  which  it  was  passed.  It  is  just  as  dead  now,  and 
has  been  the  last  eight  or  nine  years,  as  the  snake's  skin 
that  was  sloughed  ten  years  ago.  It  is  said  we  ought  to 
have  abolished  it.  When  Congress  came  together  they 
passed  so  many  reformatory  laws  that  it  was  thought 
seriously  they  should  abolish  this;  but  they  said — we  are 
charged  with  coming  together  for  revolutionary  purposes, 
and  to  destroy  the  local  municipal  power  of  the  States, 
and  we  must  not  do  anything  in  our  national  legislation 
that  shall  countenance  the  doctrine  that  we  are  revolution- 
izing State  rights. 

[A  gentleman  asked  how  the  great  religious  associations 
in  America  regarded  the  anti-slavery  question^  There  are 
two  parties  —  one  is  very  small  and  able,  and  is  called 
Abolitionist ;  the  other  comprises  all  the  rest  of  the  North, 
and  is  called  Anti-slavery.  The  distinction  is  not  one  of 
doctrine,  but  of  method.  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Phillips  said 
the  North  must  save  itself  by  disunion  ;  the  great  body  of 
those  who  hated  slavery  said,  we  cannot  consent  to  that. 
I  was  one  among  the  latter,  from  first  to  last,  and  that 
paragraph  in  the  newspapers  which  says  I  once  said  "there 
could  be  no  getting  rid  of  slavery  under  the  Constitu- 
tion "  is  a  total  and  absolute  falsehood.  [Cheers.]  I  would 
not  burn  a  barn  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  rats.  [Great 
laughter.']  We  have  always  said,  the  thing  is  bad  enough, 
but  not  so  bad  but  we  can  cure  it  by  moral  means.  I  have 
avowed  over  and  over  again  to  Southern  slaveholders : 
"  You  shall  not  go  off.  We  will  hold  you  in  the  bosom  of 
liberty  until  your  slavery  is  dead."  [Cheers.]  This  is  the 
point  which  you  English  are  liable  to  misunderstand.  A 
great  many  good  men  seem  to  you  to  have  paltered  and 
connived  ;  but  you  should  recollect  it  belongs  to  the  nat- 
ure of  free  discussion  and  moral  suasion  to  take  time  and 
patience.  You  cannot  convert  a  whole  nation  as  you  may 
one  man,  by  sitting  down  and  talking  to  him.  Prejudices 
melt  slowly,  but  we  have  always  had  such  faith  in  the 
ultimate  victory  of  Liberty  over  Slavery  that  we  have 
said,  "With  God  on  our  side  we  can  fight  and  shall  win." 


622  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

[C/ieers.]  Those  slavery-haters  who  were  opposed  to  any 
decisive  and  summary  remedy  as  too  dangerous,  were 
called  Anti-slavery  men  ;  those  who  were  in  favor  of  im- 
mediate disruption,  as  the  summary  and  necessary  remedy, 
were  called  Abolitionists:  that  was  the  distinction.  But 
now  there  is  no  distinction  at  all.  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr. 
Phillips  are  both  of  them  my  personal  friends.  I  would 
not  for  all  the  world  say  a  word  in  England  that  should 
carry  back  pain  to  their  hearts;  and  although  I  have  dif- 
fered from  them  all  my  life  long,  I  have  never  failed  to  see 
that  men  more  heroic  in  asserting  a  great  principle  never 
existed  in  the  world.  Mr.  Garrison  has  said  at  a  public 
meeting,  that  when  he  declared  that  the  Constitution  in- 
volved slavery,  he  never  expected  to  see  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
\Chcers^\  I  can  tell  you  there  is  no  more  welcome  speaker 
in  any  part  of  the  United  States,  than  that  man  of  genuine 
senatorial  nature,  of  polished  scholarship,  of  exquisite 
gentlemanly  manners,  of  most  truly  Christian  feelings  and 
sentiments,  even  if  sometimes  over  excited, — Mr.  Wendell 
Phillips.  But  we  are  all  one  to-day.  There  are  now  but 
two  parties  in  the  North.  An  overwhelming  majority  say: 
"  Since  they  have  taken  the  sword,  let  slavery  perish  by 
the  sword."  [Cheers.]  True!  there  is  a  small  party  that 
lives  in  crevices  and  cracks, — a  small  malignant  party 
called  "Peace  Democrats,"  with  that  thrice-rotten  Catiline 
Wood  at  the  head  of  it,  whom  your  Times  newspaper  is 
accustomed  to  hold  up  as  the  exponent  of  American  peace 
doctrine.  Him  I  have  heard  praised  by  the  lips  of  Chris- 
tian men,  who,  if  they  could  know  his  crimes,  vices,  and 
Satanic  wickedness,  would  blow  him  from  their  parlors, 
as  you  do  Sepoys  from  the  mouths  of  your  cannon.  [Great 
cheering?^ 

Mr.  Robertson  asked  Mr.  Beecher's  attention  to  two  clauses  in 
the  Constitution,  frequently  quoted  to  demonstrate  that  it  was 
pro-slavery, — the  clause  where  Congress  legalized  the  slave-trade 
until  1808,  and  the  clause  requiring  the  Executive  to  lend  assist- 
ance to  any  State  Government  in  case  of  domestic  insurrection. 
A  third  argument  was  the  New  England  States  repealing  the 
Personal  Liberty  Bill,  and  recognizing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    MANCHESTER.  623 

If  you  ask  me  whether  I  think  what  was  then  done  was 
ineffably  wicked,  I  say  yes;  but  that  it  has  no  force  now, 
everybody  admits.  When  this  Constitution  was  made,  the 
question  was,  how  much  the  separate  States  would  give 
up,  in  order  to  endue  the  central  Federal  Government 
with  authority — how  much  of  sovereignty  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment should  receive  from  the  States  that  had  thus  far  held  the 
whole  sovereignty.  They  proposed  to  give  the  Government 
in  Congress  the  power  to  abolish  the  slave-trade,  but  they 
would  not  let  them  have  that  power  till  1808.  It  was  then 
not  a  question  of  the  Constitution  at  all,  but  of  the  conven- 
tion of  these  sovereign  States,  and  they  refused  to  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  Federal  Government  until  such  a  date  the  power 
which  after  that  date  the  Government  was  to  have.  In  all 
these  stages,  it  was  the  opinion  of  every  man  who  had  part 
in  founding  the  Constitution,  that  slavery  was  dying,  and 
they  did  not  feel  as  you  and  I  would  have  felt,  but  said: 
"  Ease  it  off  in  every  way."  Slavery  was  like  some  brigand 
brought  into  an  Alpine  convent,  where  he  was  given  a 
room  and  a  place  to  prepare  to  die  in,  decently.  On  the 
contrary,  the  old  brigand  did  not  die,  but  called  in  his 
confederates,  and  domineered  over  the  very  hospital  where 
he  was  being  nursed  for  Christian  burial.  As  to  the  pre- 
vention of  rebellion  in  any  State,  the  National  Govern- 
ment is  of  course  bound  to  exert  its  whole  power  to  save 
any  State  from  the  intestine  mischiefs  of  insurrection.  If 
this  covers  slavery  as  much  as  liberty,  yet  because  it  is  a 
principle  born  of  liberty,  slavery  gets  the  benefit  of  it. 
Every  nation  must  undertake  this  duty;  the  hand  to  which 
you  give  the  national  sword  must  defend  every  part  of  the 
nation  from  internal  disorder.  The  repealing  of  the  Lib- 
erty Bill  took  place  in  only  one  or  two  States. 

I  wish  to  say  that  I  feel  convinced  that,  when  Dr.  Massie 
issues  his  report  of  his  visit,  he  will  be  able  to  say  he 
found  the  educated,  intelligent,  and  religious-minded  peo- 
ple of  the  North,  wherever  he  went,  settled  down  to  the 
conclusion  as  final  and  irremovable,  that  this  war  must  be 
supported  till  rebellion  shall  be  crushed,  and  that  rebell- 
ion cannot  be  crushed  till  slavery  has  been  destroyed.     I 


624  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

do  not  mean  merely  what  you  mean  here  by  the  "  intelli- 
gent classes."  The  phrase  with  us  includes  farmers,  me- 
chanics, the  very  bulk  of  our  people.  For  it  is  the  legitimate 
effect  of  democratic  instruction,  that  no  line  can  be  drawn 
between  the  college-educated  man  at  the  top,  and  the  com- 
mon-school-educated man  at  the  bottom.  A  thoroughly 
educated  common  people,  with  collegiate  men  to  be  their 
leaders  and  mouthpieces,  in  sympathy  with  them, —  all 
moving  together, —  is  better  than  any  society  where  the 
bottom  is  ignorant,  and  the  top  is  educated.     \Cheers^\ 

With   some   further   remarks  Mr.  Beecher  concluded,  having 
spoken  nearly  two  hours. 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,   LIVERPOOL. 

October  30,  1863. 


Mr.  Beecher  was  entertained  by  the  members  of  the  Liverpool 
Emancipation  Society  at  a  public  breakfast  in  the  St.  James's 
Hall,  Lime  street,  prior  to  his  return  to  America.  A  party  of 
about  two  hundred  ladies  and  gentlemen  sat  down  at  ten  o'clock 
to  the  repast.  The  chair  was  occupied  by  Mr.  Charles  Wilson, 
president  of  the  Society. 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  preside, 
as  I  have  no  doubt  it  also  gives  you  great  pleasure  to  be  present 
on  this,  which  may  be  the  last,  occasion  on  which  Mr.  Beecher 
will  ever  address  an  English  audience ;  and  I  feel  that  I  may 
thank  him  in  your  name,  in  my  own,  and  in  the  name  of  the 
friends  of  Emancipation  and  of  Union  generally,  for  the  ability, 
the  power,  the  kindly  good-will,  with  which  he  has  advocated  the 
cause  of  liberty  during  his  stay  in  England.  [Hear,  /war.]  He 
has  stated  publicly  that  his  desire  is  to  draw  closer  the  bonds  of 
amity  and  good  fellowship  between  his  country  and  ours  [cheers] 
— and  if  I  have  one  wish  above  another  it  is  to  do  what  little  I  can 
to  promote  kind  and  generous  feeling  '  between  the  two  great 
nations  which  speak  the  English  language,  and  which  are  alike 
entitled  to  the  English  name.'  [Cheers.]  I  have  lived  in  both 
countries,  and  I  can  never  forget  the  kindness  and  the  hospitality 
which  I  and  my  family  experienced  when  in  America;  and  I  bear 
this  testimony,  that  there  is  more  kindly  feeling  in  the  Americans 
towards  England  and  the  English  than  there  is  here  towards 
America  and  the  Americans.  [Hear,  hear,  and  applause^  It  is 
not  unnatural  that  it  should  be  so.  They  have  ties  and  affections 
towards  the  land  of  their  forefathers  which  we  cannot  have  to- 
wards any  new  country.  This  island  contains  the  ashes  of  their 
ancestors.  She  is  the  place  from  whence  they  sprung.  To  them 
she  is  ever  their  mother-country — their  dear  Old  England.  They 
claim  her  as  well  as  we.  Every  American  who  comes  to  England 
make's,  as  it  were,  a  pilgrimage  to  the  old  home  of  his  farr:';, 
.  .  .  As  Earl  Russell  said  the  other  dov,  ihey  have  our  lan- 
guage, our  literature,  our  laws,  our  early  hutory  is  also  theirs. 
40 


626  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

These  appeal  to  the  understanding  and  the  intellect ;  but  those 
quiet  spots,  the  homes  and  the  graves  of  their  kindred,  bind  their 
very  hearts  to  England.  O,  let  us  cherish,  and  seek  to  return 
the  love  that  ever  flows  towards  us  with  the  Atlantic  wave. 

"  Now,  let  me  congratulate  you,  Mr.  Beecher,  on  the  success 
which  has  attended  your  recent  efforts.  [Cheers.]  In  the  capital 
of  Scotland  you  had  the  opportunity  of  addressing  perhaps  the 
most  learned,  the  most  scientific,  the  most  critical  [hear,  hear] — 
and,  at  that  particular  juncture,  the  most  philanthropic  assembly 
which  could  be  got  together  in  this  kingdom.  I  understand  that 
there  was  not  one  dissentient  voice.  [CAeers.]  In  the  capital  of 
England  no  room  could  be  found  large  enough  to  contain  one- 
half  of  those  who  flocked  to  hear  and  support  you.  [Hear,  Jicar.\ 
You  have  had  large  and  influential  meetings  in  other  great  towns 
and  cities ;  and,  sir,  you  have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus 
[hear,  hear] — but,  even  here,  the  closing  scenes  must  have  con- 
vinced you  how  impotent  were  the  bellowings  and  howlings,  the 
occasional  bleatings  and  cacklings  of  the  Southern  hirelings  to 
stifle  the  voice  of  Liverpool  for  freedom.  [Applause.']  You  will 
relate  these  things  when  you  go  home."  The  chairman  con- 
cluded by  further  congratulations  to  Mr.  Beecher  on  the  success 
which  had  attended  his  labors  in  England. 

Mr.  C.  E.  Rawlins,  Jr.,  read  a  formal  congratulatory  Address 
from  the  Society  to  their  guest,  and  the  motion  was  unanimously 
adopted  with  a  display  of  enthusiastic  feeling. 

Mr.  Beecher,  responded  as  follows  : — 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  although  this  is  a 
festive  scene,  it  is  rather  with  feelings  of  sadness  and  solem- 
nity that  I  stand  in  your  midst;  for  the  hours  are  num- 
bered that  I  am  to  be  with  you,  and  the  ship  is  now  ■  wait- 
ing that  I  trust  will  bear  me  safely  to  my  native  land.  If 
already  I  have  to  the  full  those  sentiments  of  reverence 
and  even  romantic  attachment  to  the  memories,  to  the 
names,  to  the  truths,  and  to  the  very  legends  of  Old  En- 
gland which  have  been  so  beautifully  alluded  to  by  the 
chairman  on  this  occasion — if  I  had  already  that  prepara- 
tion, how  much,  working  on  that  predisposition,  do  you 
suppose  has  been  the  kindness,  the  good  cheer,  the  help- 
fulness, which  I  have  received  from  more  noble  English 
hands  and  hearts  than  I  can  name  or  even  now  remember. 
I  have  to  thank   them  for  almost  everything,  and  I   have 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERPOOL.  627 

almost  nothing  to  regret  in  my  personal  intercourse  with 
the  English  people;  for  I  am  too  old  a  navigator  to  think 
it  a  misfortune  to  have  steered  my  bark  in  a  flood  or  even  a 
storm,  and  what  few  waves  have  dashed  over  the  bows  and 
wetted  the  deck  did  not  send  me  below  whining  and  cry- 
ing. [Hear,  hear,  and laughter :]  It  was  a  matter  of  course. 
I  accepted  it  with  good  nature  at  the  time.  I  look  back 
on  it,  on  the  whole,  with  pleasure  now;  for  storms,  when 
they  are  past,  give  us  on  their  back  the  rainbow,  and  now 
even  in  those  discordant  notes  I  find  some  music.  [Ap- 
plause^] I  had  a  thousand  times  rather  that  England  should 
be  so  sensitive  as  to  quarrel  with  me  than  that  she  should 
have  been  so  torpid  and  dead  as  not  to  have  responded  at 
a  stroke.  [Cheers.']  I  go  back  to  my  native  land;  but  be 
sure,  sir,  and  be  sure,  ladies  and  gentlemen  that  have 
kindly  presented  to  me  this  address,  that  though  I  needed 
no  such  spur  I  shall  accept  the  incitement  of  it  to  labor 
there  for  a  better  understanding  and  for  an  abiding  peace 
between  these  two  great  nations.     [Hear,  and  cheers^] 

I  do  not  know  that  my  hardest  labor  is  accomplished  on 
this  side.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  know  not  what  is  before  me — 
what  criticisms  may  be  made  upon  my  course.  I  think  it 
likely  that  many  papers  that  never  have  been  ardent  ad- 
mirers of  mine  will  find  great  fault  with  my  statements, 
will  controvert  my  facts,  will  traverse  my  reasonings.  I  do 
not  know  but  that  men  will  say  that  I  have  conceded  too 
much;  and  that,  melting  under  the  influence  of  England,  I 
have  not  been  as  sturdy  in  my  blows  here  as  I  was  in  my  own 
land.  [Laughter.]  One  thing  is  very  certain,  that  while,  before 
I  came  here,  I  always  attempted  to  speak  the  words  of  truth, 
even  if  they  were  not  of  soberness  [laughter] — so  here  I  have 
endeavored  to  know  only  that  which  made  for  truth  first — 
love  and  peace  next.  [Cheers.]  Of  course  I  have  not  said 
everything  that  I  knew.  So  to  do,  would  have  been  to 
talk  in  season  and  out  of  season,  and  fail  to  promote  the 
sublimest  ends  that  a  Christian  man  or  a  patriot  can  con- 
template— the  welfare  of  two  great  allied  nations.  [Cheers.] 
I  should  have  been  foolish  if  I  had  left  the  things  which 
made  for  peace  and  dug  up   the  things  that   would  have 


628  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

made  offense.  [Renewed  cheers.]  Yet  the  peaceful  course 
was  not  inconsistent  with  frankness,  with  fidelity,  and 
with  a  due  statement  of  that  blame  which  we  have  felt 
attached  to  the  course  of  England  in  this  conflict,  [//ear, 
hear.] 

I  shall  go  back  to  represent  to  my  own  countrymen  on 
fitting  occasions  what  I  have  discovered  of  the  reasons  for 
the  recent  antagonism  of  England  to  America.  And  I  shall 
have  to  say  primarily  that  the  mouth  and  the  tongue  of  En- 
gland have  been  to  a  very  great  extent  as  were  the  mouth  and 
the  tongue  of  old  of  those  poor  wretches  that  were  pos- 
sessed of  the  devil, — not  in  their  own  control.  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  The  institutions  of  England — for  England 
is  pre-eminently  a  nation  of  institutions — the  institutions 
of  England  have  been  very  largely  controlled  by  a  limited 
class  of  men;  and,  as  a  general  thing,  the  organs  of  ex- 
pression have  gone  with  the  dominant  institutions  of  the 
land.  Now  it  takes  time  for  a  great  unorganized,  and  to 
a  certain  extent  unvoting,  public  opinion,  underneath  in- 
stitutions, to  create  that  grand  swell  that  lifts  the  whole 
ark  up  \_kear,  hear,  and cheer s]\  and  so  it  will  be  my  prov- 
ince to  interpret  to  them  that  there  may  have  been 
abundant,  and  various,  and  widespread  utterances  antag- 
onistic to  us,  and  yet  that  the}''  might  not  have  been  the 
voices  that  represented,  after  all,  the  great  heart  of  En- 
gland.    [Hear,  hear,  and  applause^] 

But  there  is  more  than  that.  Rising  higher  than  party 
feeling,  endeavoring  to  stand  upon  some  ground  where 
men  may  be  both  Christians  and  philosophers,  and  looking 
upon  the  two  nations  from  this  higher  point  of  view,  one 
may  see  that  it  must  needs  have  been  as  it  has  been,  for  it 
so  happens  that  England  herself,  or  Great  Britain  I  should 
say — I  mean  Great  Britain  when  I  say  England,  always 
[loud cheers] — Great  Britain  is  herself  undergoing  a  process 
of  gradual  internal  change.  [Hear,  hear.]  All  living, nations 
are  undergoing  such  changes.  No  nation  abides  fixed  in  pol- 
icy and  fixed  in  institutions  until  it  abides  in  death  [hear, 
hear];  for  death  only  is  immovable  in  this  life,  and  life  is 
a  perpetual    process  of   supply.     Assimilation,  excretion, 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERPOOL.  629 

change,  and  sensitiveness  to  the  causes  of  change,  are  the 
marks  of  life.  [Applause~]  And  England  is  undergoing  a 
change,  and  must  do  so  so  long  as  she  is  vital;  and  when 
you  shall  have  put  that  round  about  England  which  pre- 
vents further  change,  you  will  have  put  her  shroud  around 
her.  [Hear,  hear,  and  cheering.']  Now  changes  cannot  be 
brought  to  pass  amongst  a  free,  thinking  people  as  you 
can  bring  about  changes  in  agriculture  or  in  mechanics, 
or  upon  dead  matter  by  the  operation  of  natural  laws. 
Changes  that  are  wrought  by  the  will  of  consenting  men 
imply  hesitation,  doubt,  difference,  debate,  antagonisms; 
and  change  in  the  final  stage  before  which  always  has  been 
the  great  conflict,  which  conflict  itself,  with  all  its  mischiefs, 
is  also  a  great  benefit,  since  it  is  a  quickener  and  a  life- 
giver;  for  there  is  nothing  so  hateful  in  life  as  death;  and 
among  a  people  nothing  so  terrible  as  dead  men  that  walk 
about  and  do  not  know  they  are  dead.  [Laughter  and 
cheers.]  It  therefore  comes  to  pass  that  in  the  normal 
process  of  a  change  such  as  is  taking  place  in  England, 
there  will  be  parties,  there  will  be  divided  circles,  and 
cliques,  and  all  those  aspects  and  phenomena  which  belong 
to  healthy  national  progress  and  change  for  progress. 
But  it  so  came  to  pass  that  America  too  was  undergoing 
a  change,  more  pronounced;  and  since,  contrary  to  our  hope 
and  expectation,  it  was  a  change  that  went  on  under  the 
form  of  revolution  and  war,  in  its  latter  period,  it  at  first 
addressed  England  only  by  her  senses;  for  when  the  re- 
bellion broke  out  and  the  tidings  rolled  across  the  ocean, 
everybody  has  said,  "  England  was  for  you  at  first."  [Hear, 
hear.]  I  believe  so:  because  before  men  had  time  to  weigh 
in  the  balances  the  causes  that  were  at  work  on  our  side; 
before  the  patrician  had  had  time  to  study, — "What  might 
be  the  influence  of  this  upon  my  class  ? "  and  the  church- 
man,— "  What  will  be  the  influence  of  these  principles  on 
my  position?"  and  the  various  parties  in  Great  Britain, — 
"What  will  be  the  influence  of  these  American  ideas,  if 
they  are  in  the  ascendency,  on  my  side  and  on  my  posi- 
tion ?  " — before  men  had  time  to  analyze  and  to  ponder — 
they  were  for  the  North   and  against   the  South;    because, 


630  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

although  your  anti-slavery  feeling  is  hereditary  and  legend- 
ary, there  was  enough  vitality  in  it,  however  feeble,  to 
bring  you  on  to  the  side  of  the  North  in  the  first  instance. 
Much  more  would  it  have  done,  had  it  been  a  really  liv- 
ing and  quickening  principle. 

It  is  said  that  up  to  the  time  of  the  trouble  of  the  Trent, 
England  was  with  us,  but  from  that  time  she  went  rapidly 
over  the  other  way.  That  was  merely  the  occasion,  but 
not  the  cause.  I  understand  it  to  have  been  this — that 
there  were  a  great  many  men  and  classes  of  men  in  En- 
gland that  feared  the  reactionary  influences  of  American 
ideas  upon  the  internal  conflicts  of  England  herself  [hear, 
//car];  and  a  great  deal  of  the  offense  has  arisen,  not 
so  much  from  any  direct  antagonism  between  Englishmen 
and  Americans,  as  from  the  feeling  of  Englishmen  that 
the  way  to  defend  themselves  at  home  was  to  fight  their 
battle  in  America  [hear,  hear]  and  that  therefore  there  has 
been  this  strange,  this  anomalous  and  ordinarily  unex- 
plained cause  of  the  offense  and  of  the  difficulties. 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  it.  I  will  not  omit  to  state,  in 
passing,  that  there  has  been  here  a  great  deal  of  igno- 
rance and  of  misconception.  [Hear,  hear.]  But  that  was 
to  be  expected.  We  are  not  to  suppose  —  it  would  be 
supreme  egotism  for  an  American  to  suppose — that  the 
great  mass  of  the  English  people  should  study  American 
institutions  and  American  policy  and  American  history  as 
they  do  their  own;  and  when  to  that  natural  unknowing- 
ness  by  one  nation  of  the  affairs  of  another  are  added  the 
unscrupulous  and  wonderfully  active  exertions  of  Southern 
emissaries  here,  who  found  men  ready  to  be  inoculated, 
and  who  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  proselytes  and 
then  made  them  tenfold  more  the  children  of  the  devil 
than  themselves  [applause],  when  these  men  began  to  prop- 
agate one-sided  facts,  suppressing — and  suppression  has 
been  as  vast  a  lie  in  England  as  falsification  [hear,  //ear] — 
perpetually  presenting  every  rumor,  every  telegram  and 
imperfect  dispatch  from  the  wrong  point  of  view,  and  forget- 
ting to  correct  it  when  the  rest  came  [hear,  hear],  finding,  I  say, 
that  through  emissaries  and  easy  converts,  the  South  has 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LllERPOOL.  6 


o 


propagated    an    immense    amount     of    false    information 
throughout  England, — we  are  to  take  this  into  account. 

But,  next,  consider  the  antagonisms  which  there  are  sup- 
posed to  be  between  the  commercial  interests  of  North 
America  and  of  England.  We  are  two  great  rivals.  Ri- 
valry, gentlemen,  is  simply  in  the  nature  of  a  pair  of  scissors 
or  shears;  you  cannot  cut  with  one  blade,  but  if  you  are 
going  to  cut  well  you  must  have  one  rubbing  against  the 
other.  [Hear,  hear,  and* laughter.]  One  bookstore  cannot 
do  as  much  business  in  a  town  as  two,  because  the  rivalry 
creates  demand.  [Hear,  hear.]  Everywhere  the  great 
want  of  men  is  people  to  buy,  and  the  end  of  all  com- 
merce should  be  to  raise  up  people  enough  to  take  the 
supplies  of  commerce.  [Hear,  hear.]  Now,  where  in  any 
street  you  collect  one,  five,  ten,  twenty  booksellers  or  dry 
goods  dealers,  you  attract  customers  to  that  point;  and  so 
far  from  being  adverse  to  each  other's  welfare,  men  clus- 
tering together  in  rivalry,  in  the  long  run  and  comprehen- 
sively considered,  are  beneficial  to  each  other.  There 
are  many  men  who  always  reason  from  their  lower  facul- 
ties, and  refuse  to  see  any  questions  except  selfishly,  en- 
viously, jealously.  It  is  so  on  both  sides  the  sea.  [Hear, 
hear.]  Such  men  will  attempt  always  to  foster  rivalry  and 
make  it  rancorous.  They  need  to  be  rebuked  by  the  hon- 
orable men  of  the  commercial  world  on  both  sides  of  the 
ocean,  and  put  in  their  right  place — under  foot.  [Applause.] 
Against  all  mean  jealousies,  I  say,  there  is  to  be  a  com- 
merce yet  on  this  globe,  compared  with  which  all  we  have 
ever  had  will  be  but  as  the  size  of  the  hand  compared 
with  the  cloud  that  belts  the  hemisphere.  [Applause.] 
There  is  to  be  a  resurrection  of  nations;  there  is  to  be  a 
civilization  that  shall  bring  up  even  that  vast  populous 
continent  of  Asia  into  new  forms  of  life,  with  new  de- 
mands. There  is  to  be  a  time  when  liberty  shall  bless  the 
nations  of  the  earth  and  expand  their  minds  in  their  own 
homes;  when  men  shall  want  more  and  shall  buy  more. 
There  is  to  be  a  supply  required,  that  may  tax  every  loom 
and  every  spindle  and  every  ship  that  England  has  or  shall 
have  when  they  are  multiplied  fourfold.     [Applause^]     In- 


632  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

stead  therefore  of  wasting  energy,  peace,  and  manhood  in 
miserable  petty  jealousies,  trans-Atlantic  or  cis-Atlantic, 
the  business  of  England,  as  of  America,  should  be  to 
strike  those  keynotes  of  liberty,  to  sound  those  deep 
chords  of  human  rights,  that  shall  raise  the  nations  of  the 
earth  and  make  them  better  customers  because  they  are 
broader  men.     [Great  cheering.] 

It  has  also  been  supposed  that  American  ideas  reacting 
will  have  a  powerful  tendency  to  dissatisfy  men  with  their 
form  of  government  in  Great  Britain.  This  is  the  sincere 
conviction  of  many.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  England  is 
not  perfect.  England  has  not  yet  the  best  political  instru- 
ments any  more  than  we  have;  but  of  one  thing  you  may 
be  certain,  that  in  a  nation  which  is  so  conservative,  which 
does  not  trust  itself  to  the  natural  conservatism  of  self- 
governing  men,  but  even  fortifies  itself  with  conservatism 
by  the  most  potent  institutions,  and  gives  those  institu- 
tions mainly  into  the  hands  of  a  conservative  class,  or- 
dained to  hold  back  the  impetuosity  of  the  people — do 
you  think  that  any  political  change  can  ever  take  place  in 
England  until  it  has  gone  through  such  a  controversy, 
such  a  living  fight,  as  shall  have  proved  it  worthy  to  be  re- 
ceived ?  And  will  any  man  tell  me  that,  when  a  principle 
or  a  truth  has  been  proved  worthy,  England  will  refuse  to 
receive  it,  to  give  it  house-room,  and  to  make  any  changes 
that  may  be  required  for  it  ?  [Hear,  /iear.~\  If  voting  viva 
voce  is  best,  fifty  years  hence  you  will  be  found  voting  in 
that  manner.  If  voting  by  the  ballot  is  best,  fifty  years 
hence  you  will  have  here  what  we  have  in  America,  the 
silent  fall  of  those  flakes  of  paper  which  come  as  snow 
comes,  soundless,  but  which  gather,  as  snow  gathers  on  the 
tops  of  the  mountains,  to  roll  with  the  thunder  of  the 
avalanche,  and  crush  all  beneath  it.  [Loud  applause .]  But 
it  is  supposed  that  it  may  extend  still  further.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  spectacle  of  a  great  nation  that  governs  it- 
self so  cheaply  will  react  in  favor  of  those  men  in  Europe 
who  demand  that  monarchical  government  shall  be  con- 
ducted cheaply.  [Hear,  /war.]  For  men  say,  Look  at  the 
civil  list — look  at  the  millions  of  pounds  sterling  required 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERFOOL.  633 

to  conduct  our  Government,  and  see  thirty  millions  of 
men  governed  on  that  vast  continent  at  not  one-tenth  part 
of  the  expense.  [Hear,  hear.']  Well,  I  must  say  that  if 
this  report  comes  across  the  sea,  and  is  true,  and  these  facts 
do  excite  such  thoughts,  I  do  not  see  how  it.  can  be  helped. 
[Hear,  hear,  and  laughter.]  I  do  not  say  that  our  American 
example  will  react  to  the  essential  reconstruction  of  any 
principles  in  your  edifice.  I  have  not  in  my  own  mind 
the  belief  that  it  will  do  more  than  re-adapt  your  economy 
to  a  greater  facility  and  to  more  beneficence  in  its  applica- 
tion; but  that  it  will  ever  take  the  crown  from  the  king's 
head,  or  change  the  organization  of  your  aristocracy,  I 
have  not  a  thought.  [Cheers.]  It  is  no  matter  what  my 
own  private  opinion  on  the  subject  is.  Did  I  live  or  had  I 
been  born  and  bred  in  England,  I  have  no  question  that  I 
should  feel  just  as  you  feel,  for  this  I  will  say:  that  in  no 
other  land  that  I  know  of  under  the  sun  are  a  monarchy 
and  an  aristocracy  holding  power  under  it,  standing  around 
as  the  bulwark  of  the  throne — in  not  another  land  are 
there  so  man)''  popular  benefits  accruing  under  the  Gov- 
ernment; and  if  you  must  have  an  aristocracy,  where  in  any 
other  land  can  you  point  out  so  many  men  noble  politically, 
but  more  noble  by  disposition,  by  culture,  by  manliness, 
and  true  Christian  piety?  [Loud  and  reiterated  cheering .] 
I  say  this  neither  as  the  advocate  nor  as  the  adversary  of 
this  particular  form  of  government,  but  I  say  it  simply 
because  there  is  a  latent  feeling  that  American  ideas  are 
in  natural  antagonism  with  aristocracy.  They  are  not. 
American  ideas  are  merely  these — that  the  end  of  govern- 
ment '  is  the  benefit  of  the  governed.  [Hear,  hear,  and 
cheers.]  If  that  idea  is  inconsistent  with  your  form  of  gov- 
ernment, how  can  that  form  expect  to  stand  ?  And  if  it 
only  requires  some  slight  re-adjustment  from  generation 
to  generation,  and  if  that  idea  is  consistent  with  monarchy 
and  aristocracy,  why  should  you  fear  any  change  ? 
[Cheers.]  I  believe  that  monarchy  and  aristocracy,  as  they 
are  practically  developed  in  England,  are  abundantly  con- 
sistent with  the  great  doctrine  that  government  is  for  the 
benefit  of  the  governed.      [Hear,  hear.] 


634  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

There  has  also  been  a  feeling  that  the  free  church  of 
America,  while  it  might  perhaps  do  in  a  rough-and-tumble 
enterprise  in  the  wilderness,  is  not  the  proper  form  of 
church  for  Great  Britain.  Well,  you  are  the  judges,  gen- 
tlemen, about  that,  not  we;  and  if  it  is  not  the  proper  form 
for  Great  Britain,  you  need  not  fear  that  Great  Britain 
will  take  it.  If  it  is,  then  it  is  only  a  question  of  time;  you 
will  have  to  take  it.  [Cheers.]  For  I  hold,  sturdy  as  you 
are,  strong  as  your  will  is,  persistent  as  you  may  be  for 
whatever  seems  to  you  to  be  truth,  you  will  have,  first  or 
last,  to  submit  to  God's  truth.     [Applause.] 

When  I  look  into  the  interior  of  English  thoughts,  and 
feelings,  and  society,  and  see  how  in  the  first  stage  of  our 
conflict  with  your  old  anti-slavery  sympathies  you  went  for 
the  North;  how  there  came  a  second  stage,  when  you  be- 
gan to  fear  lest  this  American  struggle  should  react  upon 
your  own  parties;  I  think  I  see  my  way  to  the  third  stage, 
in  which  you  will  say,  "  This  American  struggle  will  not 
affect  our  interior  interests  and  economy  more  than  we 
choose  to  allow;  and  our  duty  is  to  follow  our  own  real 
original  opinions  and  manly  sentiments.  [Cheers.]  I  know 
of  but  one  or  two  things  that  are  necessary  to  expedite 
this  final  judgment  of  England,  and  that  is,  one  or  two 
conclusive  Federal  victories.  [Applause.  ]  If  I  am  not 
greatly  mistaken,  the  convictions  and  opinions  of  England 
are  like  iron  wedges;  but  success  is  the  sledge  hammer 
which  drives  in  the  wedge  and  splits  the  log.  [Hear,  hear, 
and  cheers.  |  Nowhere  in  the  world  are  people  so  apt  to 
succeed  in  what  they  put  their  hand  to  as  in  England,  and 
therefore  nowhere  in  the  world  more  than  in  England  is 
success  honored;  and  the  crowning  thing  for  the  North,  in 
order  to  complete  that  returning  sympathy  and  cordial 
good  will  is  to  obtain  a  thorough  victory  over  the  South. 
[Cheers.]  There  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  that  but — the 
thing  itself.     |  Laughter  a  nd  cheers.] 

Allow  me  to  say,  therefore,  just  at  this  point  and  in  that 
regard,  that,  whilst  looking  at  it  commercially,  and  whilst 
looking  at  it  sentimentally,  the  prolongation  of  this  war 
seems  mischievous,  it  is  more  in  seeming  than   reality,  for 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERPOOL.  635 

the  North  is  itself  being  educated  by  this  war.  The 
North  was  like  men  sent  to  sea  on  a  ship  that  was  but  half 
built  as  yet;  just  enough  built  to  keep  the  water  out  of 
the  hull:  but  they  had  both  to  sail  on  their  voyage  and  to 
build  up  the  ship  as  they  went.  We  were  precipitated  into 
this  war  at  a  civil  crisis  in  which  there  were  all  manner  of 
complications  at  all  stages  of  progress  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, and  the  process  of  education  has  had  to  go  on  in 
battle-fields,  in  the  drill-camps,  and  at  home  amongst  the 
people,  while  they  were  discussing,  and  taxing  their  energies 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  war.  And  there  never  was  so 
good  a  schoolmaster  as  war  has  been  in  America.  Terrible 
was  the  light  of  his  eye,  fearful  the  stroke  of  his  hand;  but 
he  is  turning  out  as  good  a  set  of  pupils  as  ever  came  from 
any  school  in  this  world.  Now  every  single  month  from 
this  time  forward  that  this  struggle  is  delayed  unitizes  the 
North — brings  the  North  on  to  that  ground  which  so  many 
have  struggled  to  avoid:  "Union  and  peace  require  the 
utter  destruction  of  slavery."  [Loud  cheering  i]  There  is 
an  old  proverb,  "  There's  luck  in  leisure."  Let  me  trans- 
mute the  proverb,  and  say,  "  There  is  emancipation  in  de- 
lay." [Loud  cheers.]  And  every  humane  heart,  yea,  every 
commercial  man  that  takes  any  comprehensive  and  long- 
sighted instead  of  a  narrow  view  of  the  question — will  say, 
"  Let  the  war  thus  linger  until  it  has  burnt  slavery  to  the 
very  root."     [Renewed  cheers.] 

While  it  is,  however,  a  great  evil  and  a  terrible  one, — I 
will  not  disguise  it, — for  war  is  dreadful  to  every  Christian 
heart, — yet,  blessed  be  God,  we  are  not  called  to  an  un- 
mixed evil.  There  are  many  collateral  advantages.  While 
war  is  as  great,  or  even  a  greater  evil  than  many  of  you 
have  been  taught  to  think,  it  is  wrong  to  suppose  that  it  is 
evil  only,  and  that  God  cannot,  even  by  such  servants  as 
war,  work  out  a  great  moral  result.  The  spirit  of  patriot- 
ism diffused  throughout  the  North  has  been  almost  like 
the  resurrection  of  manhood.  [Cheers.]  You  never  can 
understand  what  emasculation  has  been  caused  by  the  in- 
direct influence  of  slavery.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  have  mourned 
all   my   mature   life  to    see    men    growing    up    who    were 


636  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

obliged  to  suppress  all  true  conviction  and  sentiment,  be- 
cause it  was  necessary  to  compromise  between  the  great 
antagonisms  of  North  and  South.  There  were  the  few  pro- 
nounced anti-slavery  men  of  the  North,  and  the  few  pro- 
nounced slavery  men  of  the  South,  and  the  Union  lovers 
(as  they  were  called  during  the  latter  period)  attempting 
to  hold  the  two  together,  not  by  a  mild  and  consistent  ad- 
herence to  truth  plainly  spoken,  but  by  suppressing  truth 
and  conviction,  and  saying,  "Everything  for  the  Union." 
Now  during  that  period  I  took  this  ground,  that  if  "Union" 
meant  nothing  but  this — a  resignation  of  the  national 
power  to  be  made  a  tool  for  the  maintenance  of  slavery — 
Union  was  a  lie  and  a  degradation.  [Great  cheering.]  All 
over  New  England,  and  all  over  the  State  of  New  York, 
and  through  Pennsylvania,  to  the  very  banks  of  the  Ohio, 
in  the  presence  of  hisses  and  execrations,  I  held  this  doc- 
trine from  1S50  to  i860 — namely,  "  Union  is  good  if  it  is 
Union  for  justice  and  liberty;  but  if  it  is  Union  for  slavery, 
then  it  is  thrice  accursed."  [Loud  cheering.]  For  they 
were  attempting  to  lasso  anti-slavery  men  by  this  word 
"  Union,"  and  to  draw  them  over  to  pro-slavery  sympathies 
and  the  party  of  the  South,  by  saying,  "  Slavery  may  be 
wrong  and  all  that,  but  we  must  not  give  up  the  Union," 
and  it  became  necessary  for  the  friends  of  liberty  to  say, 
"  Union  for  the  sake  of  liberty,  not  Union  for  the  sake  of 
slavery."  [Cheers.]  Now  we  have  passed  out  of  that 
period,  and  it  is  astonishing  to  see  how  men  have  come  to 
their  tongues  in  the  North  [hear,  hear,  and  laughter} — 
and  how  men  of  the  highest  accomplishments  now  say 
they  do  not  believe  in  slavery.  If  Mr.  Everett  could 
have  pronounced  in  1850  the  oration  which  he  pronounced 
in  i860,  then  might  miracles  have  flourished  again. 
(  //ear,  hear.]  Not  until  the  sirocco  came,  not  until  that 
great  convulsion  that  threw  men  as  with  a  backward 
movement  of  the  arm  of  Omnipotence  from  the  clutches  of 
the  South  and  from  her  sorcerer's  breath — not  until  then 
was  it,  that  with  their  hundreds  and  thousands  the  men  of 
the  North  stood  on  their  feet  and  were  men  again.  [Great 
cheering.]     More  than    warehouses,  more  than    ships,  more 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERPOOL.  637 

than  all  harvests  and  every  material  form  of  wealth  is  the 
treasure  of  a  nation  in  the  manhood  of  her  men.  [Great 
applause.]  We  could  have  afforded  to  have  had  our  stores 
of  wheat  burnt — there  is  wheat  to  plant  again.  We  could 
have  afforded  to  have  had  our  farms  burnt — our  farms  can 
spring  again  from  beneath  the  ashes.  If  we  had  sunk  our 
ships — there  is  timber  to  build  new  ones.  Had  we  burnt 
every  house — there  is  stone  and  brick  left  for  skill  again  to 
construct  them.  Perish  every  material  element  of  wealth, 
but  give  me  the  citizen  intact:  give  me  the  man  that  fears 
God  and  therefore  loves  men,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
mere  outside  fabric  is  nothing — nothing;  [eheers] — but 
give  me  apartments  of  gold,  and  build  me  palaces  along 
the  streets  as  thick  as  the  shops  of  London;  give  me  rich 
harvests  and  ships  and  all  the  elements  of  wealth,  yet  cor- 
rupt the  citizen,  and  I  am  poor.  [Immense  cheering,  during 
which  the  audience  rose  and  enthusiastically  reiterated  the  ap- 
plause^ 

I  will  not  insist  upon  the  other  elements.  I  will  not 
dwell  upon  the  moral  power  stored  in  the  names  of  those 
young  heroes  that  have  fallen  in  this  struggle.  I  cannot 
think  of  it  but  my  eyes  run  over.  They  were  dear  to  me, 
many  of  them,  as  if  they  had  carried  in  their  veins  my  own 
blood.  How  many  families  do  I  know,  in  which  once  was 
the  voice  of  gladness,  where  now  father  and  mother  sit  child- 
less !  How  many  heirs  of  wealth,  how  many  noble  scions 
of  old  families,  well  cultured,  the  heirs  to  every  apparent 
prosperity  in  time  to  come,  flung  themselves  into  their 
country's  cause,  and  died  bravely  fighting  for  it.  [Cheers.] 
And  every  such  name  has  become  a  name  of  power,  and 
whoever  hears  it  hereafter  shall  feel  a  thrill  in  his  heart — 
self-devotion,  heroic  patriotism,  love  of  his  kind,  love  of 
liberty,  love  of  God!     \_Renewed  applause.] 

I  cannot  stop  to  speak  of  these  things;  I  will  turn  my- 
self from  the  past  of  England  and  of  America  to  the  future. 
It  is  not  a  cunningly  devised  trick  of  oratory  that  has  led 
me  to  pray  to  God  and  his  people  that  the  future  of  En- 
gland and  America  shall  be  an  undivided  future,  and  a 
cordially  united  one.     [Hear,  and  cheers.]     I  know  my  friend 


PA  7  'RIO  TIC  A  DDK  ESSES. 

Punch  thinks  I  have  been  serving  out  "soothing  syrup  "  to 
the  Britisli  Lion.  [Laughter.]  Very  properly  the  picture 
represents  me  as  putting  a  spoon  into  the  lion's  ear  instead 
of  his  mouth;  and  I  don't  wonder  that  the  great  brute  turns 
away  so  sternly  from  that  plan  of  feeding.  [Laughter.]  If 
it  be  an  offense  to  have  sought  to  enter  your  mind  by  your 
nobler  sentiments  and  nobler  faculties,  then  I  am  guilty. 
[Hear,  hear,  and  cheers.]  I  have  sought  to  appeal  to  your 
reason  and  to  your  moral  convictions.  I  have,  of  course, 
sought  to  come  in  on  that  side  in  which  you  were  most 
good-natured.  I  knew  it,  and  so  did  you,  and  I  knew  that 
you  knew  it;  and  I  think  that  any  man  with  common  sense 
would  have  attempted  the  same  thing.  I  have  sacrificed 
nothing,  however,  for  the  sake  of  your  favor  [cheers] — and 
if  you  have  permitted  me  to  have  any  influence  with  you, 
it  was  because  I  stood  apparently  a  man  of  strong  convic- 
tions, but  with  generous  impulses  as  wrell.  It  was  because 
you  believed  that  I  was  honest  in  my  belief,  and  because  I 
was  kind  in  my  feelings  towards  you.  [Applause^]  And 
when  I  go  back  home  I  shall  be  just  as  faithful  with  our 
"  young  folks  "  as  I  have  been  with  the  "  old  folks  "  in  En- 
gland [hear,  hear,  and  cheers] — I  shall  tell  them  the  same 
things  that  I  have  said  to  their  ancestors  on  this  side.  I 
shall  plead  for  union,  for  confidence.  [Cheers.]  For  the 
sake  of  civilization;  for  the  sake  of  those  glories  of  the 
Christian  Church  on  earth  which  are  dearer  to  me  than 
all  that  I  know;  for  the  sake  of  Him  whose  blood  I  bear 
about,  a  perpetual  cleansing,  a  perpetual  wine  of  strength 
and  stimulation;  for  the  sake  of  time  and  for  the  glories  of 
eternity,  I  shall  plead  that  mother  and  daughter — England 
and  America — be  found  one  in  heart  and  one  in  purpose, 
following  the  bright  banner  of  salvation,  as  streaming 
abroad  in  the  light  of  the  morning,  it  goes  round  and 
round  the  earth,  carrying  the  prophecy  and  the  fulfillment 
together,  that  "The  earth  shall  be  the  Lord's,  and  that  his 
glory  shall  fill  it  as  the  waters  fill  the  sea."  [Loud  and  pro- 
longed cheering.] 

And  now  my  hours  are  moments,  but  I  linger  because  it 
is  pleasant.     You  have  made  yourselves  so  kind  to  me  that 


FAREWELL   BREAKFAST,    LIVERPOOL.  639 

my  heart  clings  to  you.  I  leave  not  strangers  any  longer 
— I  leave  friends  behind.  \Loud  cheers.]  I  shall  probably 
never,  at  my  time  of  life — I  am  now  fifty  years  of  age,  and 
at  that  time  men  seldom  make  great  changes — I  shall  prob- 
ably see  England  no  more;  but  I  shall  never  cease  to  see 
her.  I  shall  never  speak  any  more  here,  but  I  shall  never 
cease  to  be  heard  in  England  as  long  as  I  live.  [C/ieers.] 
Three  thousand  miles  is  not  as  wide  now  as  your  hand. 
The  air  is  one  great  sounding  gallery.  What  you  whisper 
in  your  closet,  is  heard  in  the  infinite  depths  of  heaven. 
God  has  given  to  the  moral  power  of  his  church  something 
like  his  own  power.  What  you  do  in  your  pulpits  in  En- 
gland, we  hear  in  America;  and  what  we  do  in  our  pulpits, 
you  hear  and  feel  here;  and  so  it  shall  be  more  and  more. 
Across  the  sea,  that  is,  as  it  were,  but  a  rivulet,  we  shall 
stretch  out  hands  of  greeting  to  you,  and  speak  words  of 
peace  and  fraternal  love.  Let  us  not  fail  to  hear  "  Amen  " 
and  your  responsive  greeting,  whenever  we  call  to  you  in 
fraternal  love  for  liberty — for  religion — for  the  Church  of 
God.     Farewell ! 


MR.  BEECHER'S  OWN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 
SPEECHES  IN   ENGLAND. 


[Without  giving  here  the  whole  of  the  narrative  fa  short-hand 
report  of  an  account  given  to  friends),  the  story  being  suffi- 
ciently told  elsewhere,  we  reproduce  only  Mr.  Beecher's  reason 
for  speaking  at  all  in  England  (which  he  had  resolved  not  to  do) 
and  his  account  of  the  speeches  themselves. 

One  point  to  be  noticed  is  the  inadequacy  of  such  interpolated 
phrases  as  "  {Interruption}  "  in,  for  instance,  the  report  of  the  Man- 
chester speech,  to  represent  the  uproar  and  confusion  which  Mr. 
Baecher  describes  as  having  reigned  at  that  place — until  he  sub- 
dued it.  And  from  that  point  may  be  imagined  something  of  the 
mild  impossibility  of  type  to  express  the  foaming  madness  of  his 
Liverpool  audience. 

He  had  been  through  England  to  the  Continent,  and  now  had 
returned. — Ed.] 

I  came  over  to  England  again  and  was  met  in  London 
by  the  same  gentlemen  who  had  urged  me  to  make  ad- 
dresses. I  said,  "  Xo;  I  am  going  home  in  September. 
I  don't  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with  England."  But 
their  statement  made  my  resolution  give  way  and  changed 
my  programme  entirely.  It  was  this:  "  Mr.  Beecher,  we 
have  been  counted  as  the  off-scouring,  because  we  have 
taken  up  the  part  of  the  North.  We  have  sacrificed  our- 
selves in  your  behalf,  and  now  if  you  go  home  and  show 
us  no  favor  or  help,  they  will  overwhelm  us.  They  will 
say,  '  Even  your  friends  in  America  despise  you,'  and  we 
shall  be  nowhere,  and  we  think  it  is  rather  a  hard  return. 
Besides,"  said  they,  "there  is  a  movement  on  foot  that  is 
going  to  be  very  disastrous,  if  it  is  not  headed  off."  To 
my  amazement  I  found  that  the  unvoting  English  pos- 
sessed great  power  in  England;  a  great  deal  more  power, 
in  fact,  than  if  they  had  had  a  vote.     The  aristocracy  and 


A CCO ('XT  OF  THE  EA 'G LIS II  SPEE CUES.  6 4 1 

the  government  felt:  "These  men  know  that  they  have 
no  political  privileges,  and  we  must  administer  with  the 
strictest  regard  to  their  feelings  or  there  will  be  a  revolu- 
tion." And  they  were  all  the  time  under  the  influence  of 
that  feeling.  Parliament  would  at  any  time  for  three 
years  have  voted  for  the  South  against  the  North,  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  fear  of  these  common  people  who  did  not 
vote.  A  plan,  therefore,  was  laid  to  hold  great  public 
meetings  during  all  that  autumn  and  early  winter  among 
the  laboring  masses,  to  change  their  feeling,  and  if  that 
atmospheric  change  could  be  brought  about,  Parliament 
would  very  soon  have  done  what  it  was  afraid  to  do  but 
wanted  to  do  all  the  time — declare  for  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy. The  committee  said,  "  If  you  can  lecture  for  us 
you  will  head  off  this  whole  movement." 

Those  considerations  were  such  that  I  finally  yielded.  I 
consented  at  first  to  speak  at  Manchester;  and  very  soon 
it  was  arranged  that  I  was  to  speak  at  Liverpool  also,  and 
out  of  that  grew  an  arrangement  for  Glasgow  and  Edin- 
burgh, and  then  for  London.  There  was  a  plan  for  Bir- 
mingham that  failed. 

Dr.  John  Raymond  could  not  stay  and  went  home,  and 
I  was  left  alone;  I  think  I  never  was  so  lonesome  and 
never  suffered  so  much  as  I  did  for  the  week  that  I  was  in 
London  before  my  tour  began.  I  had  been  making  the 
tour  of  Scotland,  and  came  down  to  Manchester  just  one 
or  two  days  in  advance  of  the  appointment.  The  two  men 
that  met  me  were  Mr.  John  H.  Estcourt  and  young  Watts; 
his  father  was  Sir  Something  Watts,  and  had  the  largest 
business  house  in  Central  England.  He  was  a  young  man 
just  recently  married,  and  Estcourt  was  the  very  beau  ideal 
of  a  sturdy  Englishman,  with  very  few  words,  but  plucky 
enough  for  a  backer  against  the  whole  world.  They  met 
me  at  the  station,  and  I  saw  that  there  was  something  on 
their  minds.  Before  I  had  walked  with  them  twenty  steps, 
Watts,  I  think  it  was,  said,  "  Of  course  you  see  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  excitement  here."  The  streets  were  all  pla- 
carded   in    blood-red    letters,*  and  my   friends   were   very 

*See  pages  at  the  end  of  this  Account. 
41 


642  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

silent  and  seemed  to  be  looking  at  me  to  see  if  I  would 
flinch.  I  always  feel  happy  when  I  hear  of  a  storm,  and  I 
looked  at  them  and  said,  "  Well,  are  you  going  to  back 
down?"  "No,"  said  they,  "we  didn't  know  how  you 
would  feel."  "  Well,"  said  I,  "you'll  find  out  howl  am 
going  to  feel.  I'm  going  to  be  heard;  and  if  not  now  I'm 
going  to  be  by  and  by.  I  won't  leave  England  until  I  have 
been  heard  !  "  You  never  saw  two  fellows'  faces  clear  off 
so.     They  looked  happy. 

I  went  to  my  hotel,  and  when  the  day  came  on  which  I 
was  to  make  my  first  speech,  I  struck  out  the  notes  of  my 
speech  in  the  morning;  and  then  came  up  a  kind  of  hor- 
ror— "  I  don't  know  whether  I  can  do  anything  with  an 
English  audience — I  have  never  had  any  experience  with 
an  English  audience.  My  American  ways,  which  are  all 
well  enough  with  Americans,  may  utterly  fail  here,  and  a 
failure  in  the  cause  of  my  country  now  and  here  is  horri- 
ble beyond  conception  to  me  !  "  I  think  I  never  went 
through  such  a  struggle  of  darkness  and  suffering  in  all 
my  life  as  I  did  that  afternoon.  It  was  about  the  going 
down  of  the  sun  that  God  brought  me  to  that  state  in 
which  I  said,  "  Thy  will  be  done.  I  am  willing  to  be  an- 
nihilated; I  am  willing  to  fail  if  the  Lord  wants  me  to." 
I  gave  it  all  up  into  the  hands  of  God,  and  rose  up  in  a 
state  of  peace  and  of  serenity  simply  unspeakable,  and 
when  the  coach  came  to  take  me  down  to  Manchester  Hall 
I  felt  no  disturbance  nor  dreamed  of  anything  but  success. 

We  reached  the  hall.  The  crowd  was  already  beginning 
to  be  tumultuous,  and  I  recollect  thinking  to  myself  as  I 
stood  there  looking  at  them,  "  I  will  control  you  !  I  came 
here  for  victory,  and  I  will  have  it,  by  the  help  of  God  !  " 
Well,  I  was  introduced,  and  I  must  confess  that  the  things 
that  I  had  done  and  suffered  in  my  own  country,  according 
to  what  the  chairman  who  introduced  me  said,  amazed  me. 
The  speaker  was  very  English  on  the  subject,  and  I 
learned  that  I  belonged  to  an  heroic  band,  and  all  that  sort 
of  thing,  with  abolitionism  mixed  in,  and  so  on.  By  the 
way,  I  think  it  was  there  that  I  was  introduced  as  the  Rev. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  Stowe.     But  as  soon  as   I  began  to 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SPEECHES.  643 

speak  the  great  audience  began  to  show  its  teeth,  and 
I  had  not  gone  on  fifteen  minutes  before  an  unparal- 
leled scene  of  confusion  and  interruption  occurred.  No 
American  that  has  not  seen  an  English  mob  can  form  any 
conception  of  one.  I  have  seen  all  sorts  of  camp-meetings 
and  experienced  all  kinds  of  public  speaking  on  the  stump; 
I  have  seen  the  most  disturbed  meetings  in  New  York 
City,  and  they  were  all  of  them  as  twilight  to  midnight 
compared  with  an  English  hostile  audience.  For  in  En- 
gland the  meeting  does  not  belong  to  the  parties  that  call 
it,  but  to  whoever  chooses  to  go,  and  if  they  can  take  it 
out  of  your  hands  it  is  considered  fair  play.  This  meeting 
had  a  very  large  multitude  of  men  in  it  who  came  there 
for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  meeting  and  carrying  it 
the  other  way  when  it  came  to  a  vote. 

I  took  the  measure  of  the  audience  and  said  to  myself, 
"About  one-fourth  of  this  audience  are  opposed  to  me, 
and  about  one-fourth  will  be  rather  in  sympathy,  and  my 
business  now  is  not  to  appeal  to  that  portion  that  is  op- 
posed to  me  nor  to  those  that  are  already  on  my  side,  but 
to  bring  over  the  middle  section."  How  to  do  this  was  a 
problem.  The  question  was,  who  could  hold  out  longest. 
There  were  five  or  six  storm-centers,  boiling  and  whirling 
at  the  same  time:  here  some  one  pounding  on  a  group 
with  his  umbrella  and  shouting,  "  Sit  down  there; "  over 
yonder  a  row  between  two  or  three  combatants;  some- 
where else  a  group  all  yelling  together  at  the  top  of  their 
voice.  It  was  like  talking  to  a  storm  at  sea.  But  there 
were  the  newspaper  reporters  just  in  front,  and  I  said  to 
them,  "  Now,  gentlemen,  be  kind  -enough  to  take  down 
what  I  say.  It  will  be  in  sections,  but  I  will  have  it  con- 
nected by  and  by."  I  threw  my  notes  away,  and  entered  on 
a  discussion  of  the  value  of  freedom  as  opposed  to  slavery 
in  the  manufacturing  interest,  arguing  that  freedom  every- 
where increases  a  man's  necessities,  and  what  he  needs  he 
buys,  and  that  it  was,  therefore,  to  the  interest  of  the  man- 
ufacturing community  to  stand  by  the  side  of  labor  through 
the  country.  I  never  was  more  self-possessed  and  never 
in  more  perfect  good  temper,  and  I  never  was  more  deter- 


644  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

mined  that  my  hearers  should  feel  the  curb  before  I  got 
through  with  them.  The  uproar  would  come  in  on  this 
side  and  on  that,  and  they  would  put  insulting  questions 
and  make  all  sorts  of  calls  to  me,  and  I  would  wait  until 
the  noise  had  subsided,  and  then  get  in  about  five  minutes 
of  talk.  The  reporters  would  get  that  down  and  then 
up  would  come  another  noise.  Occasionally  I  would  see 
things  that  amused  me  and  would  laugh  outright,  and  the 
crowd  would  stop  to  see  what  I  was  laughing  at.  Then  I 
•would  sail  in  again  with  a  sentence  or  two.  A  good  many 
times  the  crowd  threw  up  questions  which  I  caught  at  and 
answered  back.  I  may  as  well  put  in  here  one  thing  that 
amused  me  hugely.  There  were  baize  doors  that  opened 
both  ways  into  side-alleys,  and  there  was  a  huge,  burly 
Englishman  standing  right  in  front  of  one  of  those  doors 
and  roaring  like  a  bull  of  Bashan;  one  of  the  policemen 
swung  his  elbow  around  and  hit  him  in  the  belly  and 
knocked  him  through  the  doorway,  so  that  the  last  part  of 
the  bawl  was  outside  in  the  alley-way;  it  struck  me  so 
ludicrously  to  think  how  the  fellow  must  have  looked 
when  he  found  himself  "  hollering  "  outside  that  I  could 
not  refrain  from  laughing  outright.  The  audience  imme- 
diately stopped  its  uproars,  wondering  what  I  was  laugh- 
ing at,  and  that  gave  me  another  chance  and  I  caught  it. 
So  we  kept  on  for  about  an  hour  and  a  half  before  they 
got  so  far  calmed  down  that  I  could  go  on  peaceably  with 
my  speech.  They  liked  the  pluck.  Englishmen  like  a 
man  that  can  stand  on  his  feet  and  give  and  take;  and  so 
for  the  last  hour  I  had  pretty  clear  sailing.  The  next 
morning  every  great  paper  in  England  had  the  whole 
speech.  I  think  it  was  the  design  of  the  men  there  to 
break  me  down  on  that  first  speech,  by  fair  means  or  foul, 
feeling  that  if  they  could  do  that  it  would  be  trumpeted 
all  over  the  land.  I  said  to  them  then  and  there,  "  Gen- 
tlemen, you  may  break  me  down  now,  but  I  have  regis- 
tered a  vow  that  I  will  never  return  home  until  I  have 
been  heard  in  every  county  and  principal  town  in  the  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain.  I  am  not  going  to  be  broken  down 
nor  put  down.     I  am  going  to  be  heard,  and  my  country 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SPEECHES.  645 

shall  be  vindicated."  Nobody  knows  better  than  I  did 
what  it  is  to  feel  that  every  interest  that  touches  the  heart 
of  a  Christian  man  and  a  patriotic  man  and  a  lover  of  lib- 
erty is  being  assailed  wantonly,  to  stand  between  one 
nation  and  your  own  and  to  feel  that  you  are  in  a  situation 
in  which  your  country  rises  or  falls  with  you.  And  God 
was  behind  it  all;  I  felt  it  and  I  knew  it,  and  when  I  got 
through  and  the  vote  was  called  off  you  would  have 
thought  it  was  a  tropical  thunder-storm  that  swept  through 
that  hall  as  the  ayes  were  thundered,  while  the  noes  were 
an  insignificant  and  contemptible  minority.  It  had  all 
gone  on  our  side,  and  such  enthusiasm  I  never  saw.  I 
think  it  was  there  that  when  I  started  to  go  down  into  the 
rooms  below  to  get  an  exit,  a  big,  burly  Englishman  in 
the  gallery  wanted  to  shake  hands  with  me,  and  I  could 
not  reach  him,  and  he  called  out,  "  Shake  my  umbrella  !  " 
and  he  reached  it  over;  I  shook  it,  and  as  I  did  so  he 
shouted,  "By  Jock!  Nobody  shall  touch  that  umbrella 
again  !  " 

I  went  next  to  Glasgow.  Glasgow  was  the  headquarters 
of  a  ship-building  interest  that  was  running  our  blockade. 
I  gave  liberty  for  questions  everywhere,  promising  to 
answer  any  question  that  should  be  written  and  sent  up, 
provided  it  was  a  proper  one.  They  were  to  go  into  the 
hands  of  the  presiding  officer  of  the  meeting,  who  would 
hand  them  to  me  and  I  would  answer  them.  In  Glasgow  I 
discussed  the  question  of  the  relation  of  slavery  to  working- 
men  the  world  over,  carrying  along  with  it  the  history  of  slav- 
ery in  this  country.  The  interruption  at  that  meeting  was 
very  bad,  but  not  at  all  equal  to  the  tumult  in  Manchester; 
but  after  they  were  once  stilled  you  would  have  thought 
we  were  in  a  revival.  I  demonstrated  the  unity  of  labor 
the  world  around,  and  discussed  the  relations  of  the  labor- 
ing man  to  government  and  to  the  aristocratic  classes, 
showing  the  power  of  wealth,  and  how  slavery  had  made 
labor  disreputable,  and  how  it  was  their  bounden  duty  to 
make  labor  honorable  everywhere,  and  how  it  was  a  dis- 
grace to  them  to  be  building  ships  to  put  down  the  laborers 
of  America,  and  to  cast  shame  and  contempt  on  themselves 


<>\<>  PA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  on  every  man  on  earth  that  earned  his  living  by  the 
sweat  of  his  brow.  I  told  them  they  were  driving  nails 
into  their  own  coffins.  My  interruptions  lasted  about  an 
hour  there,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  was  fair  weather  and 
smooth  sailing.  The  questions  that  were  put  to  me  there 
were  the  shrewdest  of  all  that  I  encountered  in  England. 
They  included  constitutional  questions  as  well  as  others. 
There  was  one  question  that  was  very  significant  and  re- 
vealed the  difficulties  that  honest  men  felt  there. 

Q.  "  You  say  this  war  is  a  war  in  the  interest  of  lib- 
erty?" A.  "Yes."  Q.  "  How,  then,  is  it  that  your  Presi- 
dent, in  writing  to  Mr.  Greeley,  says  that  if  slavery  per- 
mitted will  maintain  the  Union,  slavery  will  continue,  and 
if  the  destruction  of  slavery  is  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  Union,  then  it  shall  be  destroyed;  the  Union  is 
what  we  want?"  It  threw  me  upon  the  necessity  of  prov- 
ing the  honor  of  the  North,  and  showing  its  ethical  diffi- 
culty in  maintaining  its  Federal  obligations  under  the  Con- 
stitution to  all  the  States  of  the  Union,  not  trespassing  upon 
their  guaranteed  rights  and  prerogatives,  and  our  moral  re- 
lation to  freedom  and  to  the  workingmen  of  all  the  world. 

From  there  I  went  to  Edinburgh,  where  I  discussed  the 
effect  upon  literature  and  learning  and  institutions  of 
learning  and  general  intelligence  of  the  presence  of  slavery, 
on  the  basis  again  of  the  history  of  slavery  in  America, 
and  the  existing  state  of  things.  I  thought  I  had  seen  a 
crowd  before  I  went  there,  but  when  I  went  through  the 
lower  hall  and  tried  to  get  into  the  assembly-room  the 
people  were  wedged  in  there  so  tight  that  you  might  just 
as  well  try  to  find  a  passage  through  the  wall,  and  I  was 
finally  hoisted  over  their  heads  and  passed  on  by  friendly 
hands  and  up  to  the  gallery,  and  down  over  the  front  of 
the  gallery  on  to  the  platform,  in  order  to  get  to  the  posi- 
tion where  I  was  to  speak.  There  I  had  less  commotion 
than  anywhere  else.  There  was  a  different  audience  there; 
there  was  an  educated  and  moral  element  in  it. 

I  went  from  there  to  Liverpool.  If  I  supposed  I  had  had 
a  stormy  time,  I  found  out  my  mistake  when  I  got  there. 
Liverpool  was  worse  than  all  the  rest  put  together.     My  life 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SPEECHES.  647 

was  threatened,  and  I  had  had  communications  to  the  effect 
that  I  had  better  not  venture  there.  The  streets  were  pla- 
carded with  the  most  scurrilous  and  abusive  cards,  and  I 
brought  home  some  of  them  and  they  are  in  the  Brooklyn 
Historical  Society  now.  It  so  happened,  I  believe,  that  the 
Congregational  Association  of  England  and  Wales  was  in 
session  there,  and  pretty  much  all  of  the  members  were 
present  on  the  platform.  I  suppose  there  were  five  hundred 
people  on  the  platform  behind  me.  There  were  men  in  the 
galleries  and  boxes  who  came  armed,  and  some  bold  men 
on  our  side  went  up  into  those  boxes  and  drew  their  knives 
and  pistols  and  said  to  these  young  bloods,  "The  first  man 
that  fires  here  will  rue  it."  I  heard  a  good  many  narra- 
tives of  that  kind  afterward,  though  I  knew  nothing  of  it  at 
the  time.  But  of  all  confusions  and  turmoils  and  whirls  I 
never  saw  the  like.  I  got  control  of  the  meeting  in  about 
an  hour  and  a  half,  and  then  I  had  a  clear  road  the  rest  of 
the  way.  We  carried  the  meeting,  but  it  required  a  three 
hours'  use  of  my  voice  at  its  utmost  strength.  I  sometimes 
felt  like  a  shipmaster  attempting  to  preach  on  board  of  a 
ship  through  a  speaking  trumpet  with  a  tornado  on  the  sea 
and  a  mutiny  among  the  men.  By  this  time  my  voice  was 
pretty  much  all  used  up,  and  I  had  yet  got  to  go  to  Exeter 
Hall  in  London. 

I  went  down  to  London,  and  by  this  time  all  London 
and  all  the  clubs  had  seen  my  speeches,  four  of  which  had 
been  fully  reported.  It  is  said  that  a  man  who  has  made 
the  conversation  of  a  club  over  night  and  had  a  report  of 
one  speech  in  the  London  Times  is  famous.  I  had  had  four 
speeches,  occupying  three  or  five  columns  each,  reported, 
and  had  been  incessantly  talked  about  in  the  clubs.  So  I 
was  famous.  When  I  first  went  to  London  I  stopped  at 
the  "  Golden  Cross,"  and  they  put  me  in  a  little  back  room 
right  under  the  rafters.  When  I  came  back  from  the  Con- 
tinent there  had  been  considerable  said,  and  they  received 
me  much  more  politely  at  the  "Golden  Cross,"  and  put  me 
in  a  third-story  front  room.  On  the  third  visit  I  was  re- 
ceived by  the  landlord  and  his  servants  in  white  aprons, 
and  was  bowed  in  and  put  in  the  second  story,  and  had  a 


648  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

front  parlor  and  bedroom  and  everything  beautiful.  As 
the  cards  came  in  and  gentlemen  of  distinction  called,  I 
grew  in  the  eyes  of  the  servants  every  moment.  "  But 
Naaman  was  a  leper,  though  he  stood  the  highest  in  his 
master's  favor."  I  had  had  a  successful  career  under  diffi- 
culties, but  had  talked  and  strained  my  voice  so  much,  that, 
when  I  went  to  bed  the  night  before  the  day  I  was  to 
speak,  I  could  not  be  heard  aloud,  and  here  I  had  come  to 
London  to  close  my  course  by  speaking  on  the  moral  aspect 
of  the  question,  and  appealing  to  the  religious  feeling  of 
the  English  people.  It  was  the  climax — and  my  voice  was 
gone  !  I  said,  "  Lord,  Thou  knowest  this.  Let  it  be  as 
Thou  wilt."  The  next  morning  I  woke  up  in  bed,  and  as 
soon  as  I  came  to  myself  fairly,  and  thought  about  my 
voice,  I  didn't  dare  to  speak  for  fear  I  should  rind  I  could 
not;  but  by  and  by  I  sort  of  spoke,  and  then  I  would  not 
say  another  word  for  fear  I  should  lose  it.  Otherwise  I 
was  well  and  strong;  but  the  huskiness  of  my  voice  was 
such  that  when  I  did  speak  there  was  no  elasticity.  There 
seemed  to  be  one  little  rift  that  I  spoke  through,  and  if  I 
went  above  or  below  it  I  broke.  Then  came  to  me  Dr. 
Waddington  and  Brother  Tompkins,  most  excellent  and 
devout  men  they  were,  and  very  faithful  to  our  cause. 
They  called  on  me,  and  seeing  that  I  was  in  bonds  they 
cheered  me  and  said,  "  No  matter,  you  have  clone  your 
work.  What  you  have  already  done  is  sufficient,  so  it  is 
no  matter,  if  you  only  make  your  appearance  and  bow.'' 
They  prayed  with  me  and  it  lifted  me  right  out  of  my 
despondency. 

So  I  plucked  up  courage  and  went  to  the  hall  that  even- 
ing, and  the  streets  of  London  were  crowded.  I  could  not 
get  near  the  hall  except  by  the  aid  of  a  policeman.  And 
when  I  got  around  to  the  back  door,  I  felt  a  woman  throw 
her  arms  around  me — I  saw  they  were  the  arms  of  a 
woman,  and  that  she  had  me  in  her  arms — and  when  I 
went  through  the  door  she  got  through,  too,  and  on  turning 
around  I  found  it  was  one  of  the  members  of  my  church. 
She  had  married  and  gone  to  London,  and  she  was  deter- 
mined to  hear  that  speech,  and  so  took  this  way  to  accom- 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SPEECHES.  649 

plish  an  apparently  impossible  task.  She  grasped  and  held 
me  until  I  had  got  her  in.  I  suppose  that  is  the  way  a  great 
many  sinners  get  into  heaven  finally.  Well,  I  had  less 
trouble  and  less  tumult  in  London  than  anywhere  else. 
The  battle  had  been  fought,  and  my  address  there  was  a 
good  deal  more  of  a  religious  address  than  anywhere  else, 
though  I  discussed  in  all  these  places  very  thoroughly  the 
whole  subject  of  slavery.  But  the  way  was  broken  and 
the  storm  had  passed  away,  and  the  cause  was  triumphant. 
That  which  I  had  had  in  mind  was  effected.  The  idea  of 
now  raising  lecturers,  under  Spence  &  Co.,  to  go  through 
England  and  turn  the  common  people  away  from  the 
North  and  toward  the  South  was  now  abandoned.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  whole  country  ran  strongly  in  the  other 
direction.  And  here  let  me  say  that  everywhere  the 
weavers,  the  laborers,  that  were  by  the  famine  of  cotton 
thrown  out  of  employment  and  into  the  greatest  distress, 
were  staunch  and  true  to  the  right  instincts  of  the  labor- 
ing man.  They  never  flinched,  and  our  cause  was  success- 
ful in  England  by  reason  of  the  fidelity  of  the  great, 
working,  common  people  of  England. 

Then  came  a  series  of  breakfasts.  They  were  all  given 
by  friendly  men,  and  by  men  who  were  really  in  earnest  to 
know  all  about  the  facts  of  the  case.  I  had  to  discuss 
the  questions  of  taxation,  the  issue  of  such  an  enormous 
quantity  of  greenbacks,  and  the  ability  and  the  willingness 
of  our  people  to  pay;  and  I  had  to  go  into  finance  a  good 
deal,  and  what  little  knowledge  I  had  came  wonderfully 
handy.  When  you  stand  up  at  a  breakfast-table  and  are 
questioned  by  shrewd  men  who  do  understand  these  things, 
the  intellectual  ordeal  is  much  severer  than  the  physical 
exhaustion  in  the  night  speeches.  There  were  five  of 
these  breakfasts  in  all;  by  the  time  I  was  through  I  was 
very  glad  of  it.  It  was  now  coming  on  toward  November. 
They  wanted  to  publish  the  speeches  I  had  made,  and  I 
went  down  to  Liverpool  to  Charley  Duncan's  house,  and 
the  proof  sheets  were  sent  to  me  there,  and  I  worked  on 
them  to  get  them  ready  until  about  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber, I  think,  and  then  I  took  ship  for  home. 


650  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Now,  as  there  was  no  telegraph  under  the  sea,  and  there 
had  been  no  time  for  me  to  hear  anything  about  my 
speeches,  and  as  I  never  had  been  treated  with  very  great 
luxury  at  home  in  the  debates  on  slavery  and  the  war, 
but  had  been  set  upon  in  the  public  press,  I  hadn't  the 
slightest  idea  what  the  result  of  my  labors  in  England 
would  be.  I  had  the  consciousness  that  I  had  not  reserved 
one  single  faculty  nor  one  single  particle  of  strength  there. 
I  had  worked  for  my  country,  God  hirnself  being  witness, 
with  the  concentrated  essence  of  my  very  being.  I  ex- 
pected to  die.  I  did  not  believe  I  should  get  through  it. 
I  thought  at  times  I  should  certainly  break  a  blood-vessel 
or  have  apoplexy.  I  did  not  care.  I  was  as  willing  to  die 
as  ever  I  was  when  hungry  or  thirsty  to  take  refreshment, 
if  I  might  die  for  my  country.  Nobody  knows  what  his 
country  is  until  he  is  an  exile  from  it  and  sees  it  in  peril 
and  obloquy.  I  was  sick  all  the  way  home.  My  passage 
was  seventeen  days  from  Liverpool  to  New  York.  It  was 
fifteen  days  to  Halifax,  and  during  that  time  I  was  never 
off  my  back  after  leaving  Queenstown  until  we  entered 
the  Halifax  Bay.  It  was  then  nine  or  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
and  I  was  up  on  deck  as  soon  as  we  got  into  smooth  water, 
and  was  walking  the  deck  when  a  man  met  me  and  said, 
"Is  this  Mr.  Beecher?"  I  started  and  said,  "Yes."  Said 
he,  "  I  have  a  telegram  from  your  wife."  It  seemed  like  a 
vision — that  I  had  got  where  a  telegram  would  reach  me. 
I  had  touched  American  shores  !  You  cannot  imagine  the 
ecstasy  of  the  feeling.  The  telegram  of  my  wife  simply 
announced  that  she  would  come  to  meet  me  at  New  York. 
The  ship  in  which  I  came  over  was  the  Asia.  She  was 
loaded  down  to  her  gunwales  with  warlike  stores  and  con- 
traband goods  that  were  to  go  to  Bermuda,  and  was  full 
of  the  bitterest  of  Southern  men  and  partisans.  It  made 
no  difference  to  me,  because  I  was  on  my  back  in  my  cabin 
and  cared  nothing  about  it. 

From  there  to  Boston  was  a  pleasant  trip — the  only  two 
days  I  was  ever  on  the  sea  when  I  was  not  sea-sick.  We 
were  off  Boston  Harbor  about  seven  in  the  evening,  but 
the  tide  was  not   right,  and   we  did   not  get   in  till  about 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  SPEECHES.  651 

twelve  o'clock.  We  reached  our  landing,  but  could  not 
get  into  our  slip  until  the  next  morning.  I  was  on  deck. 
I  could  not  sleep.  I  saw  the  lights  all  over  Boston,  and 
there  came  again  at  midnight  a  man  who  turned  out  to  be 
a  Custom  House  officer.  After  watching  me  he  said,  "  Is 
this  Mr.  Beecher?  "  "  Yes."  "  Well,  we  are  very  glad  to 
see  you  home  safely.  Some  of  your  friends  in  Boston 
wrote  down  to  us  telling  us  what  we  were  to  do;  as  if  we 
didn't  know  how  to  treat  a  gentleman  decently  !  It  is  a 
pity  she  has  come  in  Saturday  night.  To-morrow  is  Sun- 
day." "Why?"  said  I.  "Because,  if  you  had  come  in  on 
a  week  day  we  were  ready  to  give  you  a  reception  that 
would  make  things  hum."  That  was  the  first  I  had  heard 
— I  did  not  know  whether  the  papers  were  down  on  me  or 
not.  I  felt  ashamed  to  ask  him  further;  but  I  said  I  had 
not  heard  anything  from  home,  and  was  not  aware  how 
the  news  of  my  labors  abroad  had  been  received  by  my 
countrymen.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  you'll  find  out."  So  with 
that  assurance  he  chalked  my  baggage  and  got  me  on 
shore.  I  got  into  a  hack  and  drove  to  the  Parker  House 
about  four  o'clock  Sunday  morning.  I  asked  the  clerk  if 
I  could  have  a  room.  "No,"  said  he,  "we  are  full."  "I 
suppose  I  can  have  a  bed  in  one  of  the  parlors,  can't  I?" 
said  I.  "No,"  said  he,  "all  the  parlors  are  full."  "Can't 
I  bunk  on  the  floor  anywhere  ?"  "  No,"  again,  "  all  full." 
He  asked  me  my  name,  and  when  I  told  him  he  said, 
"Why,  there's  a  room  here  for  you."  Said  I,  "  I  think  not, 
I  just  came  from  England."  "  There  is,"  said  he.  "  All 
right,"  said  I,  "  let  me  have  a  lamp.  I  won't  dispute  you. 
If  any  one  gets  in  after  I  do  I  shall  think  he  is  a  smart  fel- 
low." I  found  out  that  the  passengers'  names  were  tele- 
graphed from  Halifax  to  Boston  to  Mr.  Parker,  who  is  a 
friend  of  mine,  and  he  had  said,  "  Mr.  Beecher  will  be  around 
in  about  so  many  days  and  will  want  a  room,"  and  he  had 
set  it  apart  for  me.  About  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
Bang!  came  on  my  door.  I  said,  "What  do  you  want?" 
It  was  a  committee  who  had  come  to  see  if  I  would  lecture 
before  a  social  club.  I  got  rid  of  them,  and  arrived  home 
at  last  safe  and  sound. 


SOME  OF  THE  POSTERS  FROM  THE  WALLS  OF  ENGLISH  CITIES,  1B63. 

Liverpool  Poster  ;  size,  20x30  inches. 


REV. 


H.  W.    BEECHER 

AT 

THE  PHILHARMONIC  HALL 


THE  TRENT  AFFAIR. 

[Rev.  H.  W.  BEECHER  in  the  New  York  Independent^ 

"  Should  the  President  quietly  yield  to  the  present  necessity  (viz. :  the 
delivering  up  of  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell)  as  the  lesser  of  two  evils  and 
hide  our  time  with  England,  there  will  be  a  sense  of  wrong,  of  national 
humiliation  so  profound,  and  a  horror  of  the  unfeeling  selfishness  of  the 
English  Government,  in  the  great  emergency  of  our  affairs,  such  as  will 
inevitably  by  and  by  break  out  in  flames,  and  will  only  be  extinguished  by 
a  deluge  of  blood!  We  are  not  living  the  whole  of  our  life  to-day.  There 
is  a  future  to  the  United  States  in  which  the  nation  will  right  any  injustice 
of  the  present  hour." 

The  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Eeecher,  at  a  meeting  held  in  New  York  at  a  time 
when  the  Confederate  Envoys,  Messrs.  Slidell  and  Mason,  had  been  sur- 
rendered bv  President  Lincoln  to  the  English  Government,  from  whose 
vessel  (the  Royal  Mail  Steamer  Trent)  they  were  taken,  said — 

"That  the  best  blood  of  England  must  flow  for  the  outrage  England  had 
perpetrated  on  America." 

THIS    IS    THE    MAN 

Who  Proposes  to  address  the  People  of  Liverpool 

AT  THE  PHILHARMONIC  HALL, 
ON    FRIDAY    EVENING,    OCTOBER    16th. 
Let  Englishmen  see  that  he  gets 

THE  WELCOME  HE   DESERVES. 


Liverpool  Poster  ;  size,  20x30  inches. 
TO    THE 

INDEPENDENT  AND  INDUSTRIAL  CLASSES 

OK    LIVERPOOL,. 

An  individual  of  the  name  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  who,  when  at  home, 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  is  called  a  Baptist  minister,  has  come  over  to  this 
country  as  a  political  emissary  from  Abraham  Lincoln  to  stir  up  strife  and 
ill-will  among  you,  and  for  that  purpose  will  hold  a  meeting  at  the  Philhar- 
monic Hall,  Hope  Street,  this  evening.  This  same  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
it  was  who  recommended  London  to  be  sacked  and  this  town  destroyed, 
and  this  godly  man,  bear  in  mind,  is  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  and  good- 
will towards  all  men.  As  there  will  be  an  amendment  proposed  at  the 
meeting,  you  must  attend  and  show  by  your  hearts  and  hands  that  the  in- 
dustrious classes  in  this  town  are  opposed  to  the  bloody  War  which  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  now  waging  against  his  brother  in  the  South,  and  the  das- 
tardly means  he  is  resorting;  to  in  employing  such  tools  as  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel. 

Friday,  16th  October,  1863. 


SOME  OF  THE  POSTERS  FROM  THE  WALLS  OF  ENGLISH  CITIES,  1863. 

Manchester  Poster;  size,  20x29  inches. 
THE 

WAR  CHRISTIANS! 

THEIR    DOCTRINES. 

At  a  Jubilee  Demonstration  in  New  York,  in  January  last, 

REV.  JOHN  J.  RAYMOND, 
The  appointed  Chaplain  of  the  meeting,  in  his  opening  prayer,  said  :    "  We 
thank  thee,  O  God,  that  thou  hast  seen  fit  to  raise  up  one,  ABRAHAM, 
surnamed  Lincoln.     .     .     .     He  is  a  man  whom  GOD  SHOULD  bless, 
and  the  people  delight  to  honor." 

UNITED    STATES    SENATOR    LANE, 

In  his  Address  to  the  Great  Union  Meeting  at  Washington,  said:  "  I  would 
like  to  live  long  enough  to  see  every  white  man  now  in  SouthCarolina  in  Hell." 

REV.  H.  WARD  BEECHER, 
In  his  Address  in  Glasgow,  last  Monday,  said:    "They  (alluding  to  the 
NORTH)    rose    like    ONE    MAN,  and    with    a    voice    that    reverberated 
throughout  the  whole  world,  cried — LET  IT  (alluding  to  the  South),  with 
all  its  attendant  horrors,  GO  TO  HELL." 

From  the  Manchester  Guardian's  Correspondence: 
Is  this  the  same   Reverend  Mr.  Beecher,  who,  at  a  meeting  in  America, 
during  the  discussion  of  the  '''■Trent  Affair,"  said  :  "  That  the  best  blood  of 
England  must  flow  as  atonement  for  the  outrage  England  committed  on 
America  "  ? 

Manchester  Poster;  size,  25x3s  inches. 

WHO    IS 

Hy.  Ward  Beecher? 

He  is  the  man  who  said  the  best  blood  of  England  must  be  shed  to 
atone  for  the  Trent  affair. 

He  is  the  man  who  advocates  a  War  of  Extermination  with  the  South, — 
says  it  is  incapable  of  "re-generation,"  but  proposes  to  re-people  it  from 
the  North  by  "generation." — See  "Times." 

He  is  the  friend  of  that  inhuman  monster,  General  BUTLER.  He  is 
the  friend  of  that  so-called  Gospel  Preacher,  CHEEVER,  who  said  in  one 
of  his  sermons — "  Fight  against  the  South  till  Hell  Freezes,  and  then  con- 
tinue the  battle  on  the  ice." 

He  is  the  friend  and  supporter  of  a  most  debased  Female,  who  uttered 
at  a  public  meeting  in  America  the  most  indecent  and  cruel  language  that 
ever  polluted  female  lips — See  "Times." 

MEN  OF  MANCHESTER,  ENGLISHMEN! 

What  reception  can  you  give  this  wretch,  save  unmitigated  disgust  and 
contempt?  His  impudence  in  coming  here  is  only  equaled  by  his  cruelty 
and  impiety.  Should  he,  however,  venture  to  appear,  it  behooves  all  right- 
minded  men  to  render  as  futile  as  the  first  this  second  attempt  to  get  up  a 
public  demonstration  in  favor  of  the  North,  which  is  now  waging  War 
against  the  South  with  a  vindictive  and  revengeful  cruelty  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  any  Christian  land. 

Cave  &  Senn,  Printers  by  Steam  Power,  Palatine  Building,  Manchester. 


RECEPTION    IN    BROOKLYN. 


Mr.  Beecher  was  formally  welcomed  home  from  his  English 
trip  by  his  fellow  citizens  in  Brooklyn  on  the  evening  of  Novem- 
ber 19,  1863,  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  which  was  crowded, 
though  the  admission  fee  (for  the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Com- 
mission) was  one  dollar. 

At  eight  o'clock  Mr.  Beecher  was  escorted  upon  the  stage  by  a 
large  number  of  the  well  known  men  of  the  city,  and  was  received 
with  the  warmest  manifestations  of  applause. 

Mr.  A.  A.  Low  introduced  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  as  the  presid- 
ing officer  of  the  meeting,  and  that  gentleman  briefly  but  feel- 
ingly welcomed  Mr.  Beecher  to  his  home.  When  he  took  his 
hand  in  behalf  of  the  two  thousand  people  who  were  gathered  to 
greet  him,  the  whole  audience  rose,  and  for  several  minutes  made 
the  house  resound  with  their  cheers  and  plaudits.  When  the  ap- 
plause had  subsided,  Mr.  Beecher  said  : — 

I  will  not  attempt  to  disguise  the  deep  feeling  with 
which  your  generous  kindness,  expressed  in  the  words  of 
my  brother,  affect  me.  I  am  the  more  touched  and  more 
stirred  by  this  sympathy  than  by  all  I  have  seen,  and  by 
all  I  have  experienced  in  the  whole  of  my  travel  abroad, 
and  I  speak  the  simple  truth  which  has  a  witness  in  your 
hearts,  that  it  is  here  in  this  city  more  than  anywhere 
else  that  I  desire  to  be  so  greeted,  for,  as  when  I  was  in 
England  it  was  my  pride  to  be  an  American,  so  when  I  am 
in  America  it  is  my  pride  to  be  a  citizen  of  Brooklyn,  and 
I  accept  your  generous  confidence  and  this  affecting  testi- 
monial of  it,  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  me  personally,  with 
profound  sensibility,  and  with  deep  gratitude.  I  thank 
you. 

And  yet  I  should  be  vain  if  I  supposed  that  this  was 
meant  for  me  simply.  I  am  myself  the  effect  of  American 
institutions;  I  am  made  by  them;  and  if  I  have  done  any 
service  to  the  public  worthy  of  your  regard,  I  owe  to  this 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  655 

very  American  public  and  the  institutions  which  enrich 
it,  the  power  to  do  it  any  service;  and  I  am  glad  that  it  is 
so,  so  deep  are  my  feelings  of  patriotism,  so  profoundly 
am  I  impressed  with  the  grandeur  of  this  latest  and  ripest 
development  of  civil  life.  I  am  more  than  willing  to  be 
sunk  myself,  if  my  decadence  and  disappearance  would 
add  anything  to  the  glory  of  my  country;  I  would  fain  be 
the  oil  of  the  lamp,  that  gives  its  life  that  the  light  may 
be  bright  which  consumes  it.  This  is  my  feeling  and  it  is 
your  feeling,  and  I  know  I  bear  your  sympathy  with  me 
in  this  simple  and  artless  expression  of  my  feelings.  I  am 
glad  you  asked  me  to  be  present  to-night;  and  I  am  proud 
that,  when  I  came  back  to  America,  having  witnessed  as  I 
could  in  Europe  for  the  truth  of  our  cause,  the  first  place 
to  greet  me  was  my  own  home,  where  I  am  best  known. 
That  is  indeed  a  wreath  which  I  shall  wear,  none  the  less 


because  it  is  invisible. 

I  went  abroad,  as  you  know,  as  a  private  citizen.  It  was 
tauntingly  asked  me  on  my  arrival  in  England  why,  in  the 
very  height  and  paroxysm  of  our  national  agony,  did  I 
abandon  the  field  to  go  to  Europe.  I  did  not  answer;  but 
now  I  do  answer.  I  foresaw  that  the  autumn  and  winter 
would  require  labors  even  greater  than  any  period  previous; 
and  while  the  excitements  and  the  excessive  labors  of  the 
two  and  a  half  or  three  years  preceding  had  not  destroyed 
my  health  nor  undermined  my  constitution,  yet  certainly  I 
was  jaded,  and  I  feared  to  go  into  the  autumn  and  winter, 
which  require  the  best  powers  of  every  man,  without  my 
full  strength;  and  since  I  had  nothing  to  do  in  the  sum- 
mer, which  was  the  time  for  arms — not  speech — I  took  that 
opportunity,  upon  the  generous  invitation  of  my  own  peo- 
ple, and  went  abroad  to  rest:  and  I  am  come  back  to  labor 
more  assiduously.  And  allow  me  to  say,  this  generosity  of 
my  own  people  was  a  comfort  to  me  everywhere,  and  in 
my  pride — not  because  I  disesteemed  English  kindness, 
not  because  I  undervalued  their  hospitality,  but  because 
I  cherished  with  gratitude  and  pride  the  home  bounty 
— I  refused  to  receive  their  hospitality  or  in  the  remotest 
degree   compensation  in   any   form.     I   said  to  them,  My 


656  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


own  people  sent  me  a  broad,  and  it  is  their  pleasure  that  I 
shall  stand  upon  them  for  my  support,  and  I  will  not  take 
one  penny  from  the  hand  of  an  Englishman.  You  will 
not  misunderstand  me — it  was  not  because  I  disdained 
their  kindness,  but  because  I  valued  yours. 

It  was  also  said  that  I  had  come  abroad,  sent  by  our  Gov- 
ernment. That  would  have  spoiled  it  all.  I  had  no  official 
character,  and  would  not  have  had  one.  I  went  simply  as 
a  private  citizen — merely  and  only  as  an  American  citizen; 
and  when,  unsought,  and,  indeed,  against  my  feelings  if  not 
my  judgment,  I  entered  upon  the  labor  of  the  last  few  weeks 
of  my  sojourn  in  England,  I  assumed  the  responsibility, 
I  cannot  say  with  trembling — for  I  am  not  accustomed 
much  to  tremble — but  with  the  gravest  sense  of  what  it 
was.  I  have  felt  the  inspiration  of  nationality  often,  but 
I  never  before  was  placed  between  two  such  great  peoples, 
when  I  saw  them  both  in  perspective,  both  in  their  present 
relations  and  in  their  future,  and  I  never  before  felt  so 
much  as  I  felt  all  the  time,  waking  or  dreaming,  night  or 
day,  what  it  was  to  stand  to  plead  for  the  unity  of  these 
two  great  Christian  nations  for  the  sake  of  struggling 
mankind;  it  was  at  once  an  incitement  to  me  and  a  great 
support. 

But,  after  all,- 1  did  not  know  how  my  countrymen  would 
regard  my  efforts.  If  you  had  yourselves  disapproved,  I 
should  have  been  sorry  that  you  disapproved,  but  not  sorry 
for  what'  I  had  done.  I  did  the  best  I  knew  how  to  do, 
every  time,  everywhere,  disinterestedly,  for  the  love  I  bore 
to  the  cause  and  to  the  principles  that  underlie  it.  But  I 
had  no  word,  and  could  not  have,  from  home.  Whether 
my  representations  of  policy,  and  fact,  and  history,  and  of 
the  tendency  of  things  would  accord  with  yours  or  not; 
whether  I  should  be  caught  up  in  the  whirl  of  conflict  of 
party  and  my  reasons  traversed  and  my  facts  contradicted,  I 
knew  nothing  about  this  until  I  landed  in  Boston,  or  rather, 
until  I  was  in  the  harbor — not  one  whisper;  and  then  I 
learned,  for  the  first  time,  that  my  services  had  been  ac- 
cepted by  my  countrymen.  And  to-night  I  greet  you,  a 
citizen  returned   among  his  friends,  profoundly   thankful 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.    '  657 

that  the  labor  and  the  service  which  I  attempted  for  the 
public  good  has  the  seal  of  their  approbation. 

It  is  my  purpose  not  to  trespass  further  upon  your  time 
upon  matters  personal  to  myself — I  know  that  you  will 
not  thank  me  even  for  what  I  have  said.  I  desire  now  this 
evening  to  speak  upon  that  which  you  have  all  come  to 
hear,  namely,  my  impressions  and  experience  in  respect 
to  the  condition  of  things  in  Great  Britain  as  they  relate 
to  this  struggle  in  this  country. 

Among  the  wise  things  said  by  that  wisest  of  modern  po- 
litical writers,  De  Tocqueville,  is  this,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  judge  of  the  affairs  of  one  country  by  applying  to  them 
the  experiences  and  the  rules  of  another  one.  There  are 
many  reasons  why  one  would  have  presumed  beforehand 
that  it  was  easy  for  us  to  understand  British  feeling  and 
British  policy;  there  was  a  similarity  of  institutions,  and 
a  sameness  of  radical  principles.  But  that  very  similarity, 
since  it  begets  by  different  institutions  and  vehicles  differ- 
ent policies,  in  the  end  is  likely  to  deceive  us,  and  we  are 
liable  to  leap  too  quickly  to  conclusions,  because  upon  the 
face  things  look  like  those  to  which  we  are  accustomed  at 
home.  I  myself  have  experienced  that.  If  I  had  judged 
of  the  condition  of  England  from  the  impressions  produced 
upon  me  by  my  first  four  weeks'  tarry  there  in  the  early 
summer,  I  should  have  judged  very  wrongly, — as  measured 
by  my  present  convictions.  Nor  do  I  feel  myself  adequate 
even  now  to  analyze  and  state  with  confidence  either  the 
causes  or  the  results  of  the  English  feeling.  I  am  quite 
aware  that  I  am  imperfect  in  my  views  in  many  directions. 
Nor  can  I  presume  even  to  say  that  I  present  to  you  opin- 
ions. My  nature  gives  intensity  to  my  expressions;  and 
yet  I  wish  beforehand  to  ask  you  to  consider  that  the  state- 
ments I  make  are  impressions — impressions  liable  to  mis- 
take, subject  to  corrections  that  may  afterward  be  made  in 
them.  With  these  preliminary  remarks,  I  will  tell  you 
what  I  saw  and  found. 

You  are  aware  that  the  original  expectation  of  our  peo- 
ple was  almost  universally  that  in  Great  Britain  we  should 

find  a  sympathizer  ready  and   prepared.     One   thing  we 
42 


658  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

counted  sure,  and  that  was,  if  all  the  other  nations  of  the 
world  stood  aloof,  there  was  one  that  would  stand  by  us 
in  the  hour  of  our  trial,  and  that  was  Great  Britain.  And 
the  sharpness  of  our  retaliatory  complaints  was  stimulated 
by  that  very  disappointment  of  an  over-confident  convic- 
tion. When  I  was  asked  in  Great  Britain  why  the  Amer- 
ican press  so  severely  inveighed  against  England,  and  was 
almost  silent  in  respect  to  France,  I  said  to  them,  Because 
we,  in  our  deepest  hearts,  care  for  England,  and  not  much 
for  France;  because  under  anger,  lower  down  than  preju- 
dice, when  you  strike  the  deeper  feelings  of  Americans, 
no  doubt  they  have  an  English  origin,  and  they  are  proud 
of  their  history  when  it  gets  back  further  than  the  present 
generation.  And  it  was  this  growing  affection  and  sym- 
pathy in  the  best  natures,  and  in  the  best  part  of  the  best 
natures — it  was  this  that  made  the  disappointment  of  pub- 
lic expectation  so  sharp  and  so  hard  to  be  borne  when 
Great  Britain  failed  our  expectations  and  gave  us  no  sym- 
pathy. We  never  asked  for  help.  We  never  asked  that 
nation  to  lend  us  anything  or  stretch  out  so  much  as  the 
little  finger  of  her  right  hand.  We  did  ask,  simply  a  gen- 
erous confidence,  a  generous  moral  sympathy.  That  was 
all;  but  that  we  did  not  get,  and  we  felt  it  sharply.  The 
conduct  of  England,  and  the  expression  of  their  public 
feeling  had  the  effect  of  throwing  her  moral  weight  against 
the  North  and  for  the  South.  So  I  told  them.  I  carefully 
discriminated  between  the  intention  and  the  result.  What 
men  intend  has  much  to  do  in  judging  of  their  moral  char- 
acter; but  what  men  do  does  not  always  depend  upon  their 
intentions.  When,  therefore,  the  British  people  disclaimed 
sympathy  with  the  South,  or  the  disposition  to  go  against 
their  own  principles  as  represented  by  the  North,  I  said  to 
them,  "What  your  intentions  are  you  can  best  judge;  but 
what  the  effect  of  your  attitude  is,  we  upon  the  other  side 
can  best  judge:  and  we  know  that  the  moral  influence  of 
Great  Britain  has  substantially  gone  for  more  than  two 
years  to  help  the  rebellion  of  the  slavocracy  of  the  South, 
and  to  hinder  the  progress  of  free  institutions  in  the  North. 
If  there  is   rescue   and   relief,  if  there  is  redemption  and 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  659 

victory,  Great  Britain  must  stand  aside,  and  it  must  be 
said,  The  nation  that  boasted  of  her  free  institutions  and 
her  sovereign  sympathy  with  the  welfare  of  the  common 
people,  has  had  no  part  or  lot  in  this  great  work. 

The  denial  of  moral  sympathy  in  Great  Britain  was  ac- 
companied by  the  most  active  exertions  of  certain  parts 
of  the  British  people  in  behalf  of  the  South;  so  much  so, 
that  I  think  it  will  scarcely  be  doubted  by  any  man  that  if 
the  ship-yards,  the  foundries,  the  looms,  and  the  shops  of 
Great  Britain,  had  refused  their  succor  to  rebellion,  the 
rebellion  would  have  died  out  in  the  nation  long  agp.  And 
I  said  in  private,  what  it  did  not  seem  altogether  judicious 
to  say  in  public  then,  that  in  some  sense  I  might  bring  this 
war  and  lay  it  at  the  feet  of  the  British  people,  and  say, 
"  Not  that  you  intended  it,  but  the  course  of  conduct  you 
pursued,  legal  or  illegal,  was  such  that  but  for  you  the 
rebellion  would  have  perished  almost  in  the  beginning  of 
it;  no  man  but  knows  that."  There  was  also  the  extraor- 
dinary spectacle  in  England  of  men  who,  from  sheer  hatred 
of  war,  by  misjudgment  and  mistake,  were  left  to  foment 
it.  With  unfeigned  horror  of  slavery,  a  large  party  of 
theirs  were  contributing  directly  in  the  interests  of  slavery. 
There  never  was  a  misposition  more  signal  than  that  of 
the  British  public,  as  represented  in  their  leading  intelli- 
gent classes,  in  this  conflict.  There  never  was  a  case 
where  a  nation,  by  its  upper  classes,  went  so  unquestion- 
ably in  favor  of  an  evil,  at  the  same  time  that  they  occu- 
pied themselves  in  the  intensest  denunciation  of  that  evil. 
They  went  against  free  society  at  the  very  time  that  they 
were  proudly  praising  free  society,  and  arrogating  to  them- 
selves its  highest  honors. 

Under  such  circumstances  we  were  drifting,  you  recol- 
lect, right  toward  an  international  war.  I  told  the  British 
people  that  war  was  not  our  choice;  and  yet,  terrible  and 
cruel  as  it  was,  there  was  something  in  this  struggle  so 
dear  to  us,  and  so  indispensable  to  national  life,  that  rather 
than  that  there  should  be  separation — rather  than  that 
there  should  be  disruption  and  dismemberment — rather 
than  that  we  should  fail  in  this  republic,  and  free  govern- 


660  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ment  should  fail,  we  would  stand  war  with  Great  Britain 
and  France,  or  with  Europe.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
to  say  this  without  the  appearance  of  threat;  but  that  dif- 
ficulty was  solved  for  me  by  the  iterated  and  reiterated 
charges  brought  against  me  of  having  been  bellicose  in 
my  own.  country,  and  having  threatened  all  manner  of 
desolation  to  Great  Britain;  and  my  reply  was  this,  that  I 
felt  part,  and  a  full  part  in  proportion,  of  that  deep  indig- 
nation which  my  own  people  felt  against  Great  Britain; 
that  I  had  never  desired  war,  but  abhorred  it;  that  I 
thought  the  great  principles  of  free,  republican  govern- 
ment to  be  so  precious  that  we  would  not  give  them  up, 
not  even  at  the  threat,  or  at  the  infliction  of  war,  no  mat- 
ter who  brought  it  upon  us. 

This,  then,  being  the  cruel  disappointment  which  we  ex- 
perienced in  our  expectations  of  sympathy  from  Great 
Britain,  you  will  ask  me,  What  did  you  find  to  be  the  facts 
and  the  condition  of  things  ?  I  found,  in  the  first  place, 
upon  going  there,  that  every  man  that  I  met  was  a  South- 
ern man;  not  literally  born  in  the  South,  but  this  is  the 
division  they  have  themselves  made,  and  these  are  the 
terms  applied.  They  are  Southerners  or  Northerners,  even 
more  than  we  are  here.  I  found  that  on  the  railways,  on 
the  boats,  in  the  hotels,  wherever  there  was  a  traveling 
public,  there  was  a  public  that  sympathized  with  the  South 
and  was  adverse  to  the  North.  It  was  not  an  uncommon 
thing  to  hear  gentlemen  talk  freely  and  kindly  with  me 
upon  other  matters,  saying,  as  the  news  was  discussed, 
"  Bad  news  we  have  got  by  the  last  steamer."  "  What  is 
the  news?"  I  asked,  a  little  troubled.  "I  understand 
Meade  has  driven  Lee  entirely  out  of  Pennsylvania." 
"God  send  us  much  more  bad  news  then!"  said  I.  Com- 
ing from  communities  enthusiastic  and  almost  homo- 
geneous in  their  feelings  upon  this  subject,  at  least,  it  was 
strange  to  my  ear  to  hear  well-dressed  and  well-bred  men, 
of  ordinary  intelligence,  congratulate  themselves  upon  the 
disasters  of  the  North,  and  rejoice  in  the  successes  of  the 
South.  But  such  was  the  case.  Nor  will  there  return  to 
your  city  one  young  man  that  has  been  traveling  who  will 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  66 1 

not  bring  back  substantially  this  account,  that  wherever 
he  went  almost  every  man  that  he  met,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  was  against  the  North  and  in  favor  of  the 
South.  You  will  well  imagine  the  impression  made  under 
such  circumstances.  A  man's  first  impression  would  be: 
There  is  no  question  about  this  matter;  these  old  English 
people,  this  old  British  nation,  are  all  against  us;  go  where 
you  will,  up  or  down,  you  will  find  it  all  the  same.  That 
was  the  effect  produced  upon  my  mind. 

Upon  still  further  inquiry  I  was  disappointed  to  find  that 
those  I  supposed  I  should  have  a  right  to  lean  upon  were 
not  to  be  leaned  upon — I  mean  the  body  of  Dissenting 
Christians.  That  denomination  to  which  I  myself  belong, 
the  Congregationalist,  known  in  England  as  Independents, 
I  had  supposed,  since  they  were  sending  out  their  testi- 
mony for  freedom,  would  have  been  arrayed  almost  inva- 
riably on  the  side  of  the  people  struggling  to  sustain  their 
liberties.  I  had  supposed  I  should  find  them  right.  I  did 
not.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  not  a  very  large  part  of 
that  body  that  perhaps  are  right;  for  they  will  be  included 
under  a  head  which  I  shall  mention  by  and  by;  but  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  I  did  not  find  an  influential  and  leading 
clergyman  of  that  denomination,  nor  an  influential  and 
leading  layman  on  our  side.  They  said  that  they  sympa- 
thized with  liberty.  Yes,  they  sympathized  with  liberty 
exactly  as  an  icicle  sympathizes  with  sunlight  in  summer; 
it  chills  you  to  go  near  it.  And  I  said  to  them,  We  want  no 
such  frigid  sympathy;  we  want  nothing  if  it  cannot  come 
from  more  glowing,  from  more  enthusiastic  hearts,  than 
this.     It  does  us  no  good,  and  we  don't  want  it. 

I  found  also  the  most  profound  ignorance  of  our  affairs 
and  all  the  provisions  of  our  institutions,  and  that,  too,  in 
quarters  where  I  had  a  right  to  expect  more  intelligence. 
I  found  the  most  active  and  unscrupulous  efforts  made  by 
Southern  men  to  stir  up  animosity  and  war.  And  let  me 
say,  a  bad  cause  was  better  served  than  a  good  one  there, 
as  to  some  extent  it  has  been  in  our  own  land.  I  am  sure 
that  the  South,  for  a  bad  cause,  has  more  nearly  put  forth 
its  entire  strength  here    than  we  for   a    good    cause.     So 


662  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES, 

abroad;  where  we  send  one  man  to  England  to  influence 
public  opinion,  they  send  a  score.  Where  we  print  one 
book  of  information,  they  a  library.  Where  we  touch  one 
spring,  they  a  hundred.  They  seemed  to  pervade  England, 
and  they  seemed,  with  the  unerring  instinct  of  selfishness 
and  despotism,  to  know  just  where  to  undermine  the 
generous  and  better  feelings,  just  where  to  invite  the  cloud 
of  ignorance,  just  where  to  touch  a  man  so  that  principle 
should  fall  and  profit  take  its  place. 

You  will  then  imagine  the  surprise  and  skepticism  with 
which  I  received  the  assurances  of  the  friends  who  were  on 
our  side  that  the  great  heart  of  the  British  nation  was  on 
our  side.  I  had  found  nobody  except  the  confidential 
friends  of  emancipation,  in  whose  society  I  was  thrown, — 
almost  nobody, —  that  spoke  kindly  of  us,  or  that  seemed 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  us;  and  yet  my  ears  rung  with  the 
assurance,  day  and  night,  "  You  are  mistaken — mistaken; 
this  great  English  people  are  sound  at  heart."  And  I  said: 
"  Where  under  heaven  do  the  English  people  keep  their 
hearts?  "  So  that  if  I  had  spoken  in  my  early  visit  to  En- 
gland in  June,  I  could  not  have  spoken  as  I  now  do  or 
shall.  Neither  on  my  first  return  from  the  Continent  in 
September,  could  I  have  understood  and  felt  what  I  un- 
derstand now.  In  some  measure,  I  entirely  believe  that 
they  were  right,  and  that,  after  all,  the  great  heart  of  the 
British  nation  is  with  us  at  the  North.  Let  me  take  up 
then  one  part  of  society  after  another,  and  state  what  I 
understood  to  be  the  facts. 

First,  there  is  the  great  commercial  class  of  England; 
those  that  are  making  money,  and  those  that  have  made  it. 
If  you  please,  call  them  the  Plutocracy — they  are  against  us. 
Then,  in  the  same  general  grade,  there  is  a  large  class  of 
men  that  are  actively  employed  in  supplying  the  South 
with  all  its  necessities — except  principle  —  and  they  are 
making,  or  suppose  that  they  are  making,  large  fortunes. 
We  cannot  doubt  which  side  they  take.  The  next  is  a  very 
large  class  of  men  who,  for  precisely  the  opposite  reason, 
somehow  are  opposed  to  the  North  and  in  favor  of  the 
South;  namely,  those  that  have  been  accustomed  to  make 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  663 

money  and  find  that  the  interrupting  war  has  stopped  their 
profits — the  men  that  want  to  make  money  and  don't. 
They  are  opposed  to  us.  Between  those  two  classes  lies 
the  great  intermediate  one,  of  men  that  are  bewildered 
and  perplexed,  and  they  see  that  business  is  more  or  less 
affected — as  it  is — over  the  whole  of  Europe  from  its  sympa- 
thetic relations  with  this  continent;  and  they  say,  "  Let  this 
war  end;"  and  as  the  offensive  war  is  now  from  the  Northern 
side  they  feel  that  whenever  the  North  will  stop  aggressing 
upon  the  South,  the  war  will  stop:  and  so  they  are  against 
us.  And  it  may  be  laid  down  that  while  there  are  very 
noble  exceptions  here  and  there  through  England,  men 
that  stand  out  against  their  class  and  above  it,  yet,  speaking 
comprehensively,  the  commercial  classes  are  against  the 
North  and  in  favor  of  the  South. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  religious  people.  It  is  very  difficult 
for  me  to  analyze  the  causes  that  have  on  the  whole  turned 
both  the  Establishment  and  the  Dissenters  against  us,  in 
respect  of  most  of  their  influential  men.  The  influential  lay- 
men, and  most  of  the  influential  clergymen,  I  am  informed, 
are  as  a  body  against  us.  The  ground  usually  taken  is, 
that  the  North  is  not  sincere;  and,  secondly,  that  war  is  a 
great  sin.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  there  so  tender  a 
conscience  on  the  subject  of  war  as  England  has — when 
she  is  not  waging  it.  She  has  only  three  wars,  I  believe, 
now  on  hand — in  Japan,  China,  and  New  Zealand,  Aus- 
tralia, or  somewhere — and  the  rest  of  her  leisure  she  occu- 
pies with  a  profound  regret  at  war.  If  it  was  for  a  ship 
on  the  sea,  she  was  ready  to  go  to  war  with  us;  if  it  was 
for  a  territory  on  the  Antarctic  Ocean,  she  was  ready  to  go 
to  war  with  the  savages;  if  to  open  trade,  she  had  no  ob- 
jection to  burn  down  a  town  of  a  hundred  thousand  inhab- 
itants: but  when  a  people  are  making  war  for  their  own  life, 
for  everything  that  dignifies  humanity,  England  stands 
wondering  at  God's  patience  for  men  that  will  make  war. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  aside  from  the  friends  who  have  al- 
ways maintained  and  given  their  countrymen  a  consistent 
testimony  against  war,  those  men  who  were  most  querulous 
against  our  war  were  men  who  had  no  particular  objection 


664  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

to  the  Crimean  war,  the  opium  war,  and  wars  if  not  al- 
ready on  their  hands,  at  least  on  the  tips  of  their  fingers; 
and  I  told  them  at  Exeter  Hall  that  there  was  not  a  land 
on  the  globe  against  which  they  had  not  dashed  their 
prows,  and  that  their  flag  was  a  symbol  of  it — a  cross  on  a 
field  of  blood. 

The  English  nobility  as  a  class  are  against  us.  I  shall  read 
you  some  noble  exceptions,  but  as  a  class  they  are  against 
us,  and  for  the  most  obvious  reasons.  We  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  estimate  the  effect  of  our  example  upon  Euro- 
pean institutions.  When  he  takes  his  walk  abroad,  it  is 
not  the  elephant  that  weighs  and  measures  his  own  gravity 
as  he  treads  on  the  field-mouse's  tail.  It  is  the  mouse  that 
meditates.  And  for  such  a  gigantic  nation  as  this,  on  such 
a  continent  as  this,  while  we  are  treading  the  steps  of  ac- 
complishing history,  we  do  not  feel  the  jar  we  ourselves 
make;  but  those  that  have  thrones  and  aristocratic  priv- 
ileges do,  and  they  are  the  best  interpreters  of  the  reaction- 
ary influences  of  American  ideas  and  American  institutions. 
It  was  The  Saturday  Review,  that  scholarly,  keen,  brilliant, 
unprincipled  paper  of  England,  that  had  the  frankness  to 
say  that  the  Americans  must  not  think  their  remarks  were 
because  they  disliked  us,  but  because  they  found  our  ideas 
and  our  examples  working  in  Great  Britain;  and  they  were 
obliged,  in  order  to  defeat  those  ideas  in  England,  to  at- 
tack us  in  America.  They  are  fighting  their  own  home 
battles — for  they  have  an  unerring  instinct.  They  have 
this  feeling:  if  Government  be  so  efficient  on  such  a 
continent,  and  so  ludicrously  cheap,  how  can  we  maintain 
so  expensive  and  complicated  a  Government  on  our  side  ? 
And,  lest  they  should  not  think  of  it  themselves,  millions 
of  the  common  people  there,  who  were  being  taxed,  per- 
petually suggested  it  to  them.  Do  you  know  that  the 
effect  of  our  Revolution  was  to  send  revolution  all  through 
Europe  ?  Being  prepared,  it  was  the  torch  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary War  that  set  fire  to  that  train  which  burned  all 
over  Europe,  and  they  do  not  forget  it.  Such  prosperity, 
such  power,  and  at  so  little  expense,  and  with  so  few  mo- 
nopolies and  prerogatives  to  the  favored  classes  !      And, 


RECEPTION  EV  BROOKLYN.  665 

therefore,  when  they  oppose  us,  it  is  not  to  be  construed 
as  wanton  opposition;  it  is  nothing  but  a  manifestation  of 
self-love;  and  if  you  had  been  born  with  a  coronet  on  your 
head,  you  would  have  been  just  so.  In  Parliament,  I  sup- 
pose, if  a  vote  could  be  taken  to-day,  in  accordance  with 
the  private  wishes  of  the  members,  they  would  be  five  to 
one  against  the  North.  It  is  believed  that  the  Government 
have  been  entirely  in  favor  of  a  rupture  with  the  North, 
and  had  they  dared  they  would  have  brought  it  about.  It 
is  the  impression,  however,  that  the  Sovereign  of  Great 
Britain  has  been  from  the  first  our  judicious  and  unflinching 
friend.  It  is  believed,  and  was  so  represented  to  me,  that 
the  never  rightly-estimated  and  lamented  Prince  Consort 
was  our  fast  friend,  and  that  among  the  last  acts  of  his  life 
were  those  which  erased  from  documents  presented  to  him 
sentences  and  sentiments  that  would  have  inflamed  the 
growing  anger.  He  died  with  the  blessing  upon  his  head, 
"  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers."  And  although  in  the 
British  Government  as  at  present  constituted  I  shall  read 
you  the  names  of  several  that  are  known  to  be  warm  and 
disinterested  in  their  regard,  yet  there  are  others  in  the 
Government  that,  it  is  well  understood,  would  not  hesitate 
to  plunge  England  into  a  war  for  the  sake  of  disrupting 
this  nation. 

If  you  ask  me,  then,  what  is  the  great  underlying  influ- 
ence that  has  been  at  work  among  the  upper  classes  in 
England,  I  answer  in  these  words:  First,  commercial  inter- 
est, and  rivalry  therein;  secondly,  class  power,  and  the  fear 
of  the  contagion  of  American  ideas;  and  thirdly — I  know 
not  how  I  shall  say  it  so  that  it  shall  be  least  offensive  to 
our  friends  on  the  other  side,  but  you  have  not  come  to 
the  bottom  of  the  ideas  of  our  friends  in  Great  Britain 
until  you  touch  that  delicate  and  real  foundation — we  are 
too  large  and  too  strong  a  nation.  This  is,  in  my  judgment, 
the  root  of  the  whole  matter.  A  distinguished  clergyman 
of  London,  personally  kind  and  friendly  to  me,  said  to 
me,  "  Mr.  Beecher,  you  may  just  as  well  have  it  said:  you 
have  been  growing  so  strong  that  we  have  felt  for  a  good 
many  years  that  we  had   got  to  take  you   down,  and  we 


666  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

were  very  glad  when  the  job  was  taken  off  our  hands  Dy- 
vour own  people."  When  Mr.  Roebuck,  whose  speech  it 
was  my  great  privilege  to  hear,  declared  that  fact  in  Par- 
liament, it  was  cheered  immensely,  but  reprobated  in  The 
Times  and  the  other  presses  that  represented  the  South — 
not  because  he  had  not  spoken  the  truth,  but  because  it 
was  a  truth  that  it  was  not  best  to  speak.  I  have  the 
paper,  and  meant  to  have  brought  it  to  read  to-night.  It 
was  stated  in  one  of  the  recent  issues,  in  commenting  upon 
my  speeches  there.  They  very  frankly  said  that  this  had 
been  the  growing  impression, — that  we  were  a  rancorous, 
bellicose,  arrogant  set  of  men;  that  we  were  proud  of  our 
sudden  growth;  and  it  was  even  said  that  Mr.  Beecherwas 
regarded  as  a  specimen  of  what  they  should  have  to  deal 
with  in  the  nation.  I  was  supposed  to  be  a  man  breathing 
out  slaughter  and  threats.  Now,  when  they  made  a  mis- 
take so  manifest  as  to  suppose  that  such  a  peaceful  man 
as  I  am  was  dangerous,  you  cannot  wonder  about  the  mis- 
take they  made  in  regard  to  the  nation.  It  is  the  sun  that 
makes  seeds  grow,  it  is  the  light  and  the  stimulating  influ- 
ences that  makes  seeds  grow;  but,  after  all,  it  is  the  dung- 
hill that  makes  the  hot-bed  under  them  that  starts  them  to 
grow;  and  it  is  just  exactly  that  hot-bed  that  has  worked 
upon  English  feeling,  and  made  predisposing  causes  which 
have  affected  the  sympathies  of  Great  Britain;  it  is  just 
that  underlying  influence  that  has  prepared  them  for  this, 
that,  and  the  other  prejudice  or  misinformation. 

With  this  state  of  facts,  you  will  ask,  How  is  it,  then, 
that  this  English  people  have  been  restrained  ?  How  is  it 
that  they  have  not  gone  into  overt  belligerency  ?  The  no- 
bility, as  a  class,  are  against  us — at  least,  the  Government 
is  divided,  one  part  being  against  us;  the  Plutocracy  is 
against  us;  and  I  think  I  may  say  that  while  the  brains 
that  represent  progress  in  Great  Britain  are  in  our  favor, 
yet  the  conservative  intelligence  in  Great  Britain  is  against 
us.  All  that  there  is  upon  the  surface  of  society,  repre- 
senting its  dignities  and  its  power  and  its  intelligence,  is 
anti- American;  and  the  question  that  I  propose  to  you  is: 
How — with   the  papers,  and   the   magazines,  and  the  uni- 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  667 

versities,  how — with  their  titled  estates  and  their  Govern- 
ment and  all  their  powers  aga"inst  us, — how  is  it  that  they 
have  been  restrained  as  they  have  been  ?  //  is  the  influence 
of  the  unwealthy,  and,  to  a  very  great  extent,  the  unvoting  En- 
glishman that  restrains  them.  And  that  was  what  I  could  not 
understand.  I  learned  in  England  what  surprised  me — 
that  the  men  that  couldn't  vote,  when  everywhere  united 
and  determined,  had  the  power  of  controlling  the  men  that 
did  vote.  That  is  not  an  anomaly.  It  would  be  in  our 
institutions,  but  it  is  not  in  their  English  institutions;  and 
among  other  reasons  because  in  a  nation  where  one  class 
has  permanent  privilege,  and  the  underlying  class  none  at 
all,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  teaches  the  upper  class 
not  to  goad  this  underlying  class  to  madness.  Everything 
stands  on  their  patience,  and  there  is  always  that  dragon  of 
revolution  coiled  up  that  they  dare  not  rouse;  and  therefore 
it  is  that  wThen  the  underlying  class  are  determined  upon 
any  point  they  carry  their  point.  Men  whose  fortunes  are 
made,  as  a  general  thing,  are  against  us;  men  that  have 
very  little  in  the  present  that  they  care  for,  that  are  strug- 
gling for  a  better  future  for  themselves  and  for  their  chil- 
dren, that  class  is  on  our  side.  But  they  are  a  class  that 
have  not  much  voice  and  very  little  expression,  and  there- 
fore they  are  but  little  heard  from.  Their  report  is  not 
wafted  across  the  sea,  but  their  influence  is  felt  in  their  own 
land.  And  it  seems  to  me  peculiarly  beautiful  and  fitting 
that  we,  who  are  the  representatives  of  the  common  peo- 
ple, should  find  that  our  real  allies  have  been  the  common 
people  of  Great  Britain. 

The  result  has  been  that  the  Government  has  more  and 
more  modified  its  policy,  until  now  it  has  come  to  that 
condition  in  which  I  believe  we  all  feel  satisfied,  in  the 
main.  England  has  determined  that  ships  of  war  shall 
not  be  built  in  her  yards,  nor  sent  out  from  her  ports  to 
harry  our  commerce  on  the  seas.  The  action  of  Lord 
John  Russell  in  this  has  met  with  some  few  dissentient 
voices,  yet  it  has  carried  the  assent  of  the  great  mass  of 
the  British  public,  and  the  Government  was  reinforced, 
and  will  undoubtedly  stand  upon  that  platform.     There  is 


668  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  growing  and  enlightened  sympathy  throughout  the 
realm;  there  is  more  publishing,  there  are  more  men 
lecturing,  more  meetings  being  held  —  all  disseminating 
knowledge  of  the  truth  about  our  great  conflict — now  than 
ever  before.  When  men  say  that  they  doubt  the  English 
feeling,  I  refer  to  this  fact,  that  the  English  Parliament, 
which  is  known  to  be  adverse  to  the  North,  dare  not  vote 
against  it;  I  advert  to  this  fact,  that  not  more  than  twelve 
or  fifteen  meetings  out  of  four  or  five  hundred,  in  which 
our  affairs  have  been  discussed  and  voted  on,  have  been 
carried  against  the  North.  It  is  a  challenge  which  stands 
open  and  recorded,  that  of  some  eight  or  ten  public  meet- 
ings that  have  been  held  in  Liverpool,  there  has  never  been 
one  that  has  been  carried  against  the  North.  In  that  great 
meeting  which  it  was  my  privilege  to  attend  there  the  vote 
was  at  least  five  to  one  in  favor  of  the  North.  The  noise 
and  the  tumult  with  which  the  meeting  was  conducted  had 
given  expectations  of  something  very  different,  but  when 
it  came  to  the  vote  the  noisy  ones  were  about  one  in  five, 
and  the  men  of  peace  and  quiet  were  four  out  of  five. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  from  Richard  Cobden.  He 
says:  "You  will  carry  back  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  state  of  feeling  in  this  country.  Among  what,  for 
want  of  a  better  name,  I  call  our  ruling  class,  the  sympathy 
is  undoubtedly  strongly  for  the  South,  with  an  instinctive 
satisfaction  at  the  prospect  of  the  disruption  of  the  Great 
Republic.  This  is  natural  enough,  but  do  not  forget  that 
we  have  in  this  case,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  seen 
the  masses  of  the  British  people  taking  the  side  of  a  for- 
eign Government  against  its  rebellious  citizens.  In  every 
other  instance,  whether  in  the  case  of  the  Poles,  Italians, 
Hungarians,  Corsicans,  Greeks,  or  South  Americans,  the 
popular  sympathy  of  this  country  has  always  leaped  to  the 
side  of  the  insurgents  the  moment  a  rebellion  has  broken 
out.  In  the  present  case,  our  masses  have  an  instinctive 
feeling  that  their  cause  is  bound  up  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  that  they  have  not 
much  power  in  the  direct  form  of  a  vote;  but  when  the 
millions  of  this  country  are  led   by   the  religious  middle 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  669 

class,  they  can  together  prevent  the  Government  from  pur- 
suing a  policy  hostile  to  their  sympathies.  Under  these 
circumstances,  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  we  may 
consider  the  great  middle  class  of  Englishmen  as  on  the 
side  of  the  North.  The  upper  classes,  as  they  are  called, 
are  on  the  side  of  the  South." 

I  put  no  immoderate  estimate  upon  my  services  in  En- 
gland. I  believe  that  I  did  some  good  wherever  I  spoke. 
But  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  single  man,  and  a 
stranger  in  a  community,  would  be  eaten  up  with  vanity 
if  he  supposed  that  he  did  all  the  good  that  was  done,  for 
there  must  have  been  a  preparation;  he  merely  came  in  to 
touch  the  train  which  had  already  been  laid.  When  in 
October  you  go  to  a  tree  and  give  it  a  jar,  and  the  fruit 
rains  down  all  round  about  you,  it  is  not  you  that  ripened 
and  sent  down  that  fruit;  the  whole  summer  has  been  do- 
ing that.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  there  when  it  was 
needed  that. some  one  should  jar  the  tree;  the  fruit  was 
not  of  my  ripening.  It  is  supposed  by  many  of  my  friends 
that  I  shall  form  an  unwarrantable  estimate  of  my  work 
there.  No;  my  accustomed  modesty  will  stand  me  yet. 
I  see  in  a  letter  in  the  New  York  Times  of  yesterday  some 
friendly  hand  writes: — 

"  The  sympathy  of  England  was  never  stronger  for  the  South — 
her  hatred  never  so  bitter  for  the  North.  If  Mr.  Beecher  thinks 
otherwise,  he  has  been  deceived  by  the  crowd  of  Abolition  par- 
tisans about  him." 

And  then  he  makes  some  personal  statements,  which  I 
will  not  read: 

"  I  cannot  now  remember  the  name  of  one  distinguished  and 
really  influential  person  who  gave  him  countenance  and  sup- 
port." 

That  is  a  fact. 

"  He  was  surrounded  by  dissenting  ministers,  and  members  of 
the  Emancipation  Society." 

Pretty  nearly  so. 

"  The  nobility,  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church,  members 
of  Parliament,  &c,  were  wanting." 

They  were. 


670  /  >A  TRIO  TIC  A  DDR  ESSES. 

"  Brougham,  Wilberforce,  Buxton,  the  great  names  identified 
with  the  Anti-Slavery  cause  in  England,  were  opposed  to  him,  as 
they  are  opposed  to  the  cause  he  advocated." 

I  will  admit  that  there  were  no  Broughams,  no  Wilber- 
forces,  no  Buxtons  in  audiences  that  I  addressed,  and  the 
reason  was  that  there  are  no  such  men  in  England.  There 
is  something  that  they  call  "Lord  Brougham"  left;  it  is 
not  glorious  old  Harry  Brougham;  it  is  Lord  Brougham. 
There  is  a  Wilberforce;  for  the  sake  of  the  father  we  will 
yet  courteously  honor  the  name  in  the  son.  There  is  a 
Buxton — the  name.  And  it  is  perfectly  true  that  if  En- 
gland is  to  be  judged  by  her  dignitaries,  by  her  nobility, 
by  her  more  eminent  names,  England  is  not  with  us;  but 
if  England  is  to  be  judged  by  her  middle  class — if  you 
please  to  say  it,  by  her  influential  classes  — she  is  with  us. 
At  any  rate  I  am  not  deceived,  for  I  never  supposed  that 
any  other  part  of  England  was  with  us.  And  that  I  may 
give  some  more  reliable  intelligence  allow  me  to  read. 
Among  the  members  of  the  Government  known  to  be  favor- 
able to  the  Federal  cause  are  the  following:  The  Duke  of 
Argyle  (who  married  a  daughter  of  the  Duchess  of  Suther- 
land); Lord  Granville;  the  Right  Hon.  Charles  Pelham  Vil- 
liers;  Mr.  Milner  Gibson,  Mr.  James  Stansfield,  Mr.  Charles 
Gilpin,  Members  of  Parliament.  Messrs.  John  Bright; — 
\cheers\  I  told  him  it  would  be  just  so; — Richard  Cobden; 
— [cheers]  you  know  your  friends,  I  see; — W.  E.  Forster,  less 
known  but  just  as  firm  and  steady  a  friend;  E.  A.  Leatham; 
Guildford  Onslow;  James  White;  P.  A.  Taylor;  F.  Doul- 
ton;  W.  Williams,  the  O'Donnahue;  E.  Baines,  Thomas 
Carnes,  W.  E.  Baxter,  James  Caird,  Samuel  Gurney, 
George  Hanfield,  Grant  Duff,  James  Kershaw,  Wilfred 
Lawson.  Among  the  newspapers  and  magazines  favorable 
to  the  cause  are  the  following:  The  Morning  Star,  the 
organ  of  the  advanced  Liberal  party,  managing  proprietor 
and  editor,  Mr.  Samuel  Lucas;  The  Daily  Ne7vs,  another 
Liberal  organ,  edited  by  Mr.  Walker,  a  paper  which,  if  a 
man  wants  to  take  The  Times  without  its  venom  and 
wickedness,  he  can  have.  It  is  just  as  able  as  The  Times, 
and  a  thousand  times  more  principled.     The  evening  edi- 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  671 

tions  of  the  above  journals,  respectively  named  The  Even- 
ing Star  and  The  Express,  The  Spectator,  weekly,  edited  by 
Mr.  Hutton,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  influential  of  the 
weeklies  and  distinguished  by  its  calm  and  philosophical 
tone;  Lloyd's  Weekly  News,  edited  by  Blanchard  Jerrold, 
with  a  circulation  of  400,000  weekly — the  great  hebdoma- 
dal organ  of  the  working  classes;  The  Beehive,  organ  of  the 
trades,  miners;  The  Nonconformist  (all  sorts  of  Dissenters); 
The  British  Standard,  Dr.  Campbell  (Congregationalist); 
The  Freeman  (Baptist);  Macmillans  Magazine,  edited  by 
Prof.  Masson  of  Cambridge  University;  The  Dial,  weekly 
journal  of  The  Morning  Star;  The  British  Ensign  (Congre- 
gationalist); The  Westminster  Review,  the  quarterly  organ 
of  English  Radicalism;  The  Observer,  the  Ministerial 
weekly  organ;  The  Reader,  one  of  their  principal  literary 
journals.  The  most  popular  and  widely  circulated  jour- 
nals in  both  the  metropolis  and  the  country  support  the 
Northern  cause.  The  aggregate  circulation  is  at  least  a 
million  each  issue.  Among  the  leading  provincial  newspa- 
pers may  be  mentioned  the  following:  The  Manchester  Ex- 
aminer, circulating  through  the  manufacturing  districts; 
The  Newcastle  Chronicle;  Liverpool  Daily  Post;  Birmingham 
Daily  Post;  Leeds  Mercury;  Preston  Guardian;  Dundee  Adver- 
tiser; Caledonian  Mercury,  Edinburgh;  Northern  Daily  Whig, 
Belfast;  Carlisle  Examiner;  Kendal  Mercury,  the  paper  of 
the  Lake  District;  Hampshire  Independent,  Southampton; 
Bradford  Advertiser,  in  which  General  Perrmet  Thompson 
writes  weekly;  Bedford  Mercury ;  The  Irishman,  an  organ  of 
the  Meagher  and  O'Brien  party  in  Ireland;  The  Bucks  Ad- 
vertiser. Among  men  distinguished  in  science  and  litera- 
ture are  the  following:  Lord  Carlisle,  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland;  Lord  Houghton,  better  knows  as  Monckton 
Milnes,  author  and  poet;  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  the  eminent 
geologist  [cheers] ;  John  Stuart  Mill,  the  greatest  of  En- 
glish philosophers  in  the  present  day  [applause]  ;  Sir 
Stephen  Lushington,  judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court,  and 
one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the  English  struggle  against 
Slavery  and  the  slave-trade;  Goldwin  Smith,  the  Professor 
of    Modern    History   in   the   University  of  Oxford;    Prof. 


6 7  2  PATH  10 7 TC  A DDRE SSES. 

Cairnes,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  Belfast  Uni- 
versity \cheering\m,  Prof.  F.  W.  Newman,  the  eminent 
Professor  of  Latin  and  English  literature  ;  Gen.  Perrmet 
Thompson,  the  founder  of  the  Westminster  Review,  first 
Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  author  of  "  The  Anti-Corn 
Law  Catechism"  \applause\ ;  Dr.  Chapman,  the  present 
editor  of  the  Westminster  Review;  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes,  the 
author  of  "  Tom  Brown's  School  Days,"  the  most  popular 
work  in  England  next  to  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin;"  Mr. 
Edward  Small,  leader  of  the  English  Nonconformists; 
George  Wilson,  Chairman  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League; 
George  Thompson,  fellow-laborer  with  Wilberforce,  Clark- 
son,  and  Brougham  in  the  Anti-Slavery  struggle;  Prof. 
Nichol,  of  Glasgow  University;  Dr.  Foster,  Chairman  of 
the  Religious  Liberation  Society;  Prof.  Beesly,  Professor 
of  Political  Economy  in  University  Hall;  James  Taylor,  Jr., 
founder  of  the  freehold  land  movement;  Dr.  Lees,  the 
eminent  temperance  lecturer;  W.  J.  Fox,  the  late  member 
for  Oldham;  Washington  Wilks  and  Henry  Vincent,  well 
known  as  popular  leaders  or  writers;  Mr.  Scott,  the  Chair- 
berlain  of  London;  the  Mayors  of  Manchester,  Birming- 
ham, Rochdale,  and  Faversham.  Among  the  clergymen 
and  ministers  are;  Dr.  French,  Dean  of  Westminster;  Drs. 
Candlish  and  Grothrie,  the  leaders  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland;  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Baptist  Noel,  the  Rev.  New- 
man Hall,  the  Rev.  William  Brock,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Halley, 
President  of  the  New  College,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Angus,  Presi- 
dent of  Regent's  Park  College;  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Cairns, 
Berwick-on-Tweed;  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  Begg,  Edinburgh; 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander,  Edinburgh;  the  Rev. 
Canon  Robinson  of  York  Cathedral;  the  Rev.  Professor 
Maurice,  London;  the  Rev.  George  Gilfillan,  Dundee;  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  Glasgow;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Campbell,  Lon- 
don; the  Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton,  London;  the  Rev.  Mr.  Batch- 
elor,  Glasgow.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  thousands  of 
names  of  men  who  are  our  friends,  but  these  are  better 
known,  and  have  signalized  their  friendship  by  signal  lit- 
erary services  in  the  cause  of  freedom  and  of  the  North. 
I  ask  you,  fellow-citizens,  whether,  upon  the  facts  I  have 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  673 

stated,  there  is  not  reason  to  believe  that  after  all  we  have 
been  misinformed,  and  that  there  is  a  great  undertone  in 
England  of  friendliness  and  fidelity  to  us  and  to  our 
•cause  ? 

I  will  not  attempt  repeating  the  grounds  which  I  took 
in  England;  I  merely  wish  to  add  to  this  statement  of  facts 
respecting  that  country  a  few  words  as  to  why  we  should 
seek  by  all  honorable  means  to  maintain  sympathy  and 
peaceful  relations  with  England. 

This  is  not  our  own  struggle,  it  is  the  world's  battle  we 
are  fighting;  we  are  set  to  do  the  work,  but  the  whole 
world  is  to  enjoy  the  fruit  of  our  victories;  we  are  strug- 
gling for  the  rights  of  the  common  people,  but  not  of  this 
country  only.  Therefore  we  ought  not  to  ignore  the  com- 
mon people  of  any  nation,  still  less  of  that  nation  from 
which  we  spring,  and  whose  language  we  still  speak — and 
I  sometimes  think  we  speak  it  with  more  purity  than  they 
themselves.  [Laughter  and  c/icers.~\  If  the  great  underly- 
ing population  of  England,  that  is  struggling  for  intelli- 
gence and  large  political  rights;  if  that  great  under-class 
are  on  our  side,  for  their  sake  we  ought  to  be  at  peace  with 
England,  avoiding  every  cause  of  offense.  For  their  sake 
who  are  our  friends,  let  us  be  patient  and  reach  out  cor- 
dial hands,  if  not  to  those  who  should  have  been  our  friends 
at  the  top — to  those  that  are  our  friends,  and  who  have 
signalized  their  friendship  through  famine,  hunger,  sick- 
ness and  suffering  untold,  without  betraying  their  fidelity 
— for  all  those  men  of  Lancashire,  her  starving  weavers,  are 
fast  and  firm  friends  of  the  North.  We  are  laboring  on  this 
side  with  just  the  difficulties  under  which  the  generous, 
just,  and  enlightened  men  of  Europe  are  laboring  on  the 
other  side.  If  they  have  not  precisely  the  same  internal 
difficulties  we  have,  we  have  felt  that  we  were  checked  by 
the  power  of  wealth,  by  the  perverse  prejudices  of  classes 
and  aristocracies  established  in  this  country,  or  forming, 
and  we  have  found  whenever  we  attempted  to  move,  even 
at  the  North,  that  we  moved  against  the  same  impediments 
in   our  own   midst;  whatever   battle  we   have   fought   has 

been  a  moral  battle  at  home.     And  so,  when    our  friends 
43 


674  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

have  experienced  the  same  difficulties  abroad,  we  are  to 
take  into  consideration  their  difficulties,  and  not  be  impa- 
tient; and  if  from  let  and  hindrance  at  home  they  fail  to 
Come  up  to  the  measure  of  enl luisiasm  which  we  desire* 
and  which  we  had  prescribed  for  them;  more  than  ever,  it 
seems  to  me,  in  hope,  patience,  generosity,  and  magna- 
nimity, it  becomes  ns  to  set  an  example  to  them  and  to  the 
nations  of  the  world.  We  have  a  better  Government,  we 
think,  than  any  Other  nation  has.  Let  ns  prove  it  by  the 
fruit  it  brings  forth  in  the  citizen.  If  Lord  Brougham — 
w  ho  is  not,  I  think,  any  longer  responsible  for  what  he  says 

— should  say  that  the  American  people  is  a   mob,  let    it    be 

ours  to  show  that  an  American  mob  is  more  decent  than 
British  aristocracy.  We  are  proud  of  our  common  schools; 
we  are  proud  of  the  citizens  they  make.     Let   it   not   be 

mere  vanity  on  our  part;  let  us  manifest  all  the  attributes 
of  fidelity  to  our  convictions;  let  us  have  more  patience 
with  our  friends  and  more  magnanimity  to  our  enemies; 
and  particularly  let  us  show  to  the  world  one  thing  more, 
that  with  Our  free  institutions  and  common  people,  who 
can  quarry  more  wealth  out  of  the  same  earth  than 
other  people,  we  have  and  can  maintain  a  Government 
more  cheaply  and  have  it  more  efficient  than  any  other  on 
the  face  Of  the  earth.  While  we  have  the  power  to  daunt 
all  foreign  enemies  and  to  subdue  the  most  terrific  intes- 
tine lends  that  ever  afflicted  any  people,  let  us  not  be  exhib- 
iting mere  pride;  let  us  also  show  to  the  world  that  no 
ciowns,  no  coronets,  no  aristocracies,  no  educating  influ- 
ences, can  show  another  class  of  people  on  the  globe  so 
temperate,  so  sell-restrained,  so  just  and  generous  in  their 
sentiments  toward  the  common  people  as  the  great  massof 
Common  citizens  in  America.  The  day  is  coming  when 
nations    are    to    feel    each    other's    hearts    more    and    more 

nearly;  when  more  and  more  the  themes  coming  up  for 

national  discussion  are  those  of  the  moral  sentiments; 
when  nations  are  ready  to  come  together  with  common 
ideas  and  common  feelings,  and  to  know  each  other.  I  do 
not  hesitat*'  to  say,  what   I  did    not    say    in    Great    Britain, 

that  not  for  any  material  reason,  but  for  a  moral   reason, 


RECEPTION  IN  BROOKLYN.  675 

we  need  her;  and  I  say  more  than  that,  for  moral  reasons 
she  needs  us.  For  the  sake  of  man,  for  the  cause  of  God, 
for  the  hope  of  civilization,  the  two  great  nations  of  the 
earth,  carrying  on  a  civilization  which  is  derived  from  and 
which  carries  with  it  the  common  people  and  their  uplift- 
ing in  civilization  —  these  two  great  Christian  nations  — 
God  forbid  that  they  should  ever  have  to  cross  hands  in 
strife  and  struggle  !  But  while  other  nations  are  begin- 
ning, though  slow  in  their  steps,  to  look  toward  the  rising 
sun,  while  even  in  Russia  the  frosts  begin  to  glitter  in 
that  light  that  ere  long  shall  mold  them,  then  let  not 
these  former  nations  that  have  stood  to  witness  for  lib- 
erty and  the  blessings  of  free*  Government  fall  out  by 
the  way,  but  shoulder  to  shoulder,  heart  to  heart,  bear- 
ing and  forbearing  with  each  other,  loving,  or  hoping 
to  love  by  and  by, — let  these  stand  together  to  pour  out  to 
every  part  of  the  earth  the  influence  of  Christianity,  civili- 
zation, and  human  liberty. 

Mr.  Low  offered  a  series  of  resolutions  of  welcome  and  compli- 
ment to  Mr.  Beecher,  which,  being  seconded  by  Mr.  S.  B.  Chit- 
tenden, were  unanimously  adopted. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs — "There  is  no  more  to  come  after  the 
King." 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


ADDRESS   AT   THE   RAISING   OF   THE 
UNION  FLAG  OVER  FORT  SUMTER, 

April  14,  1865. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  —  On  this  solemn  and  joyful 
day,  we  again  lift  to  the  breeze  our  fathers'  flag,  now  again 
the  banner  of  the  United  States,  with  the  fervent  prayer  that 
God  would  crown  it  with  honor,  protect  it  from  treason, 
and  send  it  down  to  our  children,  with  all  the  blessings  of 
civilization,  liberty,  and  religion.  Terrible  in  battle,  may 
it  be  beneficent  in  peace.  Happily,  no  bird  or  beast  of 
prey  has  been  inscribed  upon  it.  The  stars  that  redeem 
the  night  from  darkness,  and  the  beams  of  red  light  that 
beautify  the  morning,  have  been  united  upon  its  folds.  As 
long  as  the  sun  endures,  or  the  stars,  may  it  wave  over  a 
nation  neither  enslaved  nor  enslaving.  Once,  and  but  once, 
has  treason  dishonored  it.  In  that  insane  hour,  when  the 
guiltiest  and  bloodiest  rebellion  of  time  hurled  their  fires 
upon  this  fort,  you,  Sir  [turning  to  General  Anderson],  and 
a  small  heroic  band,  stood  within  these  now  crumbled 
walls,  and  did  gallant  and  just  battle  for  the  honor  and  de- 
fense of  the  nation's  banner. 

In  that  cope  of  fire  this  glorious  flag  still  peacefully 
waved  to  the  breeze  above  your  head,  unconscious  of  harm 
as  the  stars  and  skies  above  it.  Once  it  was  shot  down. 
A  gallant  hand,  in  whose  care  this  day  it  has  been,  plucked 
it  from  the  ground,  and  reared  it  again, — "  cast  down  but 
not  destroyed."  After  a  vain  resistance,  with  trembling 
hand  and  sad  heart,  you  withdrew  it  from  its  height, 
closed  its  wings,  and  bore  it  far  away,  sternly  to  sleep 
amid  the  tumults  of  rebellion  and  the  thunder  of  battle. 

The  first  act  of  war  had  begun.  The  long  night  of  four 
years  had  set  in.     While   the  giddy  traitors  whirled  in  a 


FORT  SUMTER   FLAG-RAISING.  677 

maze  of  exhilaration,  dim  horrors  were  already  advancing, 
that  were  ere  long  to  fill  the  land  with  blood. 

To-day  you  are  returned  again.  We  devoutly  join  with 
you  in  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God,  that  he  has  spared 
your  honored  life,  and  vouchsafed  you  the  honors  of  this 
day.  The  heavens  over  you  are  the  same;  the  same  shores; 
morning  comes,  and  evening,  as  they  did.  All  else,  how 
changed  !  What  grim  batteries  crowd  the  burdened 
shores  !  What  scenes  have  tilled  this  air  and  disturbed 
these  waters  !  These  shattered  heaps  of  shapeless  stone 
are  all  that  is  left  of  Fort  Sumter.  Desolation  broods  in 
yonder  sad  city — solemn  retribution  hath  avenged  our  dis- 
honored banner !  You  have  come  back  with  honor,  who 
departed  hence,  four  years  ago,  leaving  the  air  sultry  with 
fanaticism.  The  surging  crowds,  that  rolled  up  their 
frenzied  shouts  as  the  flag  came  down,  are  dead,  or  scat- 
tered, or  silent;  and  their  habitations  are  desolate.  Ruin 
sits  in  the  cradle  of  treason.  Rebellion  has  perished.  But 
there  flies  the  same  flag  that  was  insulted.  With  starry 
eyes  it  looks  all  over  this  bay  for  the  banner  that  sup- 
planted it,  and  sees  it  not.  You  that  then,  for  the  day, 
were  humbled,  are  here  again,  to  triumph  once  and  for- 
ever. In  the  storm  of  that  assault  this  glorious  ensign  was 
often  struck;  but,  memorable  fact,  not  one  of  its  stars  was 
torn  out,  by  shot  or  shell.     It  was  a  prophecy  ! 

It  said:  "  Not  one  State  shall  be  struck  from  this  nation 
by  treason  !  "  The  fulfillment  is  at  hand.  Lifted  to  the 
air,  to-day  it  proclaims,  after  four  years  of  war,  "  Not  a 
State  is  blotted  out  !  " 

Hail  to  the  flag  of  our  fathers,  and  our  flag  !  Glory  to 
the  banner  that  has  gone  through  four  years  black  with 
tempests  of  war,  to  pilot  the  nation  back  to  peace  without 
dismemberment  !  And  glory  be  to  God,  who,  above  all 
hosts  and  banners,  hath  ordained  victory,  and  shall  ordain 
peace  ! 

Wherefore  have  we  come  hither,  pilgrims  from  distant 
places  ?  Are  we  come  to  exult  that  Northern  hands  are 
stronger  than  Southern  ?  No,  but  to  rejoice  that  the  hands 
of  those  who  defend  a  just  and  beneficent  government  are 


678  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

mightier  than  the  hands  that  assaulted  it !  Do  we  exult 
over  fallen  cities  ?  We  exult  that  a  nation  has  not  fallen. 
We  sorrow  with  the  sorrowful.  We  sympathize  with  the 
desolate.  We  look  upon  this  shattered  fort,  and  yonder 
dilapidated  city,  with  sad  eyes,  grieved  that  men  should 
have  committed  such  treason,  and  glad  that  God  hath  set 
such  a  mark  upon  treason  that  all  ages  shall  dread  and 
abhor  it. 

We  exult,  not  for  a  passion  gratified,  but  for  a  sentiment 
victorious;  not  for  temper,  but  for  conscience;  not  as  we 
devoutly  believe  that  our  will  is  done,  but  that  God's  will 
hath  been  done.'  We  should  be  unworthy  of  that  liberty 
entrusted  to  our  care,  if,  on  such  a  day  as  this,  we  sullied 
our  hearts  by  feelings  of  aimless  vengeance;  and  equally 
unworthy,  if  we  did  not  devoutly  thank  Him  who  hath 
said,  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord,  that  he 
hath  set  a  mark  upon  arrogant  Rebellion,  ineffaceable 
while  Time  lasts  ! 

Since  this  flag  went  down  on  that  dark  day,  who  shall 
tell  the  mighty  woes  that  have  made  this  land  a  spectacle 
to  angels  and  men  ?  The  soil  has  drunk  blood,  and  is 
glutted.  Millions  mourn  for  millions  slain;  or,  envying 
the  dead,  pray  for  oblivion.  Towns  and  villages  have 
been  razed.  Fruitful  fields  have  turned  back  to  wilderness. 
It  came  to  pass,  as  the  prophet  said:  The  sun  was  turned  to 
darkness,  and  the  moon  to  blood.  The  course  of  law  was 
ended.  The  sword  sat  chief  magistrate  in  half  the  nation; 
industry  was  paralyzed;  morals  corrupted;  the  public 
weal  invaded  by  rapine  and  anarchy;  whole  States  ravaged 
by  avenging  armies.  The  world  was  amazed.  The  earth 
reeled.  When  the  flag  sank  here,  it  was  as  if  political 
night  had  come,  and  all  beasts  of  prey  had  come  forth  to 
devour. 

That  long  night  has  ended  !  And  for  this  returning  day 
we  have  come  from  afar,  to  rejoice  and  give  thanks.  No 
more  war  !  No  more  accursed  secession  !  No  more  slav- 
ery, that  spawned  them  both  ! 

Let  no  man  misread  the  meaning  of  this  unfolding  flag  ! 
It  says,    "  Government    hath    returned    hither."     It   pro- 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  679 

claims  in  the  name  of  vindicated  government,  peace  and 
protection  to  loyalty;  humiliation  and  pains  to  traitors. 
This  is  the  flag  of  sovereignty.  The  Nation,  not  the  States, 
is  sovereign.  Restored  to  authority,  this  flag  commands, 
not  supplicates. 

There  may  be  pardon,  but  no  concession.  There  may 
be  amnesty  and  oblivion,  but  no  honeyed  compromises. 
The  nation  to-day  has  peace  for  the  peaceful,  and  war  for 
the  turbulent.  The  only  condition  of  submission,  is,  to 
submit !  There  is  the  Constitution,  there  are  the  laws, 
there  is  the  Government.  They  rise  up  like  mountains  of 
strength  that  shall  not  be  moved.  They  are  the  condi- 
tions of  peace. 

One  nation,  under  o?ie  government,  without  slavery,  has  been 
ordained,  and  shall  stand.  There  can  be  peace  on  no  other 
basis.  On  this  basis  reconstruction  is  easy,  and  needs 
neither  architect  nor  engineer.  Without  this  basis  no  en- 
gineer or  architect  shall  ever  reconstruct  these  rebellious 
States. 

We  do  not  want  your  cities  nor  your  fields.  We  do  not 
envy  you  your  prolific  soil,  nor  heavens  full  of  perpetual 
summer.  Let  agriculture  revel  here;  let  manufactures 
make  every  stream  twice  musical;  build  fleets  in  every 
port;  inspire  the  arts  of  peace  and  genius  second  only  to 
that  of  Athens;  and  we  shall  be  glad  in  your  gladness,  and 
rich  in  }rour  wealth. 

All  that  we  ask  is  unswerving  loyalty,  and  universal  lib- 
erty. And  that,  in  the  name  of  this  high  sovereignty  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  we  demand;  and  that,  with 
the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  we  will  have  ! 

We  raise  our  fathers'  banner  that  it  may  bring  back  bet- 
ter blessings  than  those  of  old;  that  it  may  cast  out  the 
devil  of  discord;  that  it  may  restore  lawful  government, 
and  a  prosperity  purer  and  more  enduring  than  that  which 
it  protected  before;  that  it  may  win  parted  friends  from 
their  alienation;  that  it  may  inspire  hope,  and  inaugurate 
universal  liberty;  that  it  may  say  to  the  sword,  "  Return 
to  thy  sheath,"  and  to  the  plow  and  sickle,  "  Go  forth;" 
that  it  may  heal  all  jealousies,  unite  all  policies,  inspire  a 


68o  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

new  national  life,  compact  our  strength,  purify  our  princi- 
ples, ennoble  our  national  ambitions,  and  make  this  people 
great  and  strong,  not  for  aggression  and  quarrelsomeness, 
but  for  the  peace  of  the  world,  giving  to  us  the  glorious 
prerogative  of  leading  all  nations  to  juster  laws,  to  more 
humane  policies,  to  sincerer  friendship,  to  rational,  insti- 
tuted civil  liberty,  and  to  universal  Christian  brotherhood. 

Reverently,  piously,  in  hopeful  patriotism,  we  spread  this 
banner  on  the  sky,  as  of  old  the  bow  was  planted  on  the 
cloud;  and,  with  solemn  fervor,  beseech  God  to  look  upon 
it,  and  make  it  the  memorial  of  an  everlasting  covenant 
and  decree  that  never  again  on  this  fair  land  shall  a  deluge 
of  blood  prevail. 

Why  need  any  eye  turn  from  this  spectacle  ?  Are  there 
not  associations  which,  overleaping  the  recent  past,  carry  us 
back  to  times  when,  over  North  and  South,  this  flag  was 
honored  alike  by  all  ?  In  all  our  colonial  days,  we  were 
one;  in  the  long  Revolutionary  struggle;  and  in  the  scores 
of  prosperous  years  succeeding.  When  the  passage  of  the 
Stamp  Act  in  1765  aroused  the  colonies,  it  was  Gadsden  of 
South  Carolina  that  cried  with  prescient  enthusiasm:  "We 
stand  on  the  broad  common  ground  of  those  natural  rights 
that  we  all  feel  and  know  as  men.  There  ought  to  be  no 
New  England  man,  no  New  Yorker,  known  on  this  conti- 
nent, but  all  of  us,"  said  he,  "Americans."  That  was  the 
voice  of  South  Carolina:  that  shall  be  the  voice  of  South 
Carolina.  Faint  is  the  echo;  but  it  is  coming.  We  now 
hear  it  sighing  sadly  through  the  pines;  but  it  shall  yet 
break  upon  the  shore — no  North,  no  West,  no  South,  but 
one  United  States  of  America. 

There  is  scarcely  a  man  born  in  the  South  who  has 
lifted  his  hand  against  this  banner,  but  had  a  father  who 
would  have  died  for  it.  Is  memory  dead  ?  Is  there  no  his- 
toric pride?  Has  a  fatal  fury  struck  blindness  or  hate  into 
eyes  that  used  to  look  kindly  toward  each  other;  that  read 
the  same  Bible;  that  hung  over  the  same  historic  pages 
of  our  national  glory;   that  studied  the  same  Constitution  ? 

Let  this  uplifting  bring  back  all  of  the  past  that  was 
good,  but  leave  in  darkness  all  that  was  bad. 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  68 1 

It  was  never  before  so  wholly  unspotted;  so  clear  of  all 
wrong;  so  purely  and  simply  the  sign  of  Justice  and  Lib- 
erty. Did  I  say  that  we  brought  back  the  same  banner 
that  you  bore  away,  noble  and  heroic  Sir  ?  It  is  not  the 
same.  It  is  more  and  better  than  it  was.  The  land  is  free 
from  slavery  since  that  banner  fell. 

When  God  would  prepare  Moses  for  Emancipation,  he 
overthrew  his  first  steps,  and  drove  him  for  forty  years  to 
brood  in  the  wilderness.  When  our  flag  came  down,  four 
years  it  lay  brooding  in  darkness.  It  cried  to  the  Lord, 
"  Wherefore  am  I  deposed  ? "  Then  arose  before  it  a 
vision  of  its  sin.  It  had  strengthened  the  strong,  and  for- 
gotten the  weak.  It  proclaimed  liberty,  but  trod  upon 
slaves. 

In  that  seclusion  it  dedicated  itself  to  liberty.  Behold, 
to-day,  it  fulfills  its  vows !  When  it  went  down,  four 
million  people  had  no  flag.  To-day  it  rises,  and  four 
million  people  cry  out,  "Behold  our  banner!"  Hark! 
they  murmur.  It  is  the  Gospel  that  they  recite  in  sacred 
words:  "It  is  a  Gospel  to  the  poor,  it  heals  our  broken 
hearts,  it  preaches  deliverance  to  captives,  it  gives  sight  to 
the  blind,  it  sets  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised."  Rise 
up,  then,  glorious  Gospel  Banner,  and  roll  out  these  mes- 
sages of  God.  Tell  the  air  that  not  a  spot  now  sullies  thy 
whiteness.  Thy  red  is  not  the  blush  of  shame,  but  the 
flush  of  joy.  Tell  the  dews  that  wash  thee  that  thou  art 
as  pure  as  they.  Say  to  the  night,  that  thy  stars  lead  to- 
ward the  morning;  and  to  the  morning,  that  a  brighter 
day  arises  vyith  healing  in  its  wings.  And  then,  O  glorious 
flag,  bid  the  sun  pour  light  on  all  thy  folds  with  double 
brightness,  whilst  thou  art  bearing  around  and  round  the 
world  the  solemn  joy — a  race  set  free  !  a  nation  redeemed  ! 

The  mighty  hand  of  Government,  made  strong  in  war 
by  the  favor  of  the  God  of  Battles,  spreads  wide  to-day 
the  banner  of  liberty  that  went  down  in  darkness,  that 
rose  in  light;  and  there  it  streams,  like  the  sun  above  it, 
neither  parceled  out  nor  monopolized,  but  flooding  the 
air  with  light  for  all  mankind.  Ye  scattered  and  broken, 
ye  wounded  and  dying,  bitten  by  the  fiery   serpents  of  op- 


682  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

pression,  everywhere,  in  all  the  world,  look  upon  this  sign 
lifted  up,  and  live  !  And  ye  homeless  and  houseless  slaves, 
look,  and  ye  are  free  !  At  length  you,  too,  have  part  and 
lot  in  this  glorious  ensign,  that  broods  with  impartial  love 
over  small  and  great,  the  poor  and  the  strong,  the  bond 
and  the  free  !  In  this  solemn  hour,  let  us  pray  for  the 
quick  coming  of  reconciliation  and  happiness,  under  this 
common  flag  ! 

But  we  must  build  again,  from  the  foundations,  in  all 
these  now  free  Southern  States.  No  cheap  exhortation 
"  to  forgetfulness  of  the  past,  to  restore  all  things  as  they 
were,"  will  do.  God  does  not  stretch  out  his  hand,  as  he 
has  for  four  dreadful  years,  that  men  may  easily  forget  the 
might  of  his  terrible  acts.  Restore  things  as  they  were  ? 
What,  the  alienations  and  jealousies?  The  discords  and 
contentions,  and  the  causes  of  them  ?  No.  In  that  solemn 
sacrifice  on  which  a  nation  has  offered  up  for  its  sins  so 
many  precious  victims,  loved  and  lamented,  let  our  sins 
and  mistakes  be  consumed  utterly  and  forever. 

No,  never  again  shall  things  be  restored  as  before  the 
war.  It  is  written  in  God's  decree  of  events  fulfilled, 
"  Old  things  are  passed  away."  That  new  earth,  in  which 
dwelleth  righteousness,  draws  near. 

Things  as  they  were  ?  Who  has  an  omnipotent  hand  to 
restore  a  million  dead,  slain  in  battle,  or  wasted  by  sick- 
ness, or  dying  of  grief,  broken-hearted  ?  Who  has  omnis- 
cience, to  search  for  the  scattered  ones  ?  Who  shall  re- 
store the  lost  to  broken  families  ?  Who  shall  bring  back 
the  squandered  treasure,  the  years  of  industry  wasted,  and 
convince  you  that  four  years  of  guilty  rebellion,  and  cruel 
war,  are  no  more  than  dirt  upon  the  hand  which  a  mo- 
ment's washing  removes,  and  leaves  the  hand  clean  as  be- 
fore ?  Such  a  war  reaches  down  to  the  very  vitals  of  so- 
ciety. 

Emerging  from  such  a  prolonged  rebellion,  he  is  blind 
who  tells  you  that  the  State,  by  a  mere  amnesty  and 
benevolence  of  Government,  can  be  put  again,  by  a  mere 
decree,  in  its  old  place.  It  would  not  be  honest,  it  would 
not  be  kind  or  fraternal,  for  me  to   pretend   that   Southern 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  683 

revolution  against  the  Union  has  not  reacted,  and  wrought 
revolution  in  the  Southern  States  themselves,  and  inaugu- 
rated a  new  dispensation. 

Society  is  like  a  broken  loom,  and  the  piece  which  Re- 
bellion put  in  and  was  weaving,  has  been  cut,  and  every 
thread  broken.  You  must  put  in  new  warp  and  new  woof 
— and,  weaving  anew,  as  the  fabric  slowly  unwinds,  we 
shall  see  in  it  no  gorgon  figures,  no  hideous  grotesques  of 
the  old  barbarism,  but  the  figures  of  vines  and  golden 
grains,  framing  in  the  heads  of  Justice,  Love,  and  Lib- 
erty ! 

The  august  Convention  of  1787  set  forth  the  Constitu- 
tion with  this  memorable  preamble:  "  We,  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union, 
establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for 
the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  se- 
cure the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  poster- 
ity, do  ordain  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of 
America." 

Again,  in  the  awful  convention  of  war,  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  for  the  very  ends  just  recited,  have  de- 
bated, settled  and  ordained  certain  fundamental  truths, 
which  must  henceforth  be  accepted  and  obeyed.  Nor  is 
any  State  or  any  individual  wise  who  shall  disregard  them. 
They  are  to  civil  affairs  what  the  natural  laws  are  to  health 
— indispensable  conditions  of  peace  and  happiness. 

What  are  the  ordinances  given  by  the  people,  speaking 
out  of  fire  and  darkness  of  war,  with  authority  inspired  by 
that  same  God  who  gave  the  laws  from  Sinai  amid 
thunders  and  trumpet  voices  ? 

First,  that  these  United  States  shall  be  one  and  indivisi- 
ble. 

Second,  that  States  are  not  absolute  sovereigns,  and 
have  no  right  to  dismember  the  republic. 

Third,  that  universal  liberty  is  indispensable  to  repub- 
lican government,  and  that  slavery  shall  be  utterly  and 
forever  abolished. 

Such  are  the  results  of  war  !  These  are  the  best  fruits 
of  the  war.     They  are  worth  all  they  have  cost.     They  are 


684  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  foundations  of  peace.  They  will  secure  benefits  to  all 
nations,  as  well  as  to  us. 

Our  highest  wisdom  and  duty  is  to  accept  the  facts  as 
the  decrees  of  God.  We  are  exhorted  to  forget  all  that 
has  happened.  Yes,  the  wrath,  the  conflict,  the  cruelty, 
but  not  those  overruling  decrees  of  God,  which  this  war 
has  pronounced.  As  solemnly  as  on  Mount  Sinai,  God 
says,  "Remember  !  Remember!"  Hear  it,  to-day.  Under 
this  sun,  under  that  bright  child  of  the  sun,  our  banner, 
with  the  eyes  of  this  nation  and  of  the  world  upon  us,  we 
repeat  the  syllables  of  God's  providence,  and  recite  the 
solemn  decrees: 

No  more  Disunion  ! 

No  more  Secession  ! 

No  more  Slavery  ! 

Why  did  this  civil  war  begin  ? 

We  do  not  wonder  that  European  statesmen  failed  to 
comprehend  this  conflict,  and  foreign  philanthropists  were 
shocked  at  a  murderous  war,  that  seemed  to  have  had  no 
moral  origin,  but,  like  the  brutal  fights  of  beasts  of  prey, 
to  have  sprung  from  ferocious  animalism.  This  great  na- 
tion, filling  all  profitable  latitudes,  cradled  between  two 
oceans,  with  inexhaustible  resources,  with  riches  increas- 
ing in  an  unparalleled  ratio,  by  agriculture,  by  manufact- 
ures, by  commerce,  with  schools  and  churches,  with  books 
and  newspapers,  thick  as  leaves  in  our  own  forests,  with 
institutions  sprung  from  the  people,  and  peculiarly  adapted 
to  their  genius;  a  nation  not  sluggish,  but  active,  used  to 
excitement,  practiced  in  political  wisdom,  and  accustomed 
to  self-government,  and  all  its  vast  outlying  parts  held  to- 
gether by  a  federal  government,  mild  in  temper,  gentle  in 
administration,  and  beneficent  in  results, — we  do  not  won- 
der that  it  is  not  understood  abroad. 

All  at  once,  in  this  hemisphere  of  happiness  and  hope, 
there  came  trooping  clouds  with  fiery  bolts,  full  of  death 
and  desolation.  At  a  cannon  shot  upon  this  fort,  all  the 
nation,  as  if  they  had  been  a  trained  army  lying  on  their 
arms,  awaiting  a  signal,  rose  up  and  began  a  war  which, 
for  awfulness,  rises  into   the  first  rank  of  bad  eminence. 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  685 

The  front  of  battle,  going  with  the  sun,  was  twelve  hun- 
dred miles  long;  and  the  depth,  measured  along  a  merid- 
ian, was  a  thousand  miles.  In  this  vast  area,  more  than 
two  million  men,  first  and  last,  for  four  years,  have  in 
skirmish,  fight  and  battle,  met  in  more  than  a  thousand 
conflicts;  while  a  coast  and  river  line,  not  less  than  four 
thousand  miles  in  length,  has  swarmed  with  fleets, 
freighted  with  artillery.  The  very  industry  of  the  country 
seemed  to  have  been  touched  by  some  infernal  wand,  and 
with  one  wheel,  changed  its  front  from  peace  to  war.  The 
anvils  of  the  land  beat  like  drums.  As  out  of  the  ooze 
emerge  monsters,  so  from  our  mines  and  foundries  uprose 
new  and  strange  machines  of  war,  iron-clad. 

And  thus,  in  a  nation  of  peaceful  habits,  without  exter- 
nal provocation,  there  arose  such  a  storm  of  war  as  black- 
ened the  whole  horizon  and  hemisphere.  What  wonder 
that  foreign  observers  stood  amazed  at  this  fanatical  fury, 
that  seemed  without  divine  guidance,  but  inspired  wholly 
with  infernal  frenzy  ? 

The  explosion  was  sudden,  but  the  train  had  long  been 
laid.  We  must  consider  the  condition  of  Southern  society, 
if  we  would  understand  the  mystery  of  this  iniquity.  So- 
ciety in  the  South  resolves  itself  into  three  divisions,  more 
sharply  distinguished  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  nation. 
At  the  base  is  the  laboring  class,  made  up  of  slaves.  Next 
is  the  middle  class,  made  up  of  traders,  small  farmers,  and 
poor  men.  The  lower  edge  of  this  class  touched  the  slave 
and  the  upper  edge  reached  up  to  the  third  and  ruling 
class.  This  class  were  a  small  minority  in  numbers,  but  in 
practiced  ability  they  had  centered  in  their  hands  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  South,  and  had  mainly  governed  the  whole 
country. 

Upon  this  polished,  cultured,  exceedingly  capable  and 
wholly  unprincipled  class,  rests  the  whole  burden  of  this 
war.  Forced  up  by  the  bottom  heat  of  slavery,  the  ruling- 
class,  in  all  the  disloyal  States,  arrogated  to  themselves  a 
superiority  not  compatible  with  republican  equality  nor 
with  just  morals.  They  claimed  a  right  of  pre-eminence. 
An  evil  prophet  arose  who  trained  these  wild   and   luxuri- 


686  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ant  shoots  of  ambition  to  the  shapely  form  of  a  political 
philosophy. 

By  its  re-agents  they  precipitated  drudgery  to  the  bot- 
tom of  society,  and  left  at  the  top  what  they  thought  to  be 
a  clarified  fluid.  In  their  political  economy,  labor  was  to 
be  owned  by  capital.  In  their  theory  of  government,  a 
few  were  to  rule  many.  They  boldly  avowed,  not  alone 
the  fact  that  under  all  forms  of  government  the  few  rule 
the  many,  but  their  right  and  duty  to  do  so.  Set  free 
from  the  necessity  of  labor,  they  conceived  a  contempt  for 
those  who  felt  its  wholesome  regimen.  Believing  them- 
selves fore-ordained  to  supremacy,  they  regarded  the  pop- 
ular vote,  when  it  failed  to  register  their  wishes,  as  an  in- 
trusion and  a  nuisance.  They  were  born  in  a  garden,  and 
popular  liberty,  like  freshets,  overswelling  their  banks,  but 
covered  their  dainty  walks  and  flowers  with  slime  and  mud 
— of  democratic  votes. 

When,  with  shrewd  observation,  they  saw  the  growth  of 
the  popular  element  in  the  Northern  States,  they  instinct- 
ively took  in  the  inevitable  events.  It  must  be  controlled, 
or  cut  off  from  a  nation  governed  by  gentlemen  !  Con- 
trolled, less  and  less,  could  it  be,  in  every  decade;  and 
they  prepared  secretly,  earnestly,  and  with  wide  conference 
and  mutual  connivance  to  effect  the  separation. 

We  are  to  distinguish  between  the  pretenses,  and  means, 
and  causes  of  this  war. 

To  inflame  and  unite  the  great  middle  class  of  the  South 
who  had  no  interest  in  separation,  and  no  business  with 
war,  they  alleged  grievances  that  never  existed,  and  em- 
ployed arguments  which  they  better  than  all  other  men 
knew  to  be  specious  and  false.  Slavery  itself  was  cared 
for  only  as  an  instrument  of  power,  or  of  excitement. 
They  had  unalterably  fixed  their  eyes  upon  empire,  and  all 
was  good  which  would  secure  that,  and  bad  which  hin- 
dered it. 

Thus,  the  ruling  class  of  the  South,  an  aristocracy  as 
intense,  proud,  and  inflexible  as  ever  existed,  not  limited 
either  by  customs  or  institutions,  not  recognized  and  ad- 
justed in  the  regular  order  of  society  and  playing  a  recip- 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  687 

rocal  part  in  its  machinery,  but  secretly  disowning  its  own 
existence,  baptized  with  ostentatious  names  of  Democracy, 
obsequious  to  the  people  for  the  sake  of  governing  them; 
this  nameless,  lurking  aristocracy,  that  ran  in  the  blood  of 
society  like  a  rash  not  yet  come  to  the  skin;  this  political 
tape-worm,  that  produced  nothing,  but  lay  coiled  in  the 
body,  feeding  on  its  nutriment,  and  holding  the  whole 
structure  but  a  servant  set  up  to  nourish  it — this  aristoc- 
racy of  the  plantation,  with  firm  and  deliberate  resolve, 
brought  on  the  war  that  they  might  cut  the  land  in  two;  and 
clearing  themselves  from  incorrigible  free  society,  set  up 
a  sterner,  statelier  empire,  where  slaves  should  work  that 
gentlemen  might  live  at  ease.  Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  though,  at  first,  they  meant  to  erect  the  form  of  re- 
publican government,  this  was  but  a  device;  a  step  neces- 
sary to  the  securing  of  that  power  by  which  they  should 
be  able  to  change  the  whole  economy  of  society. 

That  they  never  dreamed  of  such  a  war,  we  may  well  be- 
lieve. That  they  would  have  accepted  it,  though  twice  as 
bloody,  if  only  thus  they  could  rule,  none  can  doubt  that 
knows  the  temper  of  these  worst  men  of  modern  society. 
But  they  miscalculated.  They  understood  the  people  of 
the  South;  but  they  were  totally  incapable  of  understand- 
ing the  character  of  the  great  working  classes  of  the  loyal 
States.  That  industry  which  is  the  foundation  of  inde- 
pendence, and  so  of  equity,  they  stigmatized  as  stupid 
drudgery,  or  as  mean  avarice.  That  general  intelligence 
and  independence  of  thought  which  schools  for  the  com- 
mon people  and  newspapers  breed,  they  reviled  as  the 
incitement  of  unsettled  zeal,  running  easily  into  fanati- 
cism. 

They  more  thoroughly  misunderstood  the  profound  sen- 
timent of  loyalty;  the  deep  love  of  country  which  pervaded 
the  common  people.  If  those  who  knew  them  best  had 
never  suspected  the  depth  and  power  of  that  love  of  coun- 
try which  threw  it  into  an  agony  of  grief  when  the  flag 
was  here  humbled,  how  should  they  conceive  of  it,  who  were 
wholly  disjoined  from  the  people  in  sympathy  ?  The  whole 
land  rose  up,  you  remember,  when  the  flag  came  down,  as 


688  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

if  inspired  unconsciously  by  the  breath  of  the  Almighty 
and  the  power  of  omnipotence.  It  was  as  when  one  pierces 
the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  for  a  rivulet,  and  the  whole 
raging  stream  plunges  through  with  headlong  course. 
There  they  calculated,  and  w/Vcalculated  ! 

And  more  than  all,  they  miscalculated  the  bravery  of 
men  who  have  been  trained  under  law,  who  are  civilized, 
and  hate  personal  brawls,  who  are  so  protected  by  society 
as  to  have  dismissed  all  thought  of  self-defense,  the  whole 
force  of  whose  life  is  turned  to  peaceful  pursuits.  These 
arrogant  conspirators  against  government,  with  Chinese 
vanity  believed  that  they  could  blow  away  these  self- 
respecting  citizens  as  chaff  from  the  battle-field.  Few  of 
them  are  left  alive  to  ponder  their  mistake  ! 

Here,  then,  are  the  roots  of  this  civil  war.  It  was  not  a 
quarrel  of  wild  beasts;  it  was  an  inflection  of  the  strife  of 
ages  between  power  and  right,  between  ambition  and 
equity.  An  armed  band  of  pestilent  conspirators  sought 
the  nation's  life.  Her  children  rose  up  and  fought  at 
every  door,  and  room  and  hall,  to  thrust  out  the  murder- 
ers, and  save  the  house  and  household.  It  was  not  legiti- 
mately a  war  between  the  common  peoples  of  the  North  and  of 
the  South.  The  war  was  set  on  by  the  ruling  class,  the  aris- 
tocratic conspirators,  of  the  South.  They  suborned  their 
own  common  people  with  lies,  with  sophistries,  with  cruel 
deceits  and  slanders,  to  fight  for  secret  objects  which  they 
abhorred,  and  against  interests  as  dear  to  them  as  their 
own  lives. 

I  charge  the  whole  guilt  of  this  war  upon  the  ambitious, 
educated,  plotting,  political  leaders  of  the  South.  They 
have  shed  this  ocean  of  blood.  They  have  desolated  the 
South.  They  have  poured  poverty  through  all  her  towns 
and  cities.  They  have  bewildered  the  imagination  of  the 
people  with  phantasms,  and  led  them  to  believe  that  they 
were  fighting  for  their  homes  and  liberty,  whose  homes 
were  unthreatened,  and  whose  liberty  was  in  no  jeopardy. 

These  arrogant  instigators  of  civil  war  have  renewed 
the  plagues  of  Egypt,  not  that  the  oppressed  might  go 
free,  but   that   the   free   might  be  oppressed.     A  day  will 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  689 

come  when  God  will  reveal  judgment,  and  arraign  at  his 
bar  these  mighty  miscreants;  and  then  every  orphan  that 
their  bloody  game  has  made,  and  every  widow  that  sits 
sorrowing,  and  every  maimed  and  wounded  sufferer,  and 
every  bereaved  heart  in  all  the  wide  regions  of  this  land,  will 
rise  up  and  come  before  the  Lord  to  lay  upon  these  chief 
culprits  of  modern  history  their  awful  testimony.  And 
from  a  thousand  battle-fields  shall  rise  up  armies  of  airy 
witnesses,  who,  with  the  memory  of  their  awful  sufferings, 
shall  confront  these  miscreants  with  shrieks  of  fierce  accu- 
sation; and  every  pale  and  starved  prisoner  shall  raise  his 
skinny  hand  in  judgment.  Blood  shall  call  out  for  ven- 
geance, and  tears  shall  plead  for  justice,  and  grief  shall 
silently  beckon,  and  love,  heart-smitten,  shall  wail  for 
justice.  Good  men  and  angels  will  cry  out,  "How  long, 
O  Lord,  how  long,  wilt  thou  not  avenge  !  " 

And,  then,  these  guiltiest  and  most  remorseless  traitors, 
these  high  and  cultured  men  with  might  and  wisdom, 
used  for  the  destruction  of  their  country;  these  most  ac- 
cursed and  detested  of  all  criminals,  that  have  drenched  a 
continent  in  needless  blood,  and  moved  the  foundations 
of  their  times  with  hideous  crimes  and  cruelty,  caught  up 
in  black  clouds  full  of  voices  of  vengeance  and  lurid  with 
punishment,  shall  be  whirled  aloft  and  plunged  downward 
forever  and  forever  in  an  endless  retribution;  while  God 
shall  say,  "  Thus  shall  it  be  to  all  who  betray  their  country;" 
and  all  in  heaven  and  upon  the  earth  will  say,  "Amen  !  " 

But  for  the  people  misled,  for  the  multitudes  drafted 
and  driven  into  this  civil  war,  let  not  a  trace  of  animosity 
remain.  The  moment  the  willing  hand  drops  the  musket, 
and  they  return  to  their  allegiance,  then  stretch  out  your 
own  honest  right  hands  to  greet  them.  Recall  to  them  the 
old  days  of  kindness.  Our  hearts  wait  for  their  redemp- 
tion. All  the  resources  of  a  renovated  nation  shall  be  ap- 
plied to  rebuild  their  prosperity,  and  smooth  down  the 
furrows  of  the  war. 

Has  this  long  and  weary  period  of  strife  been  an  un- 
mingled   evil  ?     Has   nothing  been    gained  ?     Yes,    much. 

This  nation  has  attained  to  its  manhood. 

44 


690  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Among  Indian  customs  is  one  which  admits  young  men 
to  the  rank  of  warriors  only  after  severe  trials  of  hunger, 
fatigue,  pain,  endurance.  They  reach  their  station,  not 
through  years,  but  ordeals.  Our  nation  has  suffered,  and 
now  is  strong. 

The  sentiment  of  loyalty  and  patriotism,  next  in  impor- 
tance to  religion,  has  been  rooted  and  grounded.  We  have 
something  to  be  proud  of;  and  pride  helps  love.  Never 
so  much  as  now  did  we  love  our  country. 

But  four  such  years  of  education  in  ideas,  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  political  truth,  in  the  lore  of  history,  in  the  geog- 
raphy of  our  own  country,  almost  every  inch  of  which  we 
have  probed  with  the  bayonet,  have  never  passed  before. 
There  is  half  a  hundred  years'  advance  in  four. 

We  believed  vn.  our  institutions  and  principles  before;  but 
now  we  know  their  power.  It  is  one  thing  to  look  upon 
artillery,  and  be  sure  that  it  is  loaded;  it  is  another  thing 
to  see  its  discharge.  We  believed  in  the  hidden  power 
stored  in  our  institutions;  we  had  never  before  seen  this 
nation  thundering  like  Mount  Sinai  at  all  those  that  wor- 
shiped the  calf  at  the  base  of  the  mountain. 

A  people  educated  and  moral  are  competent  to  all  the 
exigencies  of  national  life.  A  vote  can  govern  better  than 
a  crown.  We  have  proved  it.  A  people  intelligent  and 
religious  are  strong  in  all  economic  elements.  They  are 
fitted  for  peace  and  competent  to  war.  They  are  not 
easily  inflamed;  and  when  justly  incensed,  not  easily  ex- 
tinguished. They  are  patient  in  adversity,  endure  cheer- 
fully needful  burdens,  tax  themselves  for  real  wants  more 
royally  than  any  prince  would  dare  to  tax  his  people. 
They  pour  forth,  without  stint,  relief  for  the  sufferings  of 
war,  and  raise  charity  out  of  the  realm  of  a  dole,  into  a 
munificent  duty  of  beneficence. 

The  habit  of  industry  among  free  men  prepares  them  to 
meet  the  exhaustion  of  war  with  increase  of  productive- 
ness commensurate  with  the  need  that  exists.  Their  habits 
of  skill  enable  them  at  once  to  supply  such  armies  as  only 
freedom  can  muster,  with  arms  and  munitions  such  as  only 
free  industry  can  create.     Free  society  is  terrible  in  war, 


FORT  SUMTER   FLAG-RAISING.  691 

and  afterwards  repairs  the- mischief  of  war  with  a  celerity 
almost  as  great  as  that  with  which  the  ocean  heals  the 
seams  gashed  in  it  by  the  keel  of  a  plowing  ship. 

Free  society  is  fruitful  of  military  genius.  It  comes 
when  called:  when  no  longer  needed  it  falls  back  as  waves 
do  to  the  level  of  the  common  sea,  that  no  wave  may  be 
greater  than  the  undivided  water.  With  proof  of  strength 
so  great,  yet  in  its  infancy,  we  stand  up  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  asking  no  privileges,  asserting  no  rights,  but 
quietly  assuming  our  place,  and  determined  to  be  second 
to  none  in  the  race  of  civilization  and  religion. 

Of  all  nations  we  are  the  most  dangerous,  and  the  least 
to  be  feared.  We  need  not  expound  the  perils  that  wait 
upon  enemies  that  assault  us.  They  are  sufficiently  under- 
stood. But  it  is  not  because  we  are  warlike  that  we  are  a 
dangerous  people.  All  the  arrogant  attitudes  of  this  na- 
tion, so  offensive  formerly  to  foreign  governments,  were 
inspired  by  Slavery,  and  under  the  administrations  of  its 
minions.  Our  tastes,  our  habits,  our  interests,  and  our 
principles,  incline  us  to  the  arts  of  peace. 

This  nation  was  founded  by  the  common  people,  for  the 
common  people.  We  are  seeking  to  embody  in  public 
economy  more  liberty  with  higher  justice  and  virtue,  than 
have  been  organized  before.  By  the  necessity  of  our  doc- 
trines, we  are  put  in  sympathy  with  the  masses  of  men  in 
all  nations.  It  is  not  our  business  to  subdue  nations,  but 
to  augment  the  powers  of  the  common  people.  The  vul- 
gar ambition  of  mere  domination,  as  it  belongs  to  uni- 
versal human  nature,  may  tempt  us;  but  it  is  withstood  by 
the  whole  force  of  our  principles,  our  habits,  our  prece- 
dents, and  our  legends. 

We  acknowledge  the  obligation  which  our  better  po- 
litical principles  lay  upon  us  to  set  an  example  more  tem- 
perate, humane,  and  just,  than  monarchical  governments 
can.  We  will  not  suffer  wrong,  and  still  less  will  we  in- 
flict it  upon  other  nations.  Nor  are  we  concerned  that  so 
many  ignorant  of  our  conflict,  for  the  present,  misconceive 
the  reasons  of  our  invincible  military  zeal.  "  Why  con- 
tend,"  say   they,  "  for  a  little   territory   that   you   do  not 


692  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

need  ?  "  Because  it  is  ours  .'  Because  it  is  the  interest  of 
every  citizen  to  save  it  from  becoming  a  fortress  and  ref- 
uge of  iniquity.  This  nation  is  our  house,  and  our 
father's  house;  and  accursed  be  the  man  who  will  not  de- 
fend it  to  the  uttermost !  More  territory  than  we  need  ? 
England,  that  is  not  large  enough  to  be  our  pocket,  may 
think  that  it  is  more  than  we  need;  but  we  are  better 
judges  of  what  we  need  than  they  are  ! 

Shall  a  philanthropist  say  to  a  banker  who  defends  him- 
self against  a  robber,  "  Why  do  you  need  so  much  money  ?  " 
But  we  will  not  reason  with  such  questions.  When  any 
foreign  nation  willingly  will  divide  their  territory  and  give 
it  cheerfully  away,  we  will  answer  the  question  why  we  are 
fighting  for  territory  ! 

I  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of  benefits  that  accrue 
to  the  South  in  distinction  from  the  rest  of  the  nation. 
At  present  the  South  reaps  only  suffering;  but  good  seed 
lies  buried  under  the  furrows  of  war,  that  peace  will  bring 
to  harvest. 

1.  Deadly  doctrines  have  been  purged  away  in  blood. 
The  subtle  poison  of  secession  was  a  perpetual  threat  of 
revolution.  The  sword  has  ended  that  danger.  That 
which  reason  had  affirmed  as  a  philosophy,  the  people  have 
settled  as  a  fact.  Theory  pronounces,  "  There  can  be  no 
permanent  government  where  each  integral  particle  has 
liberty  to  fly  off."  Who  would  venture  upon  a  voyage  on 
a  ship,  each  plank  and  timber  of  which  might  withdraw  at 
its  pleasure  ?  But  the  people  have  reasoned  by  the  logic 
of  the  sword  and  of  the  ballot,  and  they  have  declared 
that  States  are  inseparable  parts  of  national  government. 
They  are  not  sovereign.  State  rights  remain;  but  sover- 
eignty  is  a  right  higher  than  all  others;  and  that  has  been 
made  into  a  common  stock  for  the  benefit  of  all.  All 
further  agitation  is  ended.  This  element  must  be  cast  out 
of  our  political  problems.  Henceforth  that  poison  will  not 
rankle  in  the  blood. 

2.  Another  thing  has  been  learned:  the  rights  and  duties 
of  minorities.  The  people  of  the  whole  nation  are  of  more 
authority  than  the  people  of  any  section.     These  United 


FORT  SUMTER   FLAG-RAISIAG.  693 

States  are  supreme  over  Northern,  Eastern,  Western,  and 
Southern  States.  It  ought  not  to  have  required  the  awful 
chastisement  of  this  war  to  teach  that  a  minority  must  sub- 
mit the  control  of  the  nation's  government  to  a  majority. 
The  army  and  the  navy  have  been  good  political  school- 
masters. The  lesson  is  learned.  Not  for  many  genera- 
tions will  it  require  further  illustration. 

3.  No  other  lesson  will  be  more  fruitful  of  peace  than 
the  dispersion  of  those  conceits  of  vanity,  which,  on  either 
side,  have  clouded  the  recognition  of  the  manly  courage 
of  all  Americans.  If  it  be  a  sign  of  manhood  to  be  able  to 
fight,  then  Americans  are  men.  The  North  certainly  are 
in  no  doubt  whatever  of  the  soldierly  qualities  of  South- 
er^ men.  Southern  soldiers  have  learned  that  all  latitudes 
breed  courage  on  this  continent.  Courage  is  a  passport 
to  respect.  The  people  of  all  the  regions  of  this  nation 
are  likely  hereafter  to  cherish  a  generous  admiration  of 
each  other's  prowess.  The  war  has  bred  respect,  and  re- 
spect will  breed  affection,  and  affection  peace  and  unity. 

4.  No  other  event  of  the  war  can  fill  an  intelligent 
Southern  man  of  candid  nature  with  more  surprise  than 
the  revelation  of  the  capacity,  moral  and  military,  of  the 
black  race.  It  is  a  revelation,  indeed.  No  people  were 
ever  less  understood  by  those  most  familiar  with  them. 
They  were  said  to  be  lazy,  lying,  impudent,  and  cowardly 
wretches,  driven  by  the  whip  alone  to  the  tasks  needful  to 
their  own  support,  and  the  functions  of  civilization.  They 
were  said  to  be  dangerous,  blood-thirsty,  liable  to  insur- 
rection; but  four  years  of  tumultuous  distress  and  war 
have  rolled  across  the  area  inhabited  by  them,  and  I  have 
yet  to  hear  of  one  authentic  instance  of  the  misconduct  of 
a  colored  man.  They  have  been  patient  and  gentle  and 
docile  in  the  land,  while  the  men  of  the  South  were  away 
in  the  army,  they  have  been  full  of  faith  and  hope  and 
piety;  and  when  summoned  to  freedom  they  have  emerged 
with  all  the  signs  and  tokens  that  freedom  will  be  to  them 
what  it  was  to  be — the  swaddling  band  that  shall  bring 
them  to  manhood.  And  after  the  Government,  honoring 
them  as  men,  summoned  them  to  the  field,  when  once  they 


694  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

were  disciplined  and  had  learned  the  art  of  war,  they 
proved  themselves  to  be  not  second  to  their  white  brethren 
in  arms.  And  when  the  roll  of  men  that  have  shed  their 
blood  is  called  in  the  other  land,  many  and  many  a  dusky 
face  will  rise,  dark  no  more,  when  the  light  of  eternal 
glory  shall  shine  upon  it  from  the  throne  of  God. 

5.  The  industry  of  the  Southern  States  is  regenerated 
and  now  rests  upon  a  basis  that  never  fails  to  bring  pros- 
perity. Just  now  industry  is  collapsed;  but  it  is  not  dead. 
It  sleepeth.  It  is  vital  yet.  It  will  spring  like  mown 
grass  from  the  roots,  that  need  but  showers  and  heat  and 
time  to  bring  them  forth.  Though  in  many  districts  not  a 
generation  will  see  wanton  wastes  of  self-invoked  war  re- 
paired, and  many  portions  may  lapse  again  to  wilderness; 
yet,  in  our  life-time  we  shall  see  States,  as  a  whole,  raised 
to  a  prosperity,  vital,  wholesome,  and  immovable. 

6.  The  destruction  of  class  interests,  working  with  a 
religion  which  tends  towards  true  democracy  in  proportion 
as  it  is  pure  and  free,  will  create  a  new  era  of  prosperity 
for  the  common  laboring  people  of  the  South.  Upon  them 
has  come  the  labor,  the  toil,  and  the  loss  of  this  war. 
They  have  fought  blindfolded.  They  have  fought  for  a 
class  that  sought  their  degradation,  while  they  were  made 
to  believe  that  it  was  for  their  own  homes  and  altars. 
Their  leaders  meant  a  supremacy  which  would  not  long 
have  left  them  political  liberty,  save  in  name.  But  their 
leaders  are  swept  away.  The  sword  has  been  hungry  for 
the  ruling  classes.  It  has  sought  them  out  with  remorse- 
less zeal.  New  men  are  to  rise  up;  new  ideas  are  to  bud 
and  blossom;  and  there  will  be  men  with  different  ambi- 
tion and  altered  policy. 

7.  Meanwhile,  the  South,  no  longer  a  land  of  planta- 
tions, but  of  farms;  no  longer  tilled  by  slaves,  but  by  free- 
men, will  find  no  hindrance  to  the  spread  of  education. 
Schools  will  multiply.  Books  and  papers  will  spread. 
Churches  will  bless  every  hamlet.  There  is  a  good  day 
coming  for  the  South.  Through  darkness,  and  tears,  and 
blood  she  has  sought  it.  It  has  been  an  unconscious  Via 
Dolorosa.     But,  in  the  end,  it  will  be  worth  all  it  has  cost. 


FORT  SUMTER  FLAG-RAISING.  695 

Her  institutions  before  were  deadly.  She  nourished  death 
in  her  bosom.  The  greater  her  secular  prosperity,  the 
more  sure  was  her  ruin.  Every  year  of  delay  but  made 
the  change  more  terrible.  Now,  by  an  earthquake,  the 
evil  is  shaken  down.  Her  own  historians,  in  a  better 
day,  shall  write  that  from  the  day  the  sword  cut  off  the 
cancer  she  began  to  find  her  health. 

What,  then,  shall  hinder  the  rebuilding  of  this  republic  ? 
The  evil  spirit  is  cast  out:  why  should  not  this  nation 
cease  to  wander  among  tombs,  cutting  itself  ?  Why  should 
it  not  come,  clothed  and  in  its  right  mind,  to  "sit  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus  "  ?  Is  it  feared  that  the  Government  will  op- 
press the  conquered  States  ?  What  possible  motive  has 
the  Government  to  narrow  the  base  of  that  pyramid  on 
which  its  own  permanence  stands  ? 

Is  it  feared  that  the  rights  of  the  States  will  be  with- 
held ?  The  South  is  not  more  jealous  of  their  State  rights 
than  the  North.  State  rights,  from  the  earliest  colonial 
days,  have  been  the  peculiar  pride  and  jealousy  of  New 
England.  In  every  stage  of  national  formation,  it  was 
peculiarly  Northern,  and  not  Southern,  statesmen  that 
guarded  State  rights  as  we  were  forming  the  Constitution. 
But,  once  united,  the  loyal  States  gave  up  forever  that 
which  had  been  delegated  to  the  National  Government. 
And  now,  in  the  hour  of  victory,  the  loyal  States  do  not 
mean  to  trench  upon  Southern  States'  rights.  They  will 
not  do  it,  or  suffer  it  to  be  done.  There  is  not  to  be  one 
rule  for  high  latitudes,  and  another  for  low.  We  take 
nothing  from  the  Southern  States  that  has  not  already 
been  taken  from  Northern.  The  South  shall  have  just 
those  rights  that  every  Eastern,  every  Middle,  every  West- 
ern State  has — no  more,  no  less. 

We  are  not  seeking  our  own  aggrandizement  by  im- 
poverishing the  South.  Its  prosperity  is  an  indispensable 
element  of  our  own.  We  have  shown,  by  all  that  we  have 
suffered  in  war,  how  great  is  our  estimate  of  the  impor- 
tance of  the  Southern  States  of  this  Union,  and  we  will 
measure  that  estimate,  now,  in  peace,  by  still  greater  ex- 
ertions for  their  rebuilding. 


696  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Will  reflecting  men  perceive,  then,  the  wisdom  of  ac- 
cepting established  facts;  and,  with  alacrity  of  enterprise, 
begin  to  retrieve  the  past  ? 

Slavery  cannot  come  back.  It  is  the  interest  therefore 
of  every  man  to  hasten  its  end.  Do  you  want  more  war  ? 
Are  you  not  yet  weary  of  contest  ?  Will  you  gather  up 
the  unexploded  fragments  of  this  prodigious  magazine  of 
all  mischief,  and  heap  them  up  for  continued  explosion  ? 
Does  not  the  South  need  peace  ?  And,  since  free  labor  is 
inevitable,  will  you  have  it  in  its  worst  forms  or  its  best  ? 
Shall  it  be  ignorant,  impertinent,  indolent  ?  or,  shall  it  be 
educated,  self-respecting,  moral,  and  self-supporting? 
Will  you  have  men  as  drudges,  or  will  you  have  them  as 
citizens  ?  Since  they  have  vindicated  the  Government, 
and  cemented  its  foundation  stones  with  their  blood,  may 
they  not  offer  the  tribute  of  their  support  to  maintain  its 
laws  and  its  policy?  It  is  better  for  religion;  it  is  better 
for  political  integrity;  it  is  better  for  industry;  it  is  better 
for  money — if  you  will  have  that  ground  motive — that  you 
should  educate  the  black  man;  and,  by  education,  make  him 
a  citizen.  They  who  refuse  education  to  a  black  man,  would 
turn  the  South  into  a  vast  poor-house,  and  labor  into  a  pen- 
dulum, necessity  vibrating  between  poverty  and  indolence. 

From  this  pulpit  of  broken  stone  we  speak  forth  our 
earnest  greeting  to  all  our  land. 

We  offer  to  the  President  of  these  United  States  our 
solemn  congratulations  that  God  has  sustained  his  life  and 
health  under  the  unparalleled  burdens  and  sufferings  of 
four  bloody  years,  and  permitted  him  to  behold  this  aus- 
picious consummation  of  that  national  unity  for  which  he 
has  waited  with  so  much  patience  and  fortitude,  and  for 
which  he  has  labored  with  such  disinterested  wisdom. 

To  the  members  of  the  Government  associated  with  him 
in  the  administration  of  perilous  affairs  in  critical  times; 
to  the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
who  have  eagerly  fashioned  the  instruments  by  which  the 
popular  will  might  express  and  enforce  itself,  we  tender 
our  grateful  thanks. 


FORT  SUMTER   FLAG-RAISING.  697 

To  the  officers  and  men  of  the  army  and  navy,  who  have 
so  faithfully,  skillfully,  and  gloriously  upheld  their  coun- 
try's authority,  by  suffering,  labor,  and  sublime  courage, 
we  offer  here  a  tribute  beyond  the  compass  of  words. 

Upon  those  true  and  faithful  citizens,  men  and  women, 
who  have  borne  up  with  unflinching  hope  in  the  darkest 
hour,  and  covered  the  land  with  the  labors  of  love  and 
charity,  we  invoke  the  divinest  blessing  of  Him  whom 
they  have  so  truly  imitated. 

But  chiefly  to  Thee,  God  of  our  fathers,  we  render 
thanksgiving  and  praise  for  that  wondrous  providence 
that  has  brought  forth,  from  such  a  harvest  of  war,  the 
seed  of  so  much  liberty  and  peace. 

We  invoke  peace  upon  the  North.  Peace  be  to  the 
West.     Peace  be  upon  the  South  ! 

In  the  name  of  God,  we  lift  up  our  banner,  and  dedicate 
it  to  Peace,  Union,  and  Liberty,  now  and  forevermore. 
Amen. 


Ill 


CIVIL   LIBERTY 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


"  And  Moses  went  up  from  the  plains  of  Moab  unto  the  mountain  of 
Nebo,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  that  is  over  against  Jericho.  And  the  Lord 
shewed  him  all  the  land  of  Gilead,  unto  Dan,  and  all  Naphtali,  and  the 
land  of  Ephraim,  and  Manasseh,  and  all  the  land  of  Judah,  unto  the  ut- 
most sea,  and  the  south,  and  the  plain  of  the  valley  of  Jericho,  the  city  of 
palm  trees,  unto  Zoar.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  This  is  the  land 
which  I  sware  unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  saying,  I  will 
give  it  unto  thy  seed  :  I  have  caused  thee  to  see  it  with  thine  eyes,  but  thou 
shalt  not  go  over  thither.  So  Moses  the  servant  of  the  Lord  died  there  in 
the  land  of  Moab,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord." — Deut.  xxxiv.  1-5. 


There  is  no  historic  figure  more  noble  than  that  of 
the  Jewish  lawgiver.  After  so  many  thousand  years,  the 
figure  of  Moses  is  not  diminished,  but  stands  up  against 
the  background  of  early  days  distinct  and  individual  as  if 
he  had  lived  but  yesterday.  There  is  scarcely  another 
event  in  history  more  touching  than  his  death.  He  had 
borne  the  great  burdens  of  state  for  forty  years,  shaped 
the  Jews  to  a  nation,  filled  out  their  civil  and  religious 
polity,  administered  their  laws,  guided  their  steps,  or  dealt 
with  them  in  all  their  journeyings  in  the  wilderness;  had 
mourned  in  their  punishment,  kept  step  with  their  march, 
and  led  them  in  wars  until  the  end  of  their  labors  drew 
nigh.  The  last  stage  was  reached.  Jordan,  only,  lay  be- 
tween them  and  "the  promised  land."  The  Promised 
Land  !  O,  what  yearnings  had  heaved  his  breast  for  that 
divinely  foreshadowed  place  !  He  had  dreamed  of  it  by 
night,  and  mused  by  day;  it  was  holy  and  endeared  as 
God's  favored  spot.  It  was  to  be  the  cradle  of  an  illustri- 
ous history.     All  his  long,  laborious,  and   now  weary  life, 

»  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  Sunday  Morning,  April  23,  1865,  the  week 
following  President  Lincoln's  assassination. 


702  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

he  had  aimed  at  this  as  the  consummation  of  every  desire, 
the  reward  of  every  toil  and  pain.  Then  came  the  word 
of  the  Lord  to  him,  "  Thou  mayest  not  go  over.  Get  thee 
up  into  the  mountain;  look  upon  it;  and  die  !  " 

From  that  silent  summit  the  hoary  leader  gazed  to  the 
north,  to  the  south,  to  the  west,  with  hungry  eyes.  The 
dim  outlines  rose  up.  The  hazy  recesses  spoke  of  quiet 
valleys  between  hills.  With  eager  longing,  with  sad  resig- 
nation, he  looked  upon  the  promised  land.  It  was  now  to 
him  a  forbidden  land.  This  was  but  a  moment's  anguish, 
he  forgot  all  his  personal  wants,  and  drank  in  the  vision  of 
his  people's  home.  His  work  was  done.  There  lay  God's 
promise  fulfilled.  There  was  the  seat  of  coming  Jerusa- 
lem; there  the  city  of  Judah's  King;  the  sphere  of  judges 
and  prophets;  the  Mount  of  sorrow  and  salvation;  the  nest 
whence  were  to  fly  blessings  innumerable  to  all  mankind. 
Joy  chased  sadness  from  every  feature,  and  the  prophet  laid 
him  down  and  died. 

Again  a  great  leader  of  the  people  has  passed  through 
toil,  sorrow,  battle,  and  war,  and  come  near  to  the  prom- 
ised land  of  peace,  into  which  he  might  not  pass  over. 
Who  shall  recount  our  martyr's  sufferings  for  this  people  ! 
Since  the  November  of  i860,  his  horizon  has  been  black 
with  storms.  By  day  and  by  night  he  trod  a  way  of 
danger  and  darkness.  On  his  shoulders  rested  a  govern- 
ment dearer  to  him  than  his  own  life.  At  its  integrity 
millions  of  men  at  home  were  striking:  upon  it  foreign 
eyes  lowered.  It  stood  like  a  lone  island  in  a  sea  full  of 
storms;  and  every  tide  and  wave  seemed  eager  to  devour  it. 
Upon  thousands  of  hearts  great  sorrows  and  anxieties  have 
rested,  but  not  on  one,  such,  and  in  such  measure,  as  upon 
that  simple,  truthful,  noble  soul,  our  faithful  and  sainted 
Lincoln.  Never  rising  to  the  enthusiasm  of  more  impas- 
sioned natures  in  hours  of  hope,  and  never  sinking  with 
the  mercurial  in  hours  of  defeat  to  the  depths  of  despond- 
ency, he  held  on  with  unmovable  patience  and  fortitude, 
putting  caution  against  hope  that  it  might  not  be  prema- 
ture, and  hope  against  caution  that  it  might  not  yield  to 
dread'and  danger.     He  wrestled  ceaselessly,  through  four 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  7 °3 

black  and  dreadful  purgatorial  years,  wherein  God  was 
cleansing  the  sins  of  his  people  as  by  fire. 

At  last  the  watcher  beheld  the  gray  dawn  for  the  coun- 
try. The  mountains  began  to  give  forth  their  forms  from 
out  of  the  darkness;  and  the  East  came  rushing  toward  us 
with  arms  full  of  joy  for  all  our  sorrows.  Then  it  was  for 
him  to  be  glad  exceedingly,  that  had  sorrowed  immeasura- 
bly. Peace  could  bring  to  no  other  heart  such  joy,  such 
rest,  such  honor,  such  trust,  such  gratitude.  But  he  looked 
upon  it  as  Moses  looked  upon  the  promised  land. 

Then  the  wail  of  a  nation  proclaimed  that  he  had  gone 
from  among  us. 

Not  thine  the  sorrow,  but  ours,  sainted  soul  !  Thou 
hast  indeed  entered  into  the  promised  land,  while  we  are 
yet  on  the  march.  To  us  remain  the  rocking  of  the  deep, 
the  storm  upon  the  land,  days  of  duty  and  nights  of  watch- 
ing; but  thou  art  sphered  high  above  all  darkness  and  fear, 
beyond  all  sorrow  and  weariness.  Rest,  O  weary  heart  ! 
Rejoice  exceedingly,  thou  that  hast  enough  suffered  ! 
Thou  hast  beheld  Him  who  invisibly  led  thee  in  this  great 
wilderness.  Thou  standest  among  the  elect.  Around  thee 
are  the  royal  men  that  have  ennobled  human  life  in  every 
age.  Kingly  art  thou,  with  glory  on  thy  brow  as  a  diadem. 
And  joy  is  upon  thee forevermore.  Overall  this  land,  over 
all  the  little  cloud  of  years  that  now  from  thine  infinite  hori- 
zon moves  back  as  a  speck,  thou  art  lifted  up  as  high  as  a 
star  is  above  the  clouds,  that  hide  us  but  never  reach  it. 
In  the  goodly  company  of  Mount  Zion  thou  shalt  find  that 
rest  which  thou  hast  sorrowing  sought  here  in  vain;  and  thy 
name,  an  everlasting  name  in  heaven,  shall  flourish  in  fra- 
grance and  beauty  as  long  as  men  shall  last  upon  the  earth, 
or  hearts  remain,  to  revere  truth,  fidelity,  and  goodness. 

Never  did  two  such  orbs  of  experience  meet  in  one  hemi- 
sphere, as  the  joy  and  the  sorrow  of  the  same  week  in  this 
land.  The  joy  of  final  victory  was  as  sudden  as  if  no  man 
had  expected  it,  and  as  entrancing  as  if  it  had  fallen  a 
sphere  from  heaven.  It  rose  up  over  sobriety,  and  swept 
business  from  its  moorings,  and  ran  down  through  the 
land    in   irresistible   course.     Men  embraced  each  other  in 


704  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

brotherhood  that  were  strangers  in  the  flesh.  They  sang, 
or  prayed,  or,  deeper  yet,  many  could  only  think  thanks- 
giving and  weep  gladness.  That  peace  was  sure;  that  our 
government  was  firmer  than  ever;  that  the  land  was 
cleansed  of  plague;  that  the  ages  were  opening  to  our 
footsteps,  and  we  were  to  begin  a  march  of  blessings;  that 
blood  was  staunched,  and  scowling  enmities  were  sinking 
like  storms  beneath  the  horizon;  that  the  dear  fatherland, 
nothing  lost,  much  gained,  was  to  rise  up  in  unexampled 
honor  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, — these  thoughts,  and 
that  undistinguishable  throng  of  fancies,  and  hopes,  and 
desires,  and  yearnings,  that  filled  the  soul  with  tremblings 
like  the  heated  air  of  midsummer  days, — all  these  kindled 
up  such  a  surge  of  joy  as  no  words  may  describe. 

In  one  hour,  under  the  blow  of  a  single  bereavement,  joy 
lay  without  a  pulse,  without  a  gleam,  or  breath.  A  sorrow 
came  that  swept  through  the  land  as  huge  storms  sweep 
through  the  forest  and  field,  rolling  thunder  along  the  sky, 
disheveling  the  flowers,  daunting  every  singer  in  thicket 
or  forest,  and  pouring  blackness  and  darkness  across  the 
land  and  upon  the  mountains.  Did  ever  so  many  hearts, 
in  so  brief  a  time,  touch  two  such  boundless  feelings?  It 
was  the  uttermost  of  joy;  it  was  the  uttermost  of  sorrow; 
— noon  and  midnight  without  a  space  between  ! 

The  blow  brought  not  a  sharp  pang.  It  was  so  terrible 
that  at  first  it  stunned  sensibility.  Citizens  were  like  men 
awakened  at  midnight  by  an  earthquake,  and  bewildered 
to  find  everything  that  they  were  accustomed  to  trust 
wavering  and  falling.  The  very  earth  was  no  longer  solid. 
The  first  feeling  was  the  least.  Men  waited  to  get  straight 
to  feel.  They  wandered  in  the  streets  as  if  groping  after 
some  impending  dread,  or  undeveloped  sorrow,  or  some  one 
to  tell  them  what  ailed  them.  They  met  each  other  as  if 
each  would  ask  the  other,  "  Am  I  awake,  or  do  I  dream  ? " 
There  was  a  piteous  helplessness.  Strong  men  bowed 
down  and  wept.  Other  and  common  griefs  belonged  to 
some  one  in  chief;  this  belonged  to  all.  It  was  each  and 
every  man's.  Every  virtuous  household  in  the  land  felt  as 
if  its  firstborn  were  gone.     Men  were  bereaved,  and  walked 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  705 

for  days  as  if  a  corpse  lay  unburied  in  their  dwellings. 
There  was  nothing  else  to  think  of.  They  could  speak  of 
nothing  but  that;  and  yet,  of  that  they  could  speak  only 
falteringly.  All  business  was  laid  aside.  Pleasure  forgot 
to  smile.  The  great  city  for  nearly  a  week  ceased  to  roar. 
The  huge  Leviathan  lay  down  and  was  still.  Even  avarice 
stood  still,  and  greed  was  strangely  moved  to  generous 
sympathy  and  universal  sorrow.  Rear  to  his  name  monu- 
ments, found  charitable  institutions,  and  write  his  name 
above  their  lintels;  but  no  monument  will  ever  equal  the 
universal,  spontaneous,  and  sublime  sorrow  that  in  a 
moment  swept  down  lines  and  parties,  and  covered  up  ani- 
mosities, and  in  an  hour  brought  a  divided  people  into 
unity  of  grief  and  indivisible  fellowship  of  anguish. 

For  myself,  I  cannot  yet  command  that  quietness  of 
spirit  needed  for  a  just  and  temperate  delineation  of  a 
man  whom  goodness  has  made  great.  Leaving  that,  if  it 
please  God,  to  some  other  occasion,  I  pass  to  some  consid- 
erations aside  from  the  martyr  President's  character  which 
may  be  fit  for  this  hour's  instruction. 

And  first,  let  us  not  mourn  that  his  departure  was  so 
sudden,  nor  fill  our  imagination  with  horror  at  its  method. 
Men,  long  eluding  and  evading  sorrow,  when  at  last  they 
are  overtaken  by  it  seem  enchanted  and  seek  to  make  their 
sorrow  sorrowful  to  the  very  uttermost,  and  to  bring  out 
every  drop  of  suffering  which  they  possibly  can.  This  is 
not  Christian,  though  it  may  be  natural.  When  good  men 
pray  for  deliverance  from  sudden  death,  it  is  only  that  they 
may  not  be  plunged  without  preparation,  all  disrobed,  into 
the  presence  of  their  Judge.  When  one  is  ready  to  depart 
suddenness  of  death  is  a  blessing.  It  is  a  painful  sight  to 
see  a  tree  overthrown  by  a  tornado,  wrenched  from  its  foun- 
dations, and  broken  down  like  a  weed;  but  it  is  yet  more 
painful  to  see  a  vast  and  venerable  tree  lingering  with  vain 
strife  against  decay,  which  age  and  infirmity  have  marked 
for  destruction.  The  process  by  which  strength  wastes, 
and  the  mind  is  obscured,  and  the  tabernacle  is  taken 
down,  is  humiliating  and  painful;  and  it  is  good  and  grand 

when  a  man  departs  to  his  rest  from   out  of  the  midst  of 

45 


706  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

duty,  full-armed  and  strong,  with  pulse  beating  time.  For 
such  an  one  to  go  suddenly,  if  he  be  prepared  to  go,  is  but 
to  terminate  a  most  noble  life  in  its  most  noble  manner. 
Mark  the  words  of  the  Master: — 

"  Let  your  loins  be  girded  about,  and  your  lights  burning  ;  and 
ye  yourselves  like  unto  men  that  wait  for  their  lord,  when  he  will 
return  from  the  wedding;  that  when  he  cometh  and  knocketh, 
they  may  open  unto  him  immediately.  Blessed  are  those  servants 
whom  the  lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  watching." 

Not  they  that  go  in  a  stupor,  but  they  that  go  with  all 
their  powers  about  them,  and  wide-awake,  to  meet  their 
Master,  as  to  a  wedding,  are  blessed.  He  died  watching. 
He  died  with  his  armor  on.  In  the  midst  of  hours  of  labor, 
in  the  very  heart  of  patriotic  consultations,  just  returned 
from  camps  and  counsels,  he  was  stricken  down.  No  fever 
dried  his  blood.  No  slow  waste  consumed  him.  All  at 
once,  in  full  strength  and  manhood,  with  his  girdle  tight 
about  him,  he  departed;  and  walks  with  God. 

Nor  was  the  manner  of  his  death  more  shocking,  if  we 
divest  it  of  the  malignity  of  the  motives  which  caused  it. 
The  mere  instrument  itself  is  not  one  that  we  should 
shrink  from  contemplating.  Have  not  thousands  of  sol- 
diers fallen  on  the  field  of  battle  by  the  bullets  of  the 
enemy  ?  Is  being  killed  in  battle  counted  to  be  a  dreadful 
mode  of  dying?  It  was  as  if  he  had  died  in  battle.  Do 
not  all  soldiers  that  must  fall  ask  to  depart  in  the  hour  of 
battle  and  of  victory  ?     He  went  in  the  hour  of  victory. 

There  has  not  been  a  poor  drummer-boy  in  all  this  war 
that  has  fallen  for  whom  the  great  heart  of  Lincoln  would 
not  have  bled;  there  has  not  been  one  private  soldier,  with- 
out note  or  name,  slain  among  thousands  and  hid  in  the 
pit  among  hundreds,  without  even  the  memorial  of  a  sepa- 
rate burial,  for  whom  the  President  would  not  have  wept. 
He  was  a  man  from  the  common  people  that  never  forgot 
his  kind.  And  now  that  he  who  might  not  bear  the  march, 
and  the  toil,  and  the  battle  with  these  humble  citizens  has 
been  called  to  die  by  the  bullet,  as  they  were,  do  you  not 
feel  that  there  was  a  peculiar  fitness  to  his  nature  and  life 
that   he  should   in  death   be  joined   with  them  in  a  final 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  7°7 

common  experience  to  whom  he  had  been  joined  in  all  his 
sympathies  ? 

For  myself,  when  any  event  is  susceptible  of  a  higher 
and  nobler  garnishing,  I  know  not  what  that  disposition  is 
that  should  seek  to  drag  it  down  to  the  depths  of  gloom, 
and  write  it  all  over  with  the  scrawls  of  horror  or  fear.  I 
let  the  light  of  nobler  thoughts  fall  upon  his  departure, 
and  bless  God  that  there  is  some  argument  of  consolation 
in  the  matter  and  manner  of  his  going,  as  there  was  in  the 
matter  and  manner  of  his  staying. 

Then,  again,  this  blow  was  but  the  expiring  rebellion. 
As  a  miniature  gives  all  the  form  and  features  of  its  sub- 
ject, so,  epitomized  in  this  foul  act,  we  find  the  whole  nat- 
ure and  disposition  of  slavery.  It  begins  in  a  wanton 
destruction  of  all  human  rights,  and  in  a  desecration  of  all 
the  sanctities  of  heart  and  home;  and  it  is  the  universal 
enemy  of  mankind,  and  of  God,  who  made  man.  It  can 
be  maintained  only  at  the  sacrifice  of  every  right  moral 
feeling  in  its  abettors  and  upholders.  I  deride  him  who 
points  me  to  any  one  bred  amidst  slavery,  believing  in  it, 
and  willingly  practising  it,  and  tells  me  that  he  is  a  man.  I 
shall  find  saints  in  perdition  sooner  than  I  shall  find  true 
manhood  under  the  influences  of  so  accursed  a  system  as 
this.  It  is  a  two-edged  sword,  cutting  both  ways,  violently 
destroying  manhood  in  the  oppressed,  and  insidiously 
destroying  manhood  in  the  oppressor.  The  problem  is 
solved,  the  demonstration  is  completed  in  our  land. 
Slavery  wastes  its  victims,  and  it  destroys  the  masters.  It 
kills  public  morality,  and  the  possibility  of  it.  It  corrupts 
manhood  in  its  very  center  and  elements.  Communities 
in  which  it  exists  are  not  to  be  trusted.  They  are  rotten. 
Nor  can  you  find  timber  grown  in  this  accursed  soil  of 
iniquity  that  is  fit  to  build  our  Ship  of  State,  or  lay  the 
foundation  of  our  households.  The  patriotism  that  grows 
up  under  this  blight,  when  put  to  proof,  is  selfish  and  brit- 
tle; and  he  that  leans  upon  it  shall  be  pierced.  The  honor 
that  grows  up  in  the  midst  of  slavery  is  not  honor,  but  a 
bastard  quality  that  usurps  the  place  of  its  better,  only  to 
disgrace  the  name  of  honor.     And,  as  long  as  there  is  con- 


708  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

science,  or  reason,  or  Christianity,  the  honor  that  slavery 
begets  will  be  a  by-word  and  a  hissing.  The  whole  moral 
nature  of  men  reared  to  familiarity  and  connivance  with 
slavery  is  death-smitten.  The  needless  rebellion;  the 
treachery  of  its  leaders  to  oaths  and  solemn  trusts;  their 
violation  of  the  commonest  principles  of  fidelity,  sitting 
in  senates,  in  councils,  in  places  of  public  confidence  only 
to  betray  and  to  destroy;  the  long,  general,  and  unparal- 
leled cruelty  to  prisoners,  without  provocation,  and  utterly 
without  excuse;  the  unreasoning  malignity  and  fierceness, 
— these  all  mark  the  symptoms  of  that  disease  of  slavery, 
which  is  a  deadly  poison  to  soul  and  body. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  are  not  single  natures,  here  and 
there,  scattered  through  the  vast  wilderness  which  is  cov- 
ered with  this  poisonous  vine,  who  escaped  the  poison. 
There  are;  but  they  are  not  to  be  found  among  the  men 
that  believe  in  it,  and  that  have  been  molded  by  it.  They 
are  the  exceptions.  Slavery  is  itself  barbarity.  That  na- 
tion which  cherishes  it  is  barbarous;  and  no  outside  tinsel 
or  glitter  can  redeem  it  from  the  charge  of  barbarism. 
And  it  was  fit  that  its  expiring  blow  should  be  such  as  to 
take  away  from  men  the  last  forbearance,  the  last  pity,  and 
fire  the  soul  with  an  invincible  determination  that  the 
breeding-ground  of  such  mischiefs  and  monsters  shall  be 
utterly  and  forever  destroyed. 

We  needed  not  that  he  should  put  on  paper  that  he  be- 
lieved in  slavery,  who,  with  treason,  with  murder,  with 
cruelty  infernal,  hovered  around  that  majestic  man  to  de- 
stroy his  life.  He  was  himself  but  the  long  sting  with 
which  slavery  struck  at  liberty;  and  he  carried  the  poison 
that  belonged  to  slavery.  As  long  as  this  nation  lasts, 
it  will  never  be  forgotten  that  we  have  had  one  martyred 
President — never  !  Never,  while  time  lasts,  while  heaven 
lasts,  while  hell  rocks  and  groans,  will  it  be  forgotten  that 
slavery,  by  its  minions,  slew  him,  and  in  slaying  him  made 
manifest  its  whole  nature  and  tendency. 

But  another  thing  for  us  to  remember  is  that  this  blow 
was  aimed  at  the  life  of  the  government  and  of  the  na- 
tion.    Lincoln  was  slain;  America  was   meant.     The   man 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  709 

was  cast  down;  the  government  was  smitten  at.  It.  was 
the  President  who  was  killed.  It  was  national  life,  breath- 
ing freedom  and  meaning  beneficence,  that  was  sought. 
He,  the  man  of  Illinois,  the  private  man,  divested  of  robes 
and  the  insignia  of  authority,  representing  nothing  but  his 
personal  self,  might  have  been  hated;  but  that  would  not 
have  called  forth  the  murderer's  blow.  It  was  because  he 
stood  in  the  place  of  government,  representing  govern- 
ment and  a  government  that  represented  right  and  liberty, 
that  he  was  singled  out. 

This,  then,  is  a  crime  against  universal  government.  It 
is  not  a  blow  at  the  foundations  of  our  government,  more 
than  at  the  foundations  of  the  English  government,  of  the 
French  government,  of  every  compacted  and  well-organ- 
ized government.  It  was  a  crime  against  mankind.  The 
whole  world  will  repudiate  and  stigmatize  it  as  a  deed 
without  a  shade  of  redeeming  light.  For  this  was  not  the 
oppressed,  goaded  to  extremity,  turning  on  his  oppressor. 
Not  even  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  of  wrong  has  rested  on 
the  South,  and  they  know  it  right  well. 

In  a  council  held  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  just  preced- 
ing the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter,  two  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  go  to  Washington;  one  on  the  part  of  the 
army  from  Fort  Sumter,  and  one  on  the  part  of  the  Con- 
federates. The  lieutenant  that  was  designated  to  go  for 
us  said  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  would  be  of  little  use  for 
him  to  go,  as  his  opinion  was  immovably  fixed  in  favor  of 
maintaining  the  government  in  whose  service  he  was 
employed.  Then  Governor  Pickens  took  him  aside,  de- 
taining, for  an  hour  and  a  half  the  railroad  train  that  was 
to  convey  them  on  their  errand.  He  opened  to  him  the 
whole  plan  and  secrets  of  the  Southern  conspiracy,  and 
said  to  him,  distinctly  and  repeatedly  (for  it  was  needful, 
he  said,  to  lay  aside  disguises),  that  the  South  had  never 
been  wronged,  and  that  all  their  pretenses  of  grievance  in 
the  matter  of  tariffs,  or  anything  else,  were  invalid.  "  But," 
said  he,  "  we  must  carry  the  people  with  us;  and  we  allege 
these  things,  as  all  statesmen  do  many  things  they  do  not 
believe,  because  they  are   the   only  instruments  by   which 


710  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  people  can  be  managed."  He  then  and  there  declared 
that  it  had  simply  come  to  this:  that  the  two  sections  of 
country  were  so  antagonistic  in  ideas  and  policies  that 
they  could  not  live  together;  that  it  was  foreordained  that, 
on  account  of  differences  in  ideas  and  policies,  Northern 
and  Southern  men  must  keep  apart.  This  is  testimony 
which  was  given  by  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  Rebellion, 
and  which  will  probably,  ere  long,  be  given  under  hand 
and  seal  to  the  public.  So  the  South  has  never  had  wrongs 
visited  upon  it  except  by  that  which  was  inherent  in  it. 

This  was  not,  then,  the  avenging  hand  of  one  goaded 
by  tyranny.  It  was  not  a  despot  turned  on  by  his  victim. 
It  was  the  venomous  hatred  of  liberty  wielded  by  an 
avowed  advocate  of  slavery.  And,  though  there  may 
have  been  cases  of  murder  in  which  there  were  shades  of 
palliation,  yet  this  murder  was  without  provocation,  with- 
out temptation,  without  reason,  sprung  from  the  fury  of  a 
heart  cankered  to  all  that  was  just  and  good,  and  corrupted 
by  all  that  was  wicked  and  foul. 

The  blow,  however,  has  signally  failed.  The  cause  is  not 
stricken;  it  is  strengthened.  This  nation  has  dissolved — 
but  in  tears  only.  It  stands,  four-square,  more  solid,  to- 
day, than  any  pyramid  in  Egypt.  This  people  are  neither 
wasted,  nor  daunted,  nor  disordered.  Men  hate  slavery 
and  love  liberty  with  stronger  hate  and  love  to-day  than 
ever  before.  The  Government  is  not  weakened,  it  is  made 
stronger.  How  naturally  and  easily  were  the  ranks  closed! 
Another  stepped  forward,  in  the  hour  that  the  one  fell,  to 
take  his  place  and  his  mantle  ;  and  I  utter  my  trust  that 
he  will  be  found  a  man  true  to  every  instinct  of  liberty  ; 
true  to  the  whole  trust  that  is  reposed  in  him  ;  vigilant  of 
the  Constitution  ;  careful  of  the  laws  ;  wise  for  liberty  in 
that  he  himself,  through  his  life,  has  known  what  it  was  to 
suffer  from  the  stings  of  slavery,  and  to  prize  liberty  from 
bitter  personal  experiences. 

Where  could  the  head  of  government  in  any  monarchy 
be  smitten  down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  and  the  funds 
not  quiver  nor  fall  one-half  of  one  per  cent.?  After  a  long 
period  of  national  disturbance,  after  four  years  of  drastic 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  7  * 1 

war,  after  tremendous  drafts  on  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try, in  the  height  and  top  of  our  burdens,  the  heart  of 
this  people  is  such  that  now,  when  the  head  of  govern- 
ment is  stricken  down,  the  public  funds  do  not  waver,  but 
stand  as  the  granite  ribs  in  our  mountains.  Republican 
institutions  have  been  vindicated  in  this  experience  as 
they  never  were  before;  and  the  whole  history  of  the  last 
four  years,  rounded  up  by  this  cruel  stroke,  seems  now  in 
the  providence  of  God  to  have  been  clothed  with  an  illus- 
tration, with  a  sympathy,  with  an  aptness,  and  with  a  sig- 
nificance, such  as  we  never  could  have  expected  or  imag- 
ined. God,  I  think,  has  said,  by  the  voice  of  this  event, 
to  all  nations  of  the  earth,  "  Republican  liberty,  based 
upon  true  Christianity,  is  firm  as  the  foundation  of  the 
globe." 

Even  he  who  now  sleeps  has,  by  this  event,  been  clothed 
with  new  influence.  Dead,  he  speaks  to  men  who  now 
willingly  hear  what  before  they  refused  to  listen  to.  Now, 
his  simple  and  weighty  words  will  be  gathered  like  those 
of  Washington,  and  your  children  and  your  children's 
children  shall  be  taught  to  ponder  the  simplicity  and  deep 
wisdom  of  utterances  which,  in  their  time,  passed,  in  the 
party  heat,  as  idle  words.  Men  will  receive  a  new  im- 
pulse of  patriotism  for  his  sake,  and  will  guard  with  zeal 
the  whole  country  which  he  loved  so  well:  I  swear  you, 
on  the  altar  of  his  memory,  to  be  more  faithful  to  the 
country  for  which  he  has  perished.  Men  will,  as  they 
follow  his  hearse,  swear  a  new  hatred  to  that  slavery 
against  which  he  warred,  and  which  in  vanquishing  him 
has  made  him  a  martyr  and  a  conqueror:  I  swear  you, 
by  the  memory  of  this  martyr,  to  hate  slavery  with  an 
unappeasable  hatred.  Men  will  admire  and  imitate  his 
unmoved  firmness,  his  inflexible  conscience  for  the  right; 
and  yet  his  gentleness,  as  tender  as  a  woman's,  his  mod- 
eration of  spirit,  which  not  all  the  heat  of  party  could 
inflame,  nor  all  the  jars  and  disturbances  of  this  country 
shake  out  of  its  place:  I  swear  you  to  an  emulation  of 
his  justice,  his  moderation  and  his  mercy. 

You  I  can  comfort;  but  how  can  I  speak  to  that  twilight 


712  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

million  to  whom  his  name  was  as  the  name  of  an  angel  of 
God  ?  There  will  be  wailing  in  places  which  no  ministers 
shall  be  able  to  reach.  When,  in  hovel  and  in  cot,  in  wood 
and  in  wilderness,  in  the  field  throughout  the  South,  the 
dusky  children,  who  looked  upon  him  as  that  Moses  whom 
God  sent  before  them  to  lead  them  out  of  the  land  of  bond- 
age, learn  that  he  has  fallen,  who  shall  comfort  them  ?  Oh, 
thou  Shepherd  of  Israel,  that  didst  comfort  thy  people  of 
old,  to  thy  care  we  commit  the  helpless,  the  long  wronged, 
and  grieved  ! 

And  now  the  martyr  is  moving  in  triumphal  march,* 
mightier  than  when  alive.  The  nation  rises  up  at  every 
stage  of  his  coming.  Cities  and  states  are  his  pall-bearers, 
and  the  cannon  beats  the  hours  with  solemn  progression. 
Dead — dead — dead — he  yet  speaketh  !  Is  Washington 
dead  ?  Is  Hampden  dead  ?  Is  David  dead  ?  Is  any  man 
dead  that  ever  was  fit  to  live  ?  Disenthralled  of  flesh,  and 
risen  to  the  unobstructed  sphere  where  passion  never 
comes,  he  begins  his  illimitable  work.  His  life  now  is 
grafted  upon  the  Infinite,  and  will  be  fruitful  as  no  earthly 
life  can  be.  Pass  on,  thou  that  hast  overcome  !  Your 
sorrows,  O  people,  are  his  peace  !  Your  bells,  and  bands, 
and  muffled  drums  sound  triumph  in  his  ear.  Wail  and 
weep  here;  God  makes  it  echo  joy  and  triumph  there. 
Pass  on,  thou  victor  ! 

Four  years  ago,  O  Illinois,  we  took  from  your  midst  an 
untried  man,  and  from  among  the  people;  we  return  him 
to  you  a  mighty  conqueror.  Not  thine  any  more,  but  the 
nation's;  not  ours,  but  the  world's.  Give  him  place,  ye 
prairies  !  In  the  midst  of  this  great  Continent  his  dust 
shall  rest,  a  sacred  treasure  to  myriads  who  shall  make  pil- 
grimage to  that  shrine  to  kindle  anew  their  zeal  and  patri- 
otism. Ye  winds,  that  move  over  the  mighty  places  of  the 
West,  chant  his  requiem  !  Ye  people,  behold  a  martyr, 
whose  blood,  as  so  man}''  articulate  words,  pleads  for 
fidelity,  for  law,  for  liberty  ! 

*The  funeral  journey,  conveying  Lincoln's  body  from  Washington  to  Illi- 
nois, was  fourteen  days  in  progress.     He  was  buried  on  May  4,  1865. 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION. 


"Then  Samuel  took  a  stone,  and  set  it  between  Mizpeh  and  Shen,  and 
called  the  name  of  it  Eben-ezer,  saying,  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us." 
— i  Sam.  vii.  12. 


I  read,  as  a  part  of  the  opening  services,  a  portion  of  the 
history  from  which  I  have  selected  this  memorable  sen- 
tence. 

For  twenty  years  the  ark  of  the  covenant  had  been 
removed  from  Israel,  and  was  in  captivity.  Then,  by  sig- 
nal interpositions  of  divine  providence,  it  was  recovered, 
and  with  victories  which  quite  broke  the  power  of  the  ene- 
mies of  the  ark  and  its  God.  The  prophet  and  judge  of 
Israel  then  declared,  setting  up  a  memorial  and  witness, 
"  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us."  It  was  a  devout 
recognition  of  the  interposition  of  God's  providence  in 
their  behalf. 

If  ever  a  people  had  occasion  to  say  that,  we  ourselves 
now  have  ;  and  it  would  be  a  fitting  thing  for  us  if  we  were 
to  set  up  again  the  corner-stone  of  the  edifice  of  our  lib- 
erty, and,  making  it  a  witness  and  a  memorial,  to  write 
upon  it  "  Eben-ezer  " — Hitherto  the  Lord  hath  helped  us. 

And  that  word  was  not  only  a  grateful  recognition  of  the 
past,  but  a  hopeful  view  of  the  future.  It  was  designed 
by  the  prophet  to  inspire  hope  and  trust  in  the  future  by 
the  witness  of  God's  fidelity  in  the  past.  So  also  Christian 
men  in  this  land  ought  to  recognize  God's  hand  in  the  past 
by  a  cheerful  trust  in  regard  to  our  future.  Our  difficulties 
are  not  ended.     As  long  as  nations  or  individuals  live,  there 

*Preached  in  Plymouth  Church,  October  29,  1865,  in  the  early  stages  of 
the  debates  over  the  restoration  or  reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States 
lately  in  rebellion,  Andrew  Johnson  having  been  six  months  in  the  presi- 
dential chair  as  the  successor  of  the  murdered  Lincoln. 


714  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

will  be  obstacles  to  be  contested — and  it  is  almost  indis- 
pensable to  vitality  that  it  should  be  so.  But  what  are  our 
difficulties  as  compared  with  those  through  which  we 
have  triumphantly  passed, — compared  with  those  of  four 
years  ago;  of  three  years  ago;  of  two  years  ago;  of  even 
one  year  ago  ? 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  at  no  period  hitherto  has  any 
statesman  or  leader  appeared  among  us  who,  in  view  of 
coming  dangers,  has  been  able  to  lay  down  a  plan,  or  a 
course  of  action.  From  the  first,  our  whole  horizon  stood 
darkened  by  thick  troubles.  Question  upon  question,  like 
ranks  of  trees  in  the  forest,  rose  beyond  each  other;  and 
there  was  no  man  who,  before  we  reached  them,  could  give 
a  probable  solution  to  them.  Nor  do  I  remember  a  single 
one  of  them  that  was  solved  in  advance.  Yet,  it  is  a 
memorable  fact  that,  as  we  drew  near  to  one  after  another 
of  these  great  difficulties  which  environed  our  people,  we 
began  to  see  specially,  in  each  instance,  how  to  overcome 
it.  One  by  one  our  troubles  were  easily  surmounted  and 
left  behind  us.  And  as  it  has  been  in  days  past,  so  we 
have  a  right  to  believe  it  will  be  in  days  to  come.  We  do 
not  need  to  ask  for  a  prophet's  glass,  that  we  may  sweep 
the  whole  horizon  and  descry  some  way  of  escape.  It  is 
better  to  look  back  and  see  that  to  this  people  day  by  day 
has  brought  its  difficulties  and  day  by  day  has  brought  its 
deliverances.  He  that  hath  been  our  Help  hitherto  will  be 
our  Help  in  time  to  come;  and  it  is  unbecoming  in  us,  in- 
dividually, and  as  a  nation,  after  God's  great  manifesta- 
tions of  mercy  toward  us,  to  indulge  in  one  moment's 
doubt,  or  fear,  or  despondency.  For  despondency  is  in- 
gratitude, and  hope  in  God  is  worship. 

I  am  impressed  not  only  with  the  duty  of  hope  and  trust 
in  God  for  the  future,  but  with  the  duty  of  good-will 
toward  men.  Now  that  war  has  ceased  from  out  of  our 
midst,  nothing  can  better  crown  its  victories  than  a  gener- 
ous and  trustful  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  this 
nation  toward  those  that  have  been  in  error.  And  if  I  have 
not  in  past  days  been  delinquent  in  the  duty  of  defending 
liberty  against  the  assaults  of  men;  if  I  have  not  failed  to 


CONDITIONS  OF  A   RESTORED  UNION.  715 

be  stern  and  persistent  in  my  denunciations  of  that  which 
was  threatening  and  wrong;  so  now  I  am  glad,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  be  early  and  equally  persistent  in  advocating 
lenity,  charity,  sympathy,  and,  as  far  as  I  may  in  consist- 
ence with  duty,  forgetfulness.  Hitherto,  when  slavery  was 
a  power  in  the  land,  and  when  the  government  was  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  hated  its  fundamental  principles,  true 
men  in  the  North  were  obliged  to  be  stern  and  unflinch- 
ing. There  was  no  room  permitted  us  for  charity.  Every 
single  overture  of  charity  was  employed  as  an  instrument 
for  our  destruction,  and  a  witness  for  slavery.  Now  it  is 
different;  circumstances  have  changed;  and  if  we  are  wise, 
we  shall  make  haste  to  adapt  ourselves  to  the  new  state  of 
things,  and  perform  now,  though  in  a  reverse  manner,  the 
duties  which  we  sought  hitherto  to  perform — then  by  op- 
position to  the  South;  now  by  kindness  toward  them,  and 
concord  with  them. 

In  the  first  place,  I  cannot  expect,  nor  ask  you  to  expect, 
those  that  have  been  swept  by  this  insanity  (for  I  can 
scarcely  regard  the  state  of  mind  that  has  existed  for  years 
in  the  South  as  other  than  a  political  insanity) — I  cannot 
expect,  nor  ask  you  to  expect,  that  in  one  hour  they  will 
get  over  their  enmities,  their  life-long  prejudices  and  their 
humiliation.  It  would  be  easy  for  us  to  forgive  men  who 
were  all  that  is  lovely  and  beautiful;  but  when  we  in  fancy 
call  them  citizens  and  brothers,  how  often  is  our  zeal  of 
reconciliation  checked  by  reading  in  the  papers  some  hate- 
ful speech,  or  an  account  of  some  misbecoming  conduct  ! 
And  how  often  do  we  find  ourselves  drawing  back  from 
the  kindness  that  we  had  proposed  to  ourselves  !  Now  we 
are  to  remember  that  convalescence  is  often  slower  and 
longer  than  the  run  of  the  disease  itself;  and  where  men 
have  been  turmoiled,  and  torn,  and  revolutionized,  it  is 
demanding  miracles  to  ask  that  in  an  hour,  or  a  few  days, 
they  will  sit  clothed  in  their  right  mind  at  the  feet  of  Jesus. 
And  if  there  is  to  be  anything  like  magnanimity,  generos- 
ity, and  true  overtures  of  friendship,  we  must  take  men  as 
they  are.  If  we  wait  to  have  them  become  what  we  would 
have   them  to  be,  we  shall  wait  in  vain.     Circumstances 


716  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

will  now  compel  Southern  citizens  to  a  course  which  will 
be  safe  for  the  Republic.  They  may  act  angrily;  they 
may  express  ill-will;  but  they  are  now  brought  into  a  con- 
dition in  which  natural  laws,  stronger  than  human  volitions 
or  prejudices,  will  bend  or  overrule  their  wills. 

Nor  are  we  to  demand  a  surrender  of  theories  and 
philosophies  as  a  condition  of  confidence  and  trust.  I  per- 
ceive that  men  are  dissatisfied  because  prominent  leaders 
of  the  Rebellion  are  forgiven  before  they  have  shown  any 
evidence  of  having  relinquished  the  heresy  of  secession. 
I  should  have  had  less  faith  in  them  if  they  had.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  would  have  been  said  of  them, 
"  They  were  insincere  in  professing  faith  in  their  State  doc- 
trines ; "  or  else  it  would  have  been  said,  "  It  was  in  the 
power  of  the  sword  to  change  their  convictions  " — neither 
of  which  would  have  been  compatible  with  true  manhood. 
All  we  have  to  ask  is  that  they  shall  accept  the  fact  and 
the  future  policy  of  Union.  Let  men  say  that  secession 
ought  to  have  been  allowed — if  they  accept  the  fact  that  it 
is  forever  disallowed  by  the  people  of  this  continent.  A 
man  who  believed  in  Calhoun's  theories,  and  still  believes 
them,  may  be  a  good  citizen — just  as  one  in  England  may 
be  obedient  to  monarchical  institutions,  though  he  believes 
republican  to  be  better.  These  theories,  if  let  alone,  will 
die  out.  The  age  and  country  is  against  them.  The 
course  of  events  refutes  them.  Old  men  may  cherish 
them,  but  the  young  and  ambitious  will  accept  better  doc- 
trines and  wiser  policies. 

Nor  do  I  think  it  wise  or  Christian  for  us  to  distrust  the 
sentiments  of  those  in  the  South  that  profess  to  be  desir- 
ous, once  again,  of  concord  and  of  union.  It  is  said  that 
they  wish  to  get  back  to  their  old  privileges  and  power, 
and  that,  when  once  they  are  reinstated,  they  will  do  as 
they  please.  But  how  do  you  propose  to  remedy  that 
matter?  What  kind  of  probation  will  you  put  States  upon 
which  will  render  it  certain  that,  when  they  come  back  to 
the  participation  of  national  power,  they  will  not  do  as 
they  please?  You  make  a  condition  which  in  the  nature 
of  things  cannot  be  fulfilled.     Somewhere  men  are  to  be 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  717 

believed  and  trusted,  or  all  possibility  of  co-operative  gov- 
ernment is  at  an  end. 

But  it  is  said  that  we  should  receive  guaranties  for  the 
future  before  we  receive  back  men  who  have  arrayed  them- 
selves against  the  laws  of  the  land.  What  guaranties  ? 
How  are  we  to  secure  them  ?  I  think  the  best  guaranty 
that  can  be  given  is  the  utter  destruction  of  slavery.  Men 
may  make  as  many  promises  as  they  please,  but  they  are 
under  the  influence  of  organic  laws.  Those  great  uncon- 
scious influences  that  are  subtly  touching  men's  interests, 
and  the  springs  of  thought  and  feeling — these  are  the 
things  that  in  the  long  run  determine  conduct.  Why  was 
the  North  valid,  healthful  ?  Because  her  laws  and  institu- 
tions promoted  freedom  and  the  doctrines  of  liberty.  It 
was  not  because  we  were  by  nature  more  virtuous  than  the 
people  of  the  South  ;  but  we  were  under  the  influence  of 
great  organic  laws  that  were  inciting  us  to  conduct  which 
was  wiser  and  better  than  we  individually  knew  or  pur- 
posed. We  were  dependent  upon  the  wisdom  of  our 
great  political  institutions  for  making  us  what  we  were. 
And  they  of  the  South,  on  the  other  hand,  were  uncon- 
sciously under  the  influence  of  great  organic  laws  which 
sprang  from  radically  vicious  institutions.  They  were 
made  what  they  were  by  certain  theories  of  political 
economy,  carried  out  practically.  So  that  they  answered 
logically  to  the  influences  of  those  institutions  under 
which  they  were  reared,  as  we  answered  logically  to  the 
influences  of  those  institutions  under  which  we  were 
reared.  It  was  the  antagonism  which  existed  between 
their  institutions  and  ours  that  brought  us  in  perpetual 
collision  with  them.  The  giving  to  all  men  equal  rights, 
and  the  holding  men  in  slavery,  could  not  harmonize. 
Free  labor  meeting  slave-labor  ;  free  speech  meeting  muz- 
zled speech;  a  free  press  meeting  a  hampered  press,  could 
not  but  lead  to  conflict.  It  was  the  necessities  of  Southern 
institutions  which  collided  with  the  necessities  of  Northern 
institutions.  The  people  of  the  South  were  what  they 
were,  not  by  reason  of  voluntary  wickedness,  but  by  reason 
of  the  institutions  that  were  behind  them,  and  that  pushed 


7  18  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

them  forward,  as  tides  push  ships;  and  our  excellence  was 
attributable  not  so  much  to  ourselves  as  to  the  pressure  of 
the  great  laws  and  institutions  under  which  we  were 
acting. 

Now,  slavery  being  destroyed,  the  cause  of  collision  is 
removed;  and,  though  a  longer  or  shorter  time  may  be  re- 
quired to  readjust  the  state  of  things,  once  let  labor  stand 
free  in  the  South,  once  let  there  be  no  necessity  for  muz- 
zling speech,  once  let  there  be  no  need  for  hampering  the 
press,  once  let  commerce  be  unrestricted,  once  let  the 
heathen  laws  on  Southern  statute-books  be  destroyed,  and 
what  guaranty  do  you  want  that  free  men,  pursuing  free 
labor,  will  not  fight  other  free  men  pursuing  free  labor? 
The  only  cause  of  antagonism  was  slavery;  and,  now  that 
slavery  is  destroyed,  there  is  no  ground  for  conflict.  We 
do  not  come  into  collision  with  Canada,  although  she  is 
under  a  crown.  Still  less  do  we  come  into  collision  with 
the  States  of  the  West.  And  why  should  we  come  into 
collision  with  the  States  of  the  South,  except  on  account 
of  differences  between  their  institutions  and  ours?  Thus 
the  taking  away  of  difference  is  everything  that  we  want. 
Of  all  guaranties  for  the  future  harmony  of  the  North  and 
the  South,  the  best  is  the  effectual  extermination  of  slavery. 
A  guaranty  of  words  may  be  very  well,  but  a  guaranty  of 
facts  is  better. 

It  is  said  that  there  should  be  a  spirit  of  humility  on  the 
part  of  the  South,  that  there  should  be  the  appearance  of 
their  having  been  convinced  of  the  error  of  their  ways,  be- 
fore we  receive  them  back.  It  is  said  that  God  does  not 
receive  sinners  back  till  they  are  humbled. 

When  you  are  God  you  need  not  receive  your  brethren 
back  till  they  are  humbled.  But  I  take  it  that  you  are  not 
in  the  place  of  God.  There  are  many  who  desire  to  see 
the  South  humbled.  For  my  own  part,  I  think  it  to  be  the 
great  need  of  this  nation  to  save  the  self-respect  of  the 
South.  I  think  that  he  will  be  the  wisest  and  most  politic 
statesman  who  knows  how  to  carry  them  through  this  ter- 
rible and  painful  transition  with  the  least  sacrifice  of  their 
pride,  and  with  the  greatest  preservation  of  their  self-re- 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  7^ 

spect;  and  if  it  can  be  done  by  the  generosity  of  the  North, 
a  confidence  will  spring  up  at  the  South  in  the  future  that 
will  repay  us  for  the  little  self-sacrifice  that  we  may  make. 
As  for  me,  I  would  go  backward  and  throw  the  mantle  over 
their  nakedness,  and  extend  to  them  trust  and  help,  till 
they  should  recover  themselves  and  again  stand  erect  in 
the  full  manhood  of  a  common  American  citizenship.  I 
do  not  wish  to  see  the  South  humbled  any  more  than  War 
has  humbled  them.  Stripped,  peeled,  they  have  been.  But 
that  is  not  all.  Oh,  what  woe  is  theirs  !  Not  a  father  or 
mother  among  them  can  mourn  for  a  slain  son,  not  a  wife 
can  mourn  for  a  husband  slain,  not  a  sister  can  mourn  for 
a  brother,  not  a  man  or  woman  can  mourn  for  a  friend, 
with  any  other  feeling  than  this:  "He  threw  away  his 
life  for  nothing  !  "  Thrice  ten  thousand  loved  ones  have 
we  sacrificed;  but  they  were  martyrs  for  liberty,  and  their 
names  and  deeds  are  fragrant  in  our  memory,  and  we  glory 
in  our  sorrow  !  But  the  wailing  of  the  people  of  the  South 
concerning  those  that  they  sacrificed  is,  "  They  perished  in 
a  cause  that  itself  perished,  and  there  is  no  memorial  of 
them ! "  Their  property  is  gone,  their  States  are  in 
anarchy,  their  firesides  are  left  desolate;  and  do  I  hear 
men  saying,  "  Before  we  receive  them  back  let  them  be 
still  further  humbled  ?  "  Oh,  my  brother,  you  know  not 
what  manner  of  spirit  you  are  of  ! 

I  am  anxious  that  those  who  have  hitherto  been  most 
active  for  liberty  and  humanity  should  produce  the  first 
and  deepest  impression  on  our  brethren  in  the  South  by 
real  kindness;  and  I  am  very  thankful  that  those  who  have 
been  representative  men  in  the  North,  in  the  main — Gerritt 
Smith,  Mr.  Garrison,  and  others  such  as  they — have  been 
found  pleading  for  lenity,  and  opposed  to  rigor  and  un- 
charitableness.  That  is  as  it  should  be.  And  I  shall  be 
greatly  rejoiced  if  those  men  who  have  been  in  favor  of 
liberty,  and  in  conflict  with  the  South,  shall  be  the  first,  in 
the  interest  of  liberty  and  humanity,  to  express  toward  the 
Southern  people  sympathy  and  generous  trust.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  shall  regard  it  as  peculiarly  unfortunate  if  it 
shall   take  place  that  the  patriotic  and   good   shall  stand 


720  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

coldly  waiting,  or  sternly  demanding  justice,  while  those 
men  that  for  five  years  have  betrayed  both  the  North  and 
the  South,  make  haste  to  hold  out  warm  hands  of  greet- 
ing, and  produce  the  impression  that  they  are  alone  the 
friends  of  the  South.  Let  the  true  men  find  the  Southern 
heart,  and  let  traitors  be  disallowed  by  both  parties. 

I  cannot  read  except  with  disapprobation  much  that  is 
written  now  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
South.  An  honest  statement  of  facts  is  fair:  but  biting 
criticisms  on  men  and  their  actions  cannot  but  produce  evil 
results.  I  have  deemed  unwise  the  many  criticisms  that 
were  passed  upon  General  Lee  when  he  assumed  the 
Presidency  of  Washington  College.  When  his  history  is 
impartially  written,  it  can  never  be  covered  up  that  in  an 
hour  of  great  weakness  he  committed  himself  wickedly  to 
the  cause  of  rebellion.  This  is  a  blemish  on  his  name  that 
cannot  well  be  effaced.  But  I  cannot  deny  that  since  that 
time  his  course  and  career,  from  his  stand-point,  have  been 
almost  void  of  reproach.  The  great  crime  of  rebellion  re- 
mains; but,  it  being  assumed  that  he  was  conscientiously 
convinced  that  that  was  his  duty,  where  can  you  find  aught 
to  criticise  in  his  general  conduct  ?  And  when  the  war 
ceased,  and  he  laid  down  his  arms,  who  could  have  been 
more  modest,  more  manly,  more  true  to  his  own  word  and 
honor  than  he  was  ?  And  when  he  was  called  to  the  presi- 
dency of  a  college,  must  he  not  accept  it  ?  Must  he  not 
do  something  for  a  living  ?  Might  he  not  attempt  to  teach 
the  minds  of  the  South  in  the  radical  elements  of  educa- 
tion ?  And  was  it  wise  and  befitting  that  we  at  the  North 
should  raise  caviling  objections  to  his  availing  himself  of 
this  opportunity  that  was  offered  him  of  gaining  an  honor- 
able livelihood  ?  The  real  question  is  not  of  his  fitness, 
but  whether  it  is  wise  for  us  to  deny  to  Virginians  the 
right  to  select  their  own  teachers.  As  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned, I  was  glad  that  he  accepted  the  position;  and  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  young  men  who  are  grad- 
uated under  him,  even  though  they  were  deficient  on  some 
points  of  political  education,  will  be  true  and  faithful  to 
the  government  that  they  are  to  live   under.     Robert  Lee 


CONDITIONS  OF  A   RESTORED  UNION.  721 

is  the  last  man  in  the  South  ever  again  to  rebel  or  incite 
rebellion.  And  I  tell  you  we  are  not  making  friends,,  nor 
helping  the  cause  of  a  common  country,  by  raising  the 
names  of  eminent  Southern  men,  one  after  another,  into 
the  place  of  bitter  criticism.  It  is  not  generous.  We  are 
the  stronger  party;  we  have  been  successful:  and  if  there 
is  to  be  magnanimity  anywhere,  we  are  the  men  to  show  it. 

The  two  great  questions  which  now  are  unfolding  into 
practical  policies,  and  which  attract  the  thoughtful  regard 
of  all  men  that  think  upon  public  affairs,  are:  first,  the  ad- 
mission of  Southern  States  again  to  the  participation  in 
our  national  government;  and,  secondly,  the  complete  and 
permanent  restoration  to  the  black  men  of  our  country  of 
their  rights. 

Let  us  look,  then,  at  these  two  main  questions  of  the 
future. 

I.  It  is  desirable,  on  every  account,  that  the  South  should 
be  restored  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  to  a  partici- 
pation in  our  common  government.  It  is  best  for  us;  it  is 
best  for  them.  It  is  foreign  to  our  American  ideas  that 
men  should  be  dispossessed  of  civil  rights,  if  we  expect 
to  treat  them  in  any  other  way  than  as  criminals.  If  we 
expect  to  make  citizens  of  them,  and  useful  citizens,  it  is 
part  and  parcel  of  our  American  habits  and  doctrine  that 
they  shall  be  made  so  by  an  active  participation  in  public 
affairs,  which  we  hold  to  be  not  a  luxury,  but  an  education 
and  a  duty. 

But  there  are  some  considerations  precedent.  For  it  is 
not  right  that,  in  a  moment,  and  without  any  sort  of  pledge 
or  preparation  or  qualification,  the  men  who  were  yester- 
day pointing  the  sword  at  the  very  throat  of  the  govern- 
ment should  have  control  of  that  government,  or  should  be 
allowed  to  participate  in  its  control. 

In  the  first  place,  the  cause  of  our  trouble  must  be  de- 
stroyed; that  which  made  the  Southern  States  hate  certain 
features  of  the  Constitution  and  Government,  and  which 
brought  them  into  perpetual  collision  with  the  free  States, 
must  be  destroyed,  as  a  part  of  their  preparation  for  par- 
ticipation in  the  privileges  which  that  Constitution  and 
46 


722  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

that  Government  confer.  It  is  right  that  State  conventions 
should  be  required  to  abolish  slavery,  and  to  assist  in  the 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in 
that  regard,  so  that  any  State  that  might  try  to  rejuvenate 
slavery  should  under  the  Constitution  be  unable  to  do  it. 
I  think  this  to  be  a  sound  and  wise  condition  of  their  re- 
habilitation. 

Whatever  may  be  done  in  the  case  of  individuals,  com- 
munities cannot  be  permitted  to  participate  in  the  affairs 
of  the  government  till  they  renounce  forever  their  right  to 
destroy  it.  For,  stripped  of  all  words,  secession  means  the 
right  of  a  part  of  the  people  living  under  a  government  to 
destroy  that  government.  The  South  are  now,  by  the 
fates  of  war,  brought  to  our  feet;  and  they  ask  to  be  our 
equals  again,  and  to  be  allowed  again  to  participate  with 
us  in  the  administration  of  the  government;  and  certainly 
we  have  a  right  to  say  to  them,  "  If  you  are  to  administer 
the  government  with  us,  you  must  swear  not  to  attempt  to 
destroy  it."  That  is  not  humbling,  and  not  very  operose. 
And  they  must,  in  convention,  not  only  annul  their  act  of 
secession,  but  pronounce  it  to  have  been  ab  initio  void. 
Thus  must  be  set  at  rest  all  possibility  of  future  secession 
and  disunion. 

I  think  that,  also,  before  the  States  of  the  South  are  re- 
instated, these  conventions  should  have  ascertained,  and 
prescribed,  and  established,  the  condition  of  the  freedman. 
They  should  have  established,  first,  his  right  to  labor,  and 
to  hold  property,  with  all  its  concomitants.  They  should 
have  established  his  right  to  labor  as  he  pleases,  where  he 
pleases,  and  for  whom  he  pleases,  and  to  have  sole  and  un- 
divided the  proceeds  of  his  own  earnings,  with  the  liberty 
to  do  with  them  as  he  pleases,  just  as  any  other  citizen 
does.  They  should  also  have  made  him  to  be  the  equal  of 
all  other  men  before  the  courts  and  in  the  eye  of  the  law. 
He  should  be  just  as  much  qualified  to  be  a  witness  as  the 
man  that  assaults  him.  He  should  be  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  laws,  with  all  the  opportunities  of  availing 
himself  of  their  benefits  which  any  other  citizen  has.  It 
is  one  of  the  legitimate   results  of  his  emancipation   that 


CONDITIONS  OF  A   RESTORED  UNION.  723 

he  should  be  put  under  the  protection  of  the  laws,  and 
that  he  should  have  access  to  the  courts,  the  same  as  any- 
other  man. 

I  hold  that  it  would  have  been  wise,  also,  for  these  con- 
ventions to  have  given  him  the  right  of  suffrage — for  it  is 
always  inexpedient  and  foolish  to  deny  a  man  his  natural 
rights.  And  I  yet  stand  on  the  ground  that  suffrage  in 
our  community  is  not  a  privilege,  or  a  prerogative,  but  a 
natural  right.  That  is  to  say,  if  there  is  any  such  thing  as 
a  natural  right,  a  man  has  a  natural  right  to  determine  the 
laws  that  involve  his  life,  and  liberty,  and  property.  He 
has  a  right  to  have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  those  magis- 
trates who  have  to  do  with  his  whole  civil  prosperity.  If 
the  right  to  determine  the  laws  and  magistracies  under 
which  one  exists  is  not  a  natural  right,  I  know  not  what  a 
natural  right  is.  It  is  not  giving  the  colored  man  a  priv- 
ilege to  allow  him  to  vote:  it  is  developing  a  long  dor- 
mant natural  right.  He  has  a  right  to  citizenship  be- 
cause he  is  a  man,  unless  he  has  forfeited  it  by  crime. 
And  I  think  it  would  have  saved  the  land  great  prospective 
trouble  to  have  promptly  declared  the  right  of  the  freed- 
men  to  labor  and  all  its  avails,  to  law  and  all  its  remedies, 
to  citizenship  and  all  its  privileges.  In  our  land  liberty 
means  citizenship.  It  is  the  right  to  self,  to  property,  to 
law,  and  government,  in  each  man  and  in  all  equally  and 
alike. 

It  is  said  that  a  declaration  of  the  rights  of  citizenship 
is  a  declaration  of  social  equality.  You  might  as  well  say 
that  the  granting  citizenship  to  a  foreigner  implies  his 
right  to  share  the  property  of  those  whose  fellow-citizen 
he  becomes.  Declaring  the  colored  man's  right  to  citizen- 
ship in  this  country  does  not  make  him  your  equal  socially. 
Do  you  suppose  that  you  are  all  equal  to  each  other  in  a 
social  sense?  Do  you  suppose  that  the  Irishman  who  has 
just  landed  on  our  shores,  who  becomes  a  citizen,  but  to 
whom  our  ideas  are  foreign,  instantly  becomes  our  equal 
in  a  social  point  of  view  ?  That  is  to  say,  the  moment  a 
man  has  the  right  to  plead  and  be  impleaded  in  our  courts, 
the  right  to  the  fruits  of  his  own  labor,  and   the   right  to 


724  r A  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

vote,  do  I  rush  into  his  arms  and  beg  him  to  become  my 
son-in-law,  whether  I  like  him  or  not  ?  What  phantasies 
fill  the  brains  of  men  !  How  absurd  is  the  idea,  because  I 
claim  for  the  black  man  the  right  to  be  a  man,  the  right  to 
hold  his  earnings,  the  right  to  be  a  witness  in  our  courts, 
and  the  right  to  vote,  that  therefore  I  am  bound  to  like 
him,  and  to  like  him  so  much  better  than  I  like  others  as 
to  make  him  my  inseparable  companion;  and  that  I  deem 
it  wise  and  best  for  him  to  intermarry  with  the  whites  !  I 
have  never  seen  the  time  when  I  desired  black  people  and 
white  people  to  intermarry.  True,  I  have  said,  time  and 
time  again,  that,  if  there  was  to  be  any  intermingling,  it 
ought  to  be  under  marriage,  and  not  under  concubinage; 
but  that  doctrine  pro-slavery  men  have  hitherto  hated. 
They  are  not  opposed  to  practical  miscegenation.  Their 
blood  is  disseminated  on  every  plantation  in  the  Southern 
States,  as  a  result  of  the  actual  application  of  their  doc- 
trine. The  difference  between  them  and  us  is,  that  they 
hold  that  there  may  be  miscegenation,  if  only  it  is  adulter- 
ous; while  we  declare  that  adultery  is  abhorrent  to  God, 
whether  it  be  among  whites  or  blacks,  or  both;  and  if 
there  is  to  be  intermingling,  it  should  at  least  be  wedlock. 
At  the  same  time,  we  hold  that  it  would  better  not  be;  and 
have  held  so  from  the  beginning.  Therefore,  because  I 
advocate  the  right  of  a  black  man  to  be  free,  to  hold  prop- 
erty, to  claim  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  to  vote,  I  do 
not  by  any  means  hold  that  he  is  socially  on  a  level  with 
the  man  that  is  educated  and  refined,  he  not  being  edu- 
cated or  refined.  And  there  is  nothing  more  preposterous 
than  the  confounding  of  these  most  obvious  distinctions. 
With  these  provisions  made  by  the  conventions  of  the 
several  States,  guaranteeing  the  rights  and  the  citizenship  of 
the  black  man,  I  think  that  the  difficulties  would  all  speedily 
disappear,  and  that  there  would  be  no  more  questions 
to  divide  the  people  of  the  North  and  the  South,  so  far  as 
this  subject  is  concerned.  Without  such  provisions,  much 
mischief  will  probably  arise.  It  will  be  a  trouble,  how- 
ever, that  will  mainly  affect  the  South.  These  four  million 
men  are  not  in  our  midst.     For  the   most  part,  they  are  in 


CONDITIONS  OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  725 

the  South;  and  I  may  say  that  we  are  disinterested  in 
pleading  for  their  complete  emancipation  and  enfranchise- 
ment; for,  if  they  are  wronged,  and  there  are  consequent 
uprisings  and  strifes,  it  will  be  there  that  those  things  will 
take  place — not  here.  In  their  own  bowels  will  be  the 
cramps  and  colics — not  in  ours  ! 

In  regard  to  this  matter,  I  do  not  know  what  the  Presi- 
dent's* mind  is — if  he  knows  it  himself  !  Much  complaint 
has  been  made  of  his  reticence.  But  it  is  one  of  the  best 
things  that  can  be  said  of  a  man,  that,  when  he  has  noth- 
ing to  say,  he  says  nothing.  I  apprehend,  however,  in  the 
light  of  certain  things  that  he  said  in  his  conference  with 
the  committee  from  the  convention  of  South  Carolina — 
South  Carolina,  a  State  which,  whatever  you  may  say  of 
it,  must  always  be  considered  as  a  State  singularly  diffi- 
dent and  modest ! — the  State  that,  before  she  had  been  re- 
ceived back  into  the  Union,  before  she  knew  that  she  stood 
on  her  feet  at  all,  unwashed,  uncombed,  and  unrobed,  sent 
a  committee  to  advise  the  government  what  to  do,  thus  af- 
fording a  striking  illustration  of  that  itch  of  ruling  to 
which  she  has  been  subject; — I  apprehend,  in  the  light  of 
certain  things  that  he  said  in  his  conference  with  this  com- 
mittee, that  the  President  has  given  the  key  to  his  policy. 
You  will  recollect  this  remark,  which  he  made  in  that  in- 
terview: "We  must  be  practical,  and  come  up  to  the 
surrounding  circumstances."  He  does  not  weave  theories 
or  propound  general  principles;  he  takes  the  facts  as  they 
come  to  him,  one  by  one,  and  determines  each  of  them  on 
its  own  merits. 

Of  all  the  men  that  have  occupied  the  presidential 
chair,  not  one,  it  seems  to  me,  has  displayed  more  wisdom 
in  the  solution  of  practical  questions  when  brought  before 
him,  than  has  President  Johnson  thus  far;  and  I  am  willing 
to  trust  him  for  the  rest.  I  believe  that,  as  one  after 
another  question  comes  up,  he  will  be  no  less  wise  in  solv- 
ing each  than  he  has  been  in  solving  those  that  have  al- 
ready presented  themselves  to  him  for  solution.     And  the 


*  Andrew  Johnson. 


726  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

fact  that  he  thinks  many  of  the  questions  that  arise  had 
better  be  settled  by  Congress  than  by  himself  does  not 
lessen  my  confidence  in  this  wise  magistrate.  When  you 
complain  that  many  things  should  be  precedent  to  the  re- 
admission  into  the  Union  of  the  States  of  the  South,  you 
are  to  recollect  that,  while  the  President  may  advise  and 
caution  the  Southern  people,  it  is  Congress  that  is  to  take 
the  decisive  steps.  And  it  is  better  that  the  responsibility 
should  be  divided,  than  that  the  President  should  arrogate 
to  himself  the  power  of  a  czar,  and  determine  questions 
absolutely  and  arbitrarily. 

Moreover,  if  on  this  subject  of  negro  rights  and  suffrage 
he  has  done  wrong,  and  the  people  of  the  South  have  done 
wrong — that  is  to  say,  if  they  have  neglected  that  which 
is  right,  in  connection  with  the  conventions  that  have  been 
held — we  have  a  right  to  criticise  their  action,  and  to  point 
out  their  faults;  but  I  must  admit  that  we  of  the  North 
are  not  precisely  in  the  attitude  to  rebuke  the  South  in 
respect  to  the  rights  of  the  colored  man.  I  do  not  think 
that  our  humanity  has  been  such  as  to  fit  us  to  give  un- 
qualified advice  to  our  Southern  brethren  in  that  direction. 
When  black  men  can  ride  without  being  insulted  and 
ejected  from  our  street-cars;  when  they  can  sit  undisturbed 
in  our  sanctuaries;  when  they  can  work  in  shops  with  for- 
eigners without  being  vomited  out;  when  they  can  vote  as 
white  men  do,  without  any  property  or  other  qualification 
— then  the  Northern  States  may  assume  to  rebuke  the 
South  on  this  subject.  But  I  confess  that,  if  I  were  to  go 
South  and  preach  to  the  people  there  of  this  duty,  I  should 
be  obliged  to  preach  in  a  very  mild  and  general  way,  and 
not  with  severe  criticism  and  objurgation,  lest  they  should 
turn  and  say  to  me,  "  In  what  State  were  you  born, 
sir  ?  "  and  I,  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  should  be 
obliged  to  say,  "  In  Connecticut  !  " 

As  I  have  gone  so  far  in  speaking  of  the  President,  al- 
low me  to  go  further  and  express  my  gratitude  to  God  for 
that  singular  succession  by  which,  after  we  had  been  led 
by  Lincoln  for  four  years  through  the  great  and  terrible 
ordeal    of  war,   and  that   martyred    and   noble    man    was 


CONDITIONS   OF  A    RESTORED   UNION.  727 

taken  suddenly,  as  it  were  by  translation,  God  appointed, 
almost  without  our  knowledge  or  forethought,  one  so  well 
fitted  to  take  up  the  work  where  it  was  left,  and  carry  it 
on,  without  break  or  hindrance,  to  a  successful  accom- 
plishment. And,  although  I  cannot  undertake  to  say  (it 
would  be  presumption  in  me  to  say  it)  that  I  endorse  Mr. 
Johnson;  although  it  is  not  safe  for  any  one  to  run  before, 
and  to  promise  much  for  the  future;  although  I  reserve 
my  right  to  differ  from  him,  and  to  criticise  anything  that 
may  be  hereafter  developed  in  his  policy,  as  any  citizen 
may;  yet,  thus  far,  I  do  not  now  remember  a  single  act  of 
his  administration  which  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
wise,  and  just,  and  beneficial.  The  time  when  he  was 
called  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  nation  was  a  most  try- 
ing one.  Perplexing  questions  were  to  be  settled.  Diffi- 
cult knots  were  to  be  untied.  But  he  has  taken  up  and 
untangled  thread  after  thread  of  our  national  affairs;  and, 
with  a  firm  purpose,  a  skillful  hand,  and  a  clear  head,  he 
has  gone  on  weaving  that  garment  which  is  yet  to  cover 
the  body  of  these  States  in  a  common  brotherhood.  I 
thank  God  for  the  eminent  services  and  auspicious  wisdom 
of  Mr.  Johnson. 

Nor  can  I  point  to  anything  that  is  more  remarkable 
than  that  extraordinary  unity  of  feeling  which  exists  in 
the  nation  in  respect  to  the  general  wisdom  of  the  Presi- 
dent's course.  That  those  citizens  who  called  him  from 
his  relative  obscurity  because  he  was  true  to  the  cause  of 
his  country;  that  those  who  voted  for  him,  and  placed  him 
in  the  position  which  he  now  occupies — that  they  should 
have  confidence  in  him  is  not  surprising.  No  man  that 
voted  for  Mr.  Johnson  can  well  be  otherwise  than  proud, 
in  the  main,  of  that  man  who  was  his  candidate  for  Vice- 
President,  and  who  now  is  President  of  the  United  States. 
But  that  which  calls  forth  my  admiration,  and  which  ex- 
cites in  me  the  profoundest  gratitude,  is  that  the  men  who 
hated  him,  and  cursed  him,  and  voted  against  him,  are  all 
converted,  and  have  all  adopted  Mr.  Johnson  as  their  Presi- 
dent, and  his  policy  as  their  policy  !  So  we  are  all  one 
again  !     There  are  no   party  lines   now  dividing  the  coun- 


728  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

try  !  There  is  one  great  party  and  only  one  !  It  is  a  mira- 
cle, and  a  miracle  wrought  in  such  a  direction  as  to  rill  us 
with  unqualified  marvel,  and  with  thanksgiving.  I  hope — 
I  hope  that  these  converts  will  not  fall  from  grace  ! 

I  think  I  perceive  in  the  President's  mind  a  belief  that 
all  measures  instituted  under  the  Act  of  Emancipation  for 
the  blacks,  in  order  to  be  permanently  useful,  must  have 
the  cordial  consent  of  the  wise  and  good  citizens  of  the 
South.  If  it  be  so,  I  regard  this  judgment  as  indicative 
of  the  most  sagacious  statesmanship.  I  hold  that  it  is  not 
possible  for  us  of  the  North,  except  in  a  remote  way,  to 
affect  the  condition  of  the  black  man  in  the  South.  We 
can  send  him  material  relief;  we  can  give  him  the  means 
of  education;  but  in  respect  to  his  immediate  condition, 
we  cannot,  removed  at  arm's-length,  as  we  are,  do  much 
for  him.  And  I  do  not  think  it  consistent  with  the  nature 
of  our  institutions  for  the  Federal  Government,  in  and  of 
itself,  to  attempt  permanently  to  take  care  of  four  millions 
of  freedmen  by  military  government.  These  men  are 
scattered  in  fifteen  States;  they  are  living  contiguous  to 
their  old  masters;  the  kindness  of  the  white  men  in  the 
South  is  more  important  to  them  than  all  the  policies  of 
the  nation  put  together.  And  the  best  intentions  of  the 
Government  will  be  defeated  if  the  laws  that  are  made 
touching  this  matter  are  such  as  are  calculated  to  excite 
the  animosity  and  hatred  of  the  white  people  in  the  South 
toward  the  black  people  there.  I  except  the  single  degree 
of  emancipation.  That  must  stand,  though  men  dislike  it. 
A  true  and  wise  statesmanship  consists  in  conciliating  the 
late  masters,  and  persuading  them  to  accept  the  freedmen 
in  a  spirit  of  kindness  and  helpfulness.  Calling  names, 
suspecting  motives,  objurgations,  will  not  help  the  black 
man.  President  Johnson  thinks  it  better  that  the  colored 
people  should  receive  their  rights  with  the  consent  of  the 
South;  and  he  waits  for  it,  and  influences  rather  than  com- 
mands; and  I  think  he  is  acting  with  enlightened  judgment. 

This  view  I  found  upon  another  part  of  his  remarks 
which  were  addressed  to  the  modest  committee  from  South 
Carolina: — 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  729 

"  The  President  thought  many  of  the  evils  would  disappear  if 
they  inaugurated  the  right  system.  Pass  laws  protecting  the 
colored  man  in  his  person  and  property,  and  he  can  collect  his 
debts.  He  knew  how  it  was  with  the  South.  The  question,  when 
first  presented,  of  putting  a  colored  man  on  the  witness  stand, 
made  them  shrug  their  shoulders.  But  the  colored  man's  testi- 
mony was  to  be  taken  for  what  it  was  worth  by  those  who  ex- 
amined him,  and  the  jury  who  heard  it.  After  all,  there  was  not 
so  much  danger  in  this  as  was  supposed.  Those  coming  out  of 
slavery  cannot  do  without  work;  they  cannot  lie  down  in  dissipa- 
tion ;  they  must  work  ;  they  ought  to  understand  that  liberty 
means  simply  the  right  to  work  and  enjoy  the  products  of  labor, 
and  that  the  laws  protect  them.  That  being  done,  and  when  we 
come  to  the  period  to  feel  that  men  must  work  or  starve,  the 
country  will  be  prepared  to  receive  a  system  applicable  to  both 
white  and  black — prepared  to  receive  a  system  necessary  to  the 
case.  A  short  time  back  you  could  not  enforce  the  vagrant  law 
on  the  black,  but  could  on  the  white  man.  But  get  the  public 
mind  right,  and  you  can  treat  both  alike.  Let  us  get  the  general 
principles  right,  and  the  details  and  collaterals  will  follow." 

Is  not  that  wise  ?  Ts  not  that  sound  ?  Many  men  feared 
that  the  President,  being  a  Southern-born  man,  would  be 
warped  toward  the  South.  I  thank  God  that  he  is  a 
Southern-born  man.  It  is  just  such  a  man  that  we  need, 
if  we  are  going  to  reconstruct.  You  cannot  build  up 
confidence  as  you  can  masonry.  The  work  is  not  one  in 
which  all  that  is  required  is  stone  here,  and  mortar  there. 
He  that  manages  the  human  heart  has,  it  may  be,  to  work 
against  ignorance,  and  against  ten  thousand  prejudices; 
and  he  must  himself  have  a  sensitive  heart.  And  a  New 
England  man  in  the  President's  chair,  even  if  he  were 
wiser  than  Mr.  Johnson,  would  not  have  that  natural  sym- 
pathetic feeling  for  the  Southern  people  which  would  fit 
him,  as  President  Johnson  is  fitted,  for  the  peculiar  duties 
which  devolve  upon  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  at 
this  time.  He  is  of  the  South.  He  knows  the  weaknesses 
of  the  Southern  people,  and  their  good  qualities;  and  he 
will  be  tender  and  kind  with  them.  I  am  not  afraid  that 
he  will  betray  one  single  Christian  principle  on  account  of 
this  sympathy.     So  far  from   that,  his   sympathy  will  get 


73°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

hold  of  the  hearts  of  the  white  men  of  the  South,  in  a 
manner  that  will  go  far  toward  winning  them  back  to  a 
better  way.  It  is  the  period  of  winning  and  conciliation. 
War  has  done  its  work:  and  now  we  are  to  deal  with  men 
by  the  affections,  by  reason,  and  by  conscience;  and  I  think 
God  has  ordained  this  man  to  do  that  much  needed  work. 
On  the  whole,  I  believe  in  him. 

II.  I  must  say  a  few  words  in  respect  to  the  black  man, 
and  his  condition,  and  our  duties  toward  him.  For  this 
is  the  great  question  which  is  unrolling  itself,  and  which 
God,  in  his  providence,  is  giving  us  to  consider. 

I  never  was  more  surprised  than  in  reading  the  speech 
of  a  late  member  of  the  Cabinet  with  regard  to  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  black  race.  Looking  at  it  in  the  light  of  the 
present  times,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  doctrines  of  our 
government,  this  in  many  respects  acute,  ingenious,  and 
certainly  patriotic  man  can  find  but  one  solution  for  this 
great  question.  What  does  he  propose  to  do  ?  He  pro- 
poses to  take  four  millions  of  men  and  tear  them  up  by 
the  roots,  and  transport  them  out  of  the  country,  and  so 
get  rid  of  them.  He  declares  that  it  is  impossible  for  the 
blacks  and  whites  to  live  together,  and  that  there  is  no 
way  of  meeting  the  difficulty  but  by  appropriating  terri- 
tory to  which  they  shall  be  sent  and  left  to  govern  them- 
selves. Now,  you  may  carry  vagrant  tribes  of  Indians 
from  one  place  to  another.  They  are  venatorial  in  their 
habits.  They  are  not  agricultural.  Nor  have  they  such 
social  connections  as  the  colored  people  have  in  the  South. 
It  is  possible  to  put  Indian  tribes  on  a  certain  territory, 
and  keep  them  there.  But  the  African  is  entirely  different 
from  the  Indian — as  different  as  the  vine  is  from  the  bam- 
boo. A  bamboo  grows  without  a  tendril  from  top  to  bot- 
tom, and  does  not  touch  anything;  and  that  is  the  way  the 
Indian  grows.  The  vine,  as  it  grows,  throws  tendrils  out 
on  every  side,  at  every  point,  and  in  every  direction.  It 
clasps  and  leans  upon  everything  that  it  can  reach.  And 
so  it  is  with  the  Africans.  They  do  not  live  in  tribes  or 
communities  by  themselves.  They  clasp  the  white  people. 
They  like  to   live  in  white  families.     They  are  so  inter- 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  731 

mingled  with  the  whites  that  if,  according  to  Mr.  Blair, 
you  attempt  to  root  up  the  tares,  you  will  root  up  the 
wheat  also.  You  cannot  empty  the  South  of  this  African 
element  without  destroying  it  from  the  foundation. 

And  is  this  a  time,  when  the  great  want  of  the  South  is 
laborers,  and  when  she  is  asking  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
and  Germany,  and  France,  and  England,  and  Ireland,  to 
pour  their  laboring  population  into  her  desolated  States — 
is  this  a  time  for  her  to  take  her  own  practiced  and 
healthy  laborers  in  her  pestilential  morasses,  and  banish 
them  to  the  Western  prairies  ?  It  is  one  of  the  most  pre- 
posterous theories  ever  announced  outside  of  a  lunatic 
asylum.  And  think  of  this  proposition  being  made  to  a 
Christian  people  !  When  we  are  called,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  to  instruct  these  poor,  despised  creatures  in  whose 
behalf  Christ  was  born,  to  bear  their  burdens,  and  to  raise 
them  by  the  refining  power  of  Christianity  to  the  level  of 
a  true  manhood,  the  counsel  that  comes  to  us  from  Mary- 
land is,  "  Sneak  out  of  your  duties;  shirk  your  cross;  say 
to  these  heathen  among  you,  Begone  !  Tramp  !  Get 
out  !  "  Such  is  the  fulfillment  of  duty  that  is  held  up  be- 
fore us  !  And  it  is  proposed  to  American  citizens  !  Why, 
I  believe  that  even  our  foreign  citizens  would  resent  an 
appeal  like  this,  though  they  are  the  worst  disposed  of  our 
population  toward  the  colored  race. 

What,  then,  is  our  Christian  duty  ?  We  are,  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  to  prepare  the  black  man  for  his  present  condition, 
and  for  his  future,  in  the  same  way  that  we  prepare  the 
white  man  for  his.  And  I  think  it  should  be  a  joint  work. 
I  do  not  think  it  would  be  wise  for  the  North  to  pour  min- 
isters, and  colporteurs,  and  schoolmasters  into  the  South, 
making  a  too  marked  distinction  between  the  black  people 
and  the  white.  We  ought  to  carry  the  Gospel  and  educa- 
tion to  the  whites  and  blacks  alike.  Our  heart  should  be 
set  toward  our  country  and  all  its  people,  without  distinc- 
tion of  caste,  class,  or  color.  It  is  our  business  to  use  our 
wealth  to  meet  the  present  emergencies  and  exigencies  of 
the  South,  to  supply  it  with  food  and  raiment;  but  we  are 
also  to  do  in  respect  to  it  as  we  do  in  respect  to  ourselves. 


732  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Where  we  are  personally  concerned,  we  never  trust  any- 
thing to  accident  or  chance.  We  hold  that  the  only  way 
to  keep  society  from  retrograding  is  to  preserve  our  in- 
stitutions; we  hold  that  nothing  can  keep  us  from  running 
to  waste  but  the  common-school,  the  academy,  the  college, 
the  church,  and  the  family;  and  we- are  to  carry  the  com- 
mon-school, the  academy,  the  college,  and  the  church  to 
every  State  in  the  South.  We  are  to  educate  the  negroes, 
and  to  Christianly  educate  them.  We  are  to  raise  them 
in  intelligence  more  and  more,  until  they  shall  be  able  to 
prove  themselves  worthy  of  citizenship.  For,  I  tell  you, 
all  the  laws  in  the  world  cannot  bolster  a  man  up  so  as  to 
place  him  any  higher  than  his  own  moral  worth  and  nat- 
ural forces  put  him.  You  may  pass  laws  declaring  that 
black  men  are  men,  and  that  they  are  our  equals  in  social 
position;  but,  unless  you  can  make  them  thoughtful,  in- 
dustrious, self-respecting,  and  intelligent;  unless,  in  short, 
you  can  make  them  what  you  say  they  have  a  right  to  be, 
those  laws  will  be  in  vain. 

We  have,  then,  a  heavy  work  before  us.  We  have  a 
work  that  will  tax  our  faith,  and  patience,  and  resources. 
But  it  is  a  work  which  we  may  pursue,  believing  that 
He  who  hath  brought  us  thus  far  in  it  will  carry  us 
through  to  the  end.  We  raise  our  Eben-ezer,  and  say, 
"The  Lord  hath  helped  us."  And  as  he  has  helped  us  in 
the  past  by  war,  in  respect  to  this  great  people  that  were 
in  bondage,  and  laden  with  its  vices  and  sins,  so  he  will 
help  us  still  in  our  Christian  work  of  preparing  them  for 
that  liberty  which  has  been  so  strangely  brought  to  their 
very  door.  And  I  am  satisfied  that,  while  we  ought  to 
claim  for  the  colored  man  the  right  to  the  elective  fran- 
chise, you  never  will  be  able  to  secure  it  and  maintain  it 
for  him,  except  by  making  him  so  intelligent  that  men 
cannot  deny  it  to  him.  You  cannot  long,  in  this  country, 
deny  to  a  man  any  civil  right  for  which  he  is  manifestly 
qualified.  And  if  the  colored  man  is  industrious,  and  ac- 
cumulates property,  and  makes  a  wise  use  of  that  prop- 
erty, you  cannot  long  withhold  from  him  his  civil  rights. 
We  ought   to   demand    universal    suffrage,    which    is    the 


CONDITIONS  OF  A   RESTORED  UNION.  733 

foundation  element  of  our  American  doctrine;  yet  I  de- 
mand many  things  in  theory  which  I  do  not  at  once  ex- 
pect to  see  realized  in  practice.  I  do  not  at  once  expect 
to  see  universal  suffrage  in  the  South;  but  if  the  Southern 
people  will  not  agree  to  universal  suffrage,  let  it  be  under- 
stood that  there  shall  be  a  property  and  educational  quali- 
fication. Let  it  be  understood  that  men  who  have  acquired 
a  certain  amount  of  property,  and  can  read  and  write, 
shall  be  allowed  to  vote.  I  do  not  think  that  the  posses- 
sion of  property  is  a  true  condition  on  which  to  found  the 
right  to  vote;  but  as  a  transition  step  I  will  accept  it,  when 
I  would  not  accept  it  as  a  final  measure.  It  is  a  good 
initial,  though  not  a  good  final. 

Further  than  that,  I  hold  that  no  government  that  has 
self-respect,  and  no  people  that  have  humanity,  can  ever 
call  three  hundred  thousand  men  to  shoulder  the  musket 
and  bare  their  bosom  to  death,  and  can  be  saved  by  the 
sprinkling  of  these  men's  blood,  and  then  say  to  them, 
when  the  danger  is  past,  "  We  have  no  further  need  of  your 
services;  go  back  again  to  your  degradation."  I  believe, 
with  Sherman,  that  the  man  who  carries  a  musket  in  the 
defense  of  this  government  has  a  right  afterward  to  carry 
a  ballot.  And  it  will  be  a  shame,  a  burning  shame,  if  this 
people  permit  those  colored  soldiers  who  fought  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  integrity  of  this  nation  to  go  without 
the  privilege  of  the  ballot.  I  would  be  willing,  for  a 
beginning,  to  compromise  on  the  ground  of  giving  everv 
soldier  that  served  the  cause  of  his  country  the  right  to 
vote.  That  right  is  given  to  foreigners  now.  And  let  the 
law  give  it  to  every  soldier  who  is  not  a  citizen,  without 
distinction  of  color.  And  what  will  be  the  result  ?  Give 
ten  colored  men  in  a  parish  at  the  South  the  right  to  vote, 
and  equal  suffrage  will  be  a  mere  question  of  time.  That 
will  be  the  entering  wedge.  We  want  a  beginning;  and  I 
would  be  willing,  not  as  a  finality,  but  as  a  stepping-stone 
to  what  I  hope  to  get  by  and  by,  to  take  the  suffrage  for 
those  colored  men  who  bore  arms  in  our  late  war  for  the 
salvation  of  this  government.  Now,  I  would  like  to  see 
the  man  that  professes  to  be  a  Democrat  who  is  opposed  to 


734  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  soldier's  voting.  Where  is  the  man  who  can  look  in  the 
face  of  that  black  hero  who  has  risked  his  life  in  the 
thunder  of  battle  to  preserve  this  country,  and  say,  "You 
do  not  deserve  to  vote  ?  "  The  man  who  could  do  that  is 
not  himself  fit  to  vote.  He  lacks  the  very  first  element  of 
good  citizenship. 

I  know  that  there  are  many  to  whom  this  subject  is  un- 
welcome, and  who  say,  "  It  seems  as  though  there  never 
would  be  an  end  of  this  negro  agitation."  There  are  many 
that  say,  "  Ever  since  I  was  born  I  have  breakfasted,  and 
dined,  and  supped  upon  this  Negro.  He  is  in  the  pulpit, 
in  conventions,  in  caucuses,  everywhere  !  " 

Well,  why  do  you  not  suppress  him  ?  I  tell  you,  you 
will  have  to  breakfast  and  dine  and  sup  on  this  negro 
until  you  do  him  justice.  Just  as  quick  as  you  are  willing 
to  trust  your  own  American  principles,  just  as  quick  as  you 
put  in  practice  your  own  American  doctrine  that  all  men 
are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have  inalienable  rights,  he  will  sink 
out  of  notice  as  a  vexation.  He  will  not  any  longer  obtrude 
himself  in  the  pulpit,  in  conventions,  or  in  caucuses.  Just 
as  quick  as  you  will  do  right  you  will  be  delivered  from 
the  haunting  of  the  negro;  but  as  long  as  you  will  not,  he 
will  haunt  you. 

But  on  another  ground  I  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who 
would  fain  have  rest  and  quiet  from  such  questions.  I  be- 
lieve that  life  is  worth  just  what  it  effects.  I  believe  that 
that  man's  life  is  valuable  who  produces  results,  and  that 
that  man's  life  is  worthless  who  produces  no  results.  And 
it  is  the  way  of  God  to  agitate  communities.  There  may  be 
wrong  agitations,  or  agitations  may  be  out  of  proportion 
to  the  objects  that  they  are  designed  to  accomplish;  but 
in  every  age,  if  there  is  wholesomeness,  soundness,  true 
life,  God  rolls  questions  on  men  that  they  are  obliged  to 
wake  up  to  consider.  Somnolent  disciples,  men  that  think 
of  God  as  a  great  Soother,  who  fans  them  with  the  sweet 
perfumed  gales  of  grace,  while  they  snooze  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, and  sleep  in  their  citizen's  duties — such  men  have 
no  part  nor  lot  in  God's  real  kingdom.  For  he  holds  a 
spear,  and  he  pierces  and   penetrates  with  divine  fervor 


CONDITIONS   OF  A   RESTORED   UNION.  735 

every  one  whom  he  toucheth.  His  fan  is  in  his  hand,  and 
he  will  purge  his  floor,  and  preserve  the  wheat  and  burn 
the  chaff;  and  the  man  that  does  not  choose  to  be  exer- 
cised, that  is  unwilling  to  work — let  him  die  and  go  out  of 
life;  because  this  is  a  world  of  work,  and  the  Christian's 
life  is  a  line  of  duty. 

Enter  upon  your  task,  take  up  your  cross,  follow  your 
Christ;  and  if  you  would  rest,  work;  and  if  then  you 
would  rest,  work  again;  and  if  then  you  would  rest,  die 
and  rise  to  nobler  work,  in  that  land  where  there  is  no 
sleeping,  where  there  is  activity  that  knows  no  rest,  when 
we  have  quit  this  mortal  coil,  and  are  pure  spirits  that 
have  risen  to  the  industries  of  God  himself. 


RECONSTRUCTION    OF   THE 
SOUTHERN  STATES. 


Two   Letters,  Written    in    1866,  upon   being  Invited  to 

act  as  Chaplain  of  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 

Convention  held  at  Cleveland,  Ohio. 


Published,  with  an  Introductory  Postscript,  in   1884,  in 

pamphlet  form. 


[POSTSCRIPT   OF   1884.] 

I  desire  to  give  a  permanent  form  to  the  two  letters  which  were 
published  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  or  about  eighteen  years  ago. 
The  question  of  reconstruction  of  the  seceding  States  was  under 
discussion,  and  feeling  ran  high,  not  alone  on  account  of  the 
nature  of  the  work  to  be  done,  but  also  by  reason  of  the  dis- 
turbed relations  between  President  Johnson  and  Congress. 

President  Lincoln  had  been  assassinated,  and  Johnson  had  as- 
sumed his  place.  The  statesmen  whose  vigor  and  courage  had 
carried  the  country  through  the  civil  war  were  less  adapted  to 
the  delicate  task  of  restoring  the  discordant  States  to  peace  and 
unity  than  they  had  been  to  the  sudden  duties  of  war. 

In  a  general  way  there  were  two  parties;  one  counseling  a 
speedy  readjustment,  and  the  other,  a  longer  probation. 

President  Lincoln  and  Governor  Andrew  of  Massachusetts,  in 
the  last  conversations  which  I  had  with  them,  inclined  to  the 
policy  of  immediate  restoration ;  and  their  views  had  great 
weight  with  me.  It  was  in  the  interest  of  such  a  policy  that  a 
convention  of  Soldiers  and  Sailors  was  called,  known  by  the 
name  of  the  city  where  it  was  held  as  "  The  Cleveland  Conven- 
tion." I  was  invited  to  act  as  its  Chaplain,  and  the  first  letter 
was  my  reply. 

Not  many  days  after  the  convention,  President  Johnson  began 
that  ill-favored  journey,  known  as  "swinging  around  the  circle," 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  737 

during  the  progress  of  which  his  temper,  attitude,  and   injudi- 
cious speeches  thoroughly  alarmed  the  community. 

It  was  believed  that  he  was  betraying  the  country,  and  that  all 
that  had  been  gained  by  the  war  was  about  to  be  lost  by  the 
treachery  of  the  President. 

The  public  mind  was  greatly  inflamed,  and  my  Cleveland  letter 
was  received  with  violent  protests.  Many  personal  friends  and 
members  of  Plymouth  Church  were  greatly  exercised.  To  allay 
excitement  by  giving  a  fuller  view  of  the  ground  of  my  first  let- 
ter and  to  confute  the  idea  that  I  had  abandoned  the  Republi- 
can Party,  I  wrote  the  second  letter,  assuming  the  same  position, 
but  with  explanatory  reasoning. 

HENRY  WARD   BEECHER. 

Brooklyn,  December,  1884. 


LETTER   TO   THE   CONVENTION. 

Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  August  30,  1866. 

Chas.  G.  Halpine,  Brevet  Brig.-Gen.,  \ 

H.  W.  Slocum,  Major-Gen.,  j-  Committee. 

Gordon  Granger,  Major-Gen.,  ) 

Gentlemen  :  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  the  invitation 
which  you  have  made  to  me  to  act  as  Chaplain  to  the  Con- 
vention of  Sailors  and  Soldiers  about  to  convene  at  Cleve- 
land. I  cannot  attend  it,  but  I  heartily  wish  it  and  all 
other  conventions,  of  what  party  soever,  success,  whose 
object  is  the  restoration  of  all  the  States  late  in  rebellion 
to  their  federal  relations. 

Our  theory  of  government  has  no  place  for  a  State  ex- 
cept in  the  Union.  It  is  justly  taken  for  granted  that  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  State  in  federal  relations 
tend  to  its  political  health  and  to  that  of  the  whole  nation. 
Even  Territories  are  hastily  brought  in,  often  before  the 
prescribed  conditions  are  fulfilled,  as  if  it  were  dangerous 
to  leave  a  community  outside  of  the  great  body-politic. 

Had  the  loyal  Senators  and  Representatives  of  Tennes- 
see been  admitted  at  once  on  the  assembling  of  Congress, 
47 


73§  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

and,  in  moderate  succession,  Arkansas,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  the  public  mind  of  the 
South  would  have  been  far  more  healthy  than  it  is,  and 
those  States  which  lingered  on  probation  to  the  last  would 
have  been  under  a  more  salutary  influence  to  good  con- 
duct than  if  a  dozen  armies  had  watched  over  them. 

Every  month  that  we  delay  this  healthful  step  compli- 
cates the  case.  The  excluded  population,  enough  unset- 
tled before,  grows  more  irritable;  the  army  becomes  in- 
dispensable to  local  government  and  supersedes  it;  the 
Government  at  Washington  is  called  to  interfere  in  one 
and  another  difficulty,  and  this  will  be  done  inaptly,  and 
sometimes  with  great  injustice;  for  our  Government,  wisely 
adapted  to  its  own  proper  functions,  is  utterly  devoid  of 
those  habits,  and  unequipped  with  the  instruments,  which 
fit  a  centralized  government  to  exercise  authority  in  re- 
mote States  over  local  affairs.  Every  attempt  to  perform 
such  duties  has  resulted  in  mistakes  which  have  excited 
the  nation.  But  whatever  imprudence  there  may  be  in 
the  method,  the  real  criticism  should  be  against  the  requi- 
sition of  such  duties  of  the  General  Government. 

The  Federal  Government  is  unfit  to  exercise  minor  po- 
lice and  local  government,  and  will  inevitably  blunder 
when  it  attempts  it.  To  keep  a  half  score  of  States  under 
Federal  authority,  but  without  national  ties  and  responsi- 
bilities; to  oblige  the  central  authority  to  govern  half  of 
the  territory  of  the  Union  by  Federal  civil  officers  and  by 
the  army,  is  a  policy  not  only  uncongenial  to  our  ideas 
and  principles,  but  pre-eminently  dangerous  to  the  spirit 
of  our  Government.  However  humane  the  ends  sought 
and  the  motive,  it  is,  in  fact,  a  course  of  instruction,  pre- 
paring our  Government  to  be  despotic;  and  familiarizing 
the  people  to  a  stretch  of  authority  which  can  never  be 
other  than  dangerous  to  liberty. 

I  am  aware  that  good  men  are  withheld  from  advocat- 
ing the  prompt  and  successive  admission  of  the  exiled 
States  by  the  fear,  chiefly,  of  its  effect  upon  the  freedmen. 

It  is  said  that,  if  admitted  to  Congress,  the  Southern 
Senators  and  Representatives  will  coalesce  with  Northern 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  739 

Democrats  and  rule  the  country.  Is  this  nation,  then,  to 
remain  dismembered,  to  serve  the  ends  of  parties?  Have 
we  learned  no  wisdom  by  the  history  of  the  past  ten  years, 
in  which  just  this  course  of  sacrificing  the  nation  to  the 
exigencies  of  parties  plunged  us  into  rebellion  and  war? 

Even  admit  that  the  power  would  pass  into  the  hands 
of  a  party  made  up  of  Southern  men  and  the  hitherto  dis- 
honored and  misled  Democracy  of  the  North,  that  power 
could  not  be  used  just  as  they  pleased.  The  war  has 
changed,  not  alone  institutions,  but  ideas.  The  whole 
country  has  advanced.  Public  sentiment  is  exalted  far 
beyond  what  it  has  been  at  any  former  period.  A  new 
party  would,  like  a  river,  be  obliged  to  seek  out  its  chan- 
nels in  the  already  existing  slopes  and  forms  of  the  con- 
tinent. 

We  have  entered  a  new  era  of  liberty.  The  style  of 
thought  is  freer  and  more  noble.  The  young  men  of  our 
times  are  regenerated.  The  great  army  has  been  a  school, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  are  gone  home  to 
preach  a  truer  and  nobler  view  of  human  rights.  All  the 
industrial  interests  of  society  are  moving  with  increasing 
wisdom  toward  intelligence  and  liberty.  Everywhere,  in 
churches,  in  literature,  in  natural  science,  in  physical  in- 
dustries, in  social  questions,  as  well  as  in  politics,  the  na- 
tion feels  that  the  winter  is  over  and  a  new  spring  hangs 
in  the  horizon  and  works  through  all  the  elements.  In 
this  happily  changed  and  advanced  condition  of  things 
no  party  of  the  retrograde  can  maintain  itself.  Every- 
thing marches,  and  parties  must  march. 

[I  hear  with  wonder  and  shame  and  scorn  the  fear  of  a 
few  that  the  South,  once  more  in  adjustment  with  the 
Federal  Government,  will  rule  this  nation  !  The  North  is 
rich,  never  so  rich  ;  the  South  is  poor,  never  before  so 
poor.  The  population  of  the  North  is  nearly  double  that 
of  the  South.  The  industry  of  the  North,  in  diversity,  in 
forwardness  and  productiveness,  in  all  the  machinery  and 
education  required  for  manufacturing,  is  half  a  century  in 
advance  of  the  South.  Churches  in  the  North  crown 
every   hill,    and    schools    swarm    in    every   neighborhood; 


74°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

while  the  South  has  but  scattered  lights,  at  long  dis- 
tances, like  light-houses  twinkling  along  the  edge  of  a 
continent  of  darkness.  In  the  presence  of  such  a  contrast 
how  mean  and  craven  is  the  fear  that  the  South  will  rule 
the  policy  of  the  land  !  That  it  will  have  an  influence, 
that  it  will  contribute,  in  time,  most  important  influences 
or  restraints,  we  are  glad  to  believe.  But  if  it  rises  at 
once  to  the  control  of  the  Government  it  will  be  because 
the  North,  demoralized  by  prosperity  and  besotted  by 
groveling  interests,  refuses  to  discharge  its  share  of  polit- 
ical duty.  In  such  a  case  the  South  not  only  will  control 
the  Government,  but  it  ought  to  do  so. 

It  is  feared,  with  more  reason,  that  the  restoration  of 
the  South  to  her  full  independence  will  be  detrimental  to 
the  freedmen.  The  sooner  we  dismiss  from  our  minds  the 
idea  that  the  freedmen  can  be  classified  and  separated 
from  the  white  population,  and  nursed  and  defended  by 
themselves,  the  better  it  will  be  for  them  and  us.  The 
negro  is  part  and  parcel  of  Southern  society.  He  cannot 
be  prosperous  while  it  is  unprospered.  Its  evils  will  re- 
bound upon  him.  Its  happiness  and  re-invigoration  can- 
not be  kept  from  his  participation.  The  restoration  of 
the  South  to  amicable  relations  with  the  North,  the  re- 
organization of  its  industry,  the  re-inspiration  of  its  en- 
terprise and  thrift,  will  all  redound  to  the  freedman's  ben- 
efit. Nothing  is  so  dangerous  to  the  freedman  as  an  un- 
settled state  of  society  in  the  South.  On  him  comes  all 
the  spite,  and  anger,  and  caprice,  and  revenge.  He  will 
be  made  the  scapegoat  of  lawless  and  heartless  men.  Un- 
less we  turn  the  Government  into  a  vast  military  ma- 
chine, there  cannot  be  armies  enough  to  protect  the  freed- 
men while  Southern  society  remains  insurrectionary.  If 
Southern  society  is  calmed,  settled,  and  occupied,  and 
soothed  with  new  hopes  and  prosperous  industries,  no 
armies  will  be  needed.  Riots  will  subside,  lawless  hang- 
ers-on will  be  driven  off  or  better  governed,  and  a  way 
will  be  gradually  opened  to  the  freedmen,  through  educa- 
tion and  industry,  to  full  citizenship,  with  all  its  honors 
and  duties. 


RE  CONS  TR  UC  TION  OF  SOUTHERN  S  TA  TES.  7  4 1 

Civilization  is  a  growth.  None  can  escape  that  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness  who  travel  from  the  Egypt  of  igno- 
rance to  the  promised  land  of  civilization.  The  freedmen 
must  take  their  march.  I  have  full  faith  in  the  results. 
If  they  have  the  stamina  to  undergo  the  hardships  which 
every  uncivilized  people  has  undergone  in  its  upward 
progress,  they  will  in  due  time  take  their  place  among  us. 
That  place  cannot  be  bought,  nor  bequeathed,  nor  gained 
by  sleight  of  hand.  It  will  come  to  sobriety,  virtue,  in- 
dustry, and  frugality.  As  the  nation  cannot  be  sound 
until  the  South  is  prosperous,  so,  on  the  other  extreme,  a 
healthy  condition  of  civil  society  in  the  South  is  indispen- 
sable to  the  welfare  of  the  freedmen.] 

Refusing  to  admit  loyal  Senators  and  Representatives 
from  the  South  to  Congress  will  not  help  the  freedmen. 
It  will  not  secure  for  them  the  vote.  It  will  not  protect 
them.  It  will  not  secure  any  amendment  of  our  Consti- 
tution, however  just  and  wise.  It  will  only  increase  the 
dangers  and  complicate  the  difficulties.  Whether  we  re- 
gard the  whole  nation  or  any  section  of  it  or  class  in  it, 
the  first  demand  of  our  time  is  entire  reunion  ! 

Once  united,  we  can,  by  schools,  churches,  a  free  press, 
and  increasing  free  speech,  attack  every  evil  and  secure 
every  good.  Meanwhile,  the  great  chasm  which  rebellion 
has  made  is  not  filled  up.  It  grows  deeper  and  stretches 
wider !  Out  of  it  rise  dread  specters  and  threatening 
sounds.  Let  that  gulf  be  closed,  and  bury  in  it  slavery, 
sectional  animosity,  and  all  strifes  and  hatreds  ! 

It  is  fit  that  the  brave  men  who,  on  sea  and  land,  faced 
death  to  save  this  nation,  should  now,  by  their  voice  and 
vote,  consummate  what  their  swords  rendered  possible. 

For  the  sake  of  the  freedmen,  for  the  sake  of  the  South 
and  its  millions  of  our  fellow-countrymen,  for  our  own 
sake,  and  for  the  great  cause  of  freedom  and  civilization, 
I  urge  the  immediate  reunion  of  all  the  parts  of  this 
Union  which  rebellion  and  war  have  shattered. 
I  am  truly  yours, 

Henry  Ward   Beecher. 


742  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

II. 

LETTER  TO   A    PARISHIONER. 

Peekskill,  Saturday,  Sept.  8,  1866. 

My  dear :     I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  letter. 

I  am  sorry  that  my  friends  and  my  congregation  are  grieved 
by  my  Cleveland  letter. 

This  feeling,  however,  has  no  just  grounds,  whatever 
may  be  the  seeming.  I  have  not  left,  and  do  not  propose 
to  leave,  or  to  be  put  out  of,  the  Republican  party.  I  am 
in  sympathy  with  its  aims,  its  great  principles,  and  its  army 
of  noble  men.  But  I  took  the  liberty  of  criticising  its 
policy  in  a  single  respect,  and  to  do  what  I  could  to  secure 
what  I  believed,  and  still  believe,  to  be  a  better  one. 

I  am,  and  from  the  first  have  been,  fully  of  opinion  that 
the  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  proposed  by  Congress, 
equalizing  representation  in  Northern  and  Southern  States, 
was  intrinsically  just  and  reasonable,  and  that  it  should  be 
sought  by  a  wholesome  and  persistent  moral  agitation. 

But,  from  the  present  condition  of  the  public  mind,  and 
from  the  President's  attitude,  I  deemed  such  a  change  to 
be  practically  impossible  in  any  near  period,  by  political 
action.  And  a  plan  of  reconstruction  based  upon  that 
seems  to  me  far  more  like  a  plan  of  adjourning  reconstruc- 
tion for  years,  at  least,  with  all  the  liabilities  of  mischief 
which  are  always  to  be  expected  in  the  fluctuations  of  pol- 
itics in  a  free  nation. 

[It  is  not  the  North  that  chiefly  needs  the  restoration  of 
government  to  its  normal  sphere  and  regular  action. 
Either  the  advantages  of  Union  are  fallacious,  or  the  con- 
tinuous exclusion  of  the  South  from  it  will  breed  disorder, 
make  the  future  reunion  more  difficult,  and  especially  sub- 
ject the  freedmen  to  the  very  worst  conditions  of  society 
that  can  well  exist.  No  army,  no  government,  and  no 
earthly  power  can  compel  the  South  to  treat  four  million 
men  justly,  if  the  inhabitants  (whether  rightly  or  wrongly) 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  743 

regard  these  men  as  the  cause,  or  even  the  occasion,  of 
their  unhappiness  and  disfranchisement.  But  no  army  or 
government  or  power  will  be  required  when  Southern 
society  is  restored,  occupied,  and  prospering  in  the  renewed 
Union.  Then  the  negro  will  be  felt  to  be  a  necessity  to 
Southern  industry,  and  interest  will  join  with  conscience 
and  kindness  in  securing  for  him  favorable  treatment  from 
his  fellow-citizens. 

We  that  live  at  a  distance  may  think  that  the  social  re- 
construction involved  in  the  emancipation  of  four  million 
slaves  is  as  simple  and  easy  as  it  is  to  discourse  about  it. 
But  such  a  change  is  itself  one  of  the  most  tremendous 
tests  to  which  industry  and  society  can  be  subjected,  and 
to  its  favorable  issue  is  required  every  advantage  possible. 
The  longer,  therefore,  the  South  is  left  in  turmoil,  the 
worse  it  will  be  for  the  negro.  If  there  were  no  other  rea- 
son; if  the  white  population  were  not  our  fellow-citizens; 
if  we  had  lost  all  kindness  and  regard  for  them  and  all 
pride  for  the  Union,  as  in  part  represented  by  Southern 
States,  and  confined  our  attention  exclusively  to  the  negro, 
the  case  would  be  strong  beyond  my  power  of  expression 
for  an  early  resumption  of  federal  relations  with  all  the 
States.  If  this  is  to  disregard  the  negro,  then  all  social 
and  natural  laws  have  been  studied  in  vain.] 

Neither  am  I  a  "Johnson  man"  in  any  received  mean- 
ing of  that  term.  I  accept  that  part  of  the  policy  which 
he  favors,  but  with  modification.  I  have  never  thought 
that  it  would  be  wise  to  bring  back  all  the  States  in  a  body, 
and  at  once,  any  more  than  it  would  be  to  keep  them  all 
out  together.  One  by  one,  in  due  succession,  under  a 
special  judgment,  rather  than  by  a  wholesale  theoretic 
rule,  I  would  have  them  re-admitted.  I  still  think  a  mid- 
dle course  between  the  President's  and  that  of  Congress 
would  be  wiser  than  either.  But  with  this  my  agreement 
with  the  President  ends.  I  have  long  regretted  his  igno- 
rance of  Northern  ideas  and  sentiments,  and  I  have  been 
astonished  and  pained  at  his  increasing  indiscretions.  Un- 
consciously the  President  is  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  re- 
admission   of   Southern   States.     It   is  enough   that   he   is 


744  rATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

known  to  favor  a  measure  to  set  the  public  mind  against 
it.  This  is  to  be  deplored.  But  it  is  largely  owing  to  his 
increasing  imprudent  conduct.  I  believe  him  to  be  honest, 
sincere  in  desiring  what  he  regards  as  the  public  good,  but 
slow  and  inapt  in  receiving  help  from  other  minds.  Proud 
and  sensitive,  firm  to  obstinacy,  resolute  to  fierceness,  in- 
telligent in  his  own  sphere, — which  is  narrow, — he  holds  his 
opinions  inflexibly.  He  often  mistakes  the  intensity  of  his 
own  convictions  for  strength  of  evidence. 

Such  a  man  has  a  true  sphere  in  periods  of  peril,  when 
audacious  firmness  and  rude  vigor  are  needed.  But  in  the 
delicate  tasks  of  adjustment  which  follow  civil  war,  such 
a  nature  lacks  that  tact  and  delicacy  and  moral  intuition 
which  constitute  the  true  statesman. 

Mr.  Johnson's  haste  to  take  the  wrong  side  at  the  atro- 
cious massacre  of  New  Orleans  was  shocking.  The  per- 
version and  mutilation  of  Sheridan's  dispatches  need  no 
characterization.  I  do  not  attribute  this  act  to  him.  Yet 
it  was  of  such  a  criminal  and  disgraceful  nature  that  not  to 
clear  himself  of  it  by  the  exposure  and  rebuke  of  the  offend- 
ing party  amounted  to  collusion  with  crime  after  the  fact. 
What  shall  I  say  of  the  speeches  made  in  the  wide  recent  cir- 
cuit of  the  Executive  ?    Are  they  the  ways  of  reconciliation  ? 

Yet  Mr.  Johnson  is  to  be  our  President  for  nearly  three 
years  to  come,  clothed  with  a  power  that  belongs  to  few 
thrones.  Besides  the  honor  which  a  people  owe  to  him 
as  the  Chief  Magistrate,  we  must,  as  Christian  citizens, 
credit  him  with  his  real  excellencies — his  original  horror 
of  secession,  his  bold  resistance  to  treachery,  his  persistent 
and  self-denying  heroism  in  the  long,  dark  days  of  Ten- 
nessee. We  must  not  forget  that  he  has  jealously  resisted 
a  centralization  of  power  in  the  Federal  Government;  that 
he  has  sought  to  dignify  and  secure  a  true  "  State-rights; " 
that  he  has  maintained  simplicity  of  manners  and  a  true 
sympathy  with  the  common  people.  It  is  our  duty,  like- 
wise, to  forestall  and  prevent,  as  much  as  possible,  by 
kind  but  faithful  criticism  of  his  errors  on  the  one  hand, 
and  by  sympathy  and  kindness  on  the  other,  those  dan- 
gers to  which  he  is  liable,  under  attacks  which  he  is  pecul- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  745 

iarly  unable  to  bear  with  calmness,  and  those  dangers  of 
evil  counselors,  which  more  and  more  gravitate  toward 
him.  So  long  as  it  was  possible,  I  have  been  silent  upon 
Mr.  Johnson's  faults,  and  now  speak  so  plainly,  only  lest  I 
seem  to  approve  or  cloak  them. 

And  now  allow  me  to  express  some  surprise  at  the  turn 
which  the  public  mind  has  taken  on  my  letter.  If  I  had 
never  before  spoken  my  sentiments,  I  can  see  how  friends 
might  now  misapprehend  my  position.  But  for  a  year 
past  I  have  been  advocating  the  very  principles  of  the 
Cleveland  letter  in  all  the  chief  Eastern  cities — in  Boston, 
Portland,  Springfield,  Albany,  Utica,  Rochester,  Buffalo, 
Philadelphia,  Harrisburg,  Pittsburg,  and  Brooklyn  (at  the 
Academy  of  Music,  last  winter).  These  views  were  re- 
ported, discussed,  agreed  to  or  differed  from,  praised  and 
blamed  abundantly.  But  no  one  thought,  or  at  least  said, 
that  I  remember,  that  I  had  forsaken  the  Republican  party 
or  had  turned  my  back  upon  the  freedman.  My  recent 
letter  but  condenses  those  views  which  for  twelve  months 
I  have  been  earnestly  engaged  in  urging  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  the  community.  I  am  not  surprised  that  men  dis- 
sent. But  this  sudden  consternation  and  this  late  dis- 
covery of  the  nature  of  my  opinions  seem  sufficiently 
surprising.  I  could  not  ask  a  better  service  than  the  re- 
printing of  that  sermon  of  last  October,  which  first  brought 
upon  me  the  criticisms  of  the  Tribune  and  Independent* 

I  foresaw  that,  in  the  probable  condition  of  parties  and 
the  country,  we  could  not  carry  suffrage  for  the  freedman 
by  immediate  political  action.  When  the  ablest  and  most 
radical  Congress  of  our  history  came  together,  they  refused 
to  give  suffrage  to  negroes,  even  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia; and  only  in  an  indirect  way,  not  as  a  political  right, 
but  as  the  hoped-for  result  of  political  selfishness,  did  they 
provide  for  it  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution.  What 
was  prophecy  with  me,  Congress  has  made  history.  Re- 
linquishing political  instruments  for  gaining  the  full  en- 
franchisement of  men,  I  instantly  turned  to  moral  means; 
and    enunciating  the   broadest   doctrine   of  manhood  suf- 

*"  Conditions  of  a  Restored  Union,"  page  713. 


746  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

frage,  I  gave  the  widest  latitude  to  that,  advocating  the 
rights  of  black  and  white,  of  men  and  women,  to  the  vote. 
If  any  man  has  labored  more  openly,  on  a  broader  princi- 
ple, and  with  more  assiduity,  I  do  not  know  him.  More 
ability  may  have  been  shown,  but  not  more  directness  of 
purpose  or  undeviating  consistency. 

I  attribute  the  recent  misunderstanding,  in  part,  to  the 
greater  excitement  which  now  exists,  to  the  narrowing  of 
the  issues,  and  to  the  extreme  exacerbation  which  Mr. 
Johnson's  extraordinary  and  injudicious  speeches  have 
produced.  To  this  may  be  added  my  known  indisposition 
to  join  in  criticism  upon  the  President,  and  the  fact  that  I 
urged  a  modified  form  of  that  polic)r  which  he,  unfortu- 
nately for  its  success,  holds. 

Upon  Mr.  Johnson's  accession  I  was  supremely  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  the  whole  problem  of  reconstruc- 
tion would  practically  pivot  on  the  harmony  of  Mr.  John- 
son and  Congress.  With  that  we  could  have  secured 
every  guaranty  and  every  amendment  of  the  Constitution. 
Had  a  united  Government  said  to  the  South,  promptly 
backed  up  as  it  would  have  been  by  the  united  North, 
"  With  slavery  we  must  take  out  of  the  Constitution 
whatever  slavery  put  in,  and  put  in  whatever  slavery  for 
its  own  support  left  out,"  there  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt 
that  long  before  this  the  question  would  have  been  settled, 
the  basis  of  representation  in  the  South  conformed  to  that 
in  the  North,  and  the  principle,  the  most  fundamental  and 
important  of  all,  might  have  been  established  in  the  Consti- 
tution, viz.:  that  manhood  and  full  citizenship  are  identical. 

• 

Such  great  changes  required  two  things,  viz.:  prompt- 
ness, and  unity  of  counsels.  To  secure  these  I  bent  my 
whole  strength.  I  urged  the  purgation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. I  reasoned  against  mutual  distrust,  and  pleaded  for 
unity  of  governmental  action.  I  did  all  that  I  knew  how 
to  do  to  confirm  the  President  in  his  war-begotten  zeal 
against  slavery:  to  prevent  such  suspicions  and  crimina- 
tions as  would  tend  to  revive  in  his  mind  old  prejudices, 
and  bring  on  a  relapse  into  his  former  hatred  of  Northern 
fanatics.     I   thought  I  understood  his  nature,  and  the  ex- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  747 

treme  dangers,  at  such  a  critical  time,  of  irritating  a  proud, 
sensitive,  and  pugnacious  man  of  Southern  sympathies, 
little  in  sympathy  with  Northern  feelings  or  ideas,  and 
brought  into  the  very  leadership  of  those  men  and  that 
train  of  principles  which  he  had  all  his  life  hated  and  de- 
nounced. That  he  was  sincere  and  tenacious  would  make 
the  case  all  the  more  difficult.  I  thought  I  foresaw  that  a 
division  between  him  and  Congress  would  be  the  worst 
disaster  that  could  befall  us;  that  the  practical  test  of  true 
statesmanship  just  then  was  not  to  be  found  in  theories  and 
philosophies,  however  sound,  but  in  securing  and  confirm- 
ing Mr.  Johnson  in  his  then  disposition. 

Upon  the  assembling  of  Congress  I  went  to  Washington. 
I  found  Southern  men  lying  prostrate  before  Mr.  Johnson, 
and  appealing  to  his  tender-heartedness, — for  he  is  a  man 
of  kind  and  tender  heart, — disarming  his  war-rage  by  utter 
submission. 

I  found  Northern  men  already  uttering  suspicions  of  his 
fidelity,  and,  conscious  of  power,  threatening  impeach- 
ment. The  men  who  seemed  alive  to  this  danger  were, 
unfortunately,  not  those  who  had  the  management  of  affairs. 
Bad  counsels  prevailed.  The  North  denounced  and  the 
South  sued;  we  see  the  consequences. 

Long  after  I  despaired  of  seeing  the  President  and  Con- 
gress harmonious,  I  felt  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  good  men 
to  leave  no  influences  untried  to  lessen  the  danger  and  to 
diminish  the  evils  which  are  sure  to  come  should  the  Pres- 
ident, rebounding  from  the  Republicans,  be  caught  by 
those  Northern  men  who  were  in  sympathy  and  counsel 
with  the  South  throughout  the  war.  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  apportion  blame  where  both  sides  erred.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  unity  secured  at  the  seat  of  Government  would 
have  been  a  noble  achievement  of  leadership. 

Deeming  the  speedy  admission  of  the  Southern  States 
as  necessary  to  their  own  health,  as  indirectly  the  best 
policy  for  the  freedmen,  as  peculiarly  needful  to  the 
safety  of  ouV  Government,  which,  for  the  sake  of  accom- 
plishing a  good  end,  incautious  men  are  in  danger  of 
perverting,   I   favored,  and  do  still  favor,  the  election  to 


748  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Congress  of  Republicans  who  will  seek  the  early  admis- 
sion of  the  recusant  States.  Having  urged  it  for  a  year 
past,  I  was  more  than  ready  to  urge  it  again  upon  the 
Representatives  to  Congress  this  fall. 

[In  this  spirit  and  for  this  end  I  drew  up  my  Cleveland 
letter.  I  deem  its  views  sound;  I  am  not  sorry  that  I 
wrote  it.  I  regret  the  misapprehension  which  it  has 
caused,  and  yet  more  any  sorrow  which  it  may  have  need- 
lessly imposed  upon  dear  friends.  As  I  look  back  upon 
my  course,  I  see  no  deviation  from  the  straight  line  which 
I  have  made,  without  wavering,  for  now  thirty  years  in 
public  life,  in  favor  of  justice,  liberty,  and  the  elevation  of 
the  poor  and  ignorant. 

The  attempt  to  class  me  with  men  whose  course  I  have 
opposed  all  my  life  long  will  utterly  fail.  I  shall  choose 
my  own  place,  and  shall  not  be  moved  from  it.  I  have 
been  from  my  youth  a  firm,  unwavering,  avowed,  and  act- 
ive friend  of  all  that  were  oppressed.  I  have  done  nothing 
to  forfeit  that  good  name  which  I  have  earned.  I  am  not 
going  weakly  to  turn  away  from  my  settled  convictions  of 
the  public  weal  for  fear  that  bad  men  may  praise  me  or 
good  men  blame.  There  is  a  serious  difference  of  judg- 
ment between  men  as  to  the  best  policy.  We  must  all  re- 
mit to  the  future  the  decision  of  the  question.  Facts  will 
soon  judge  us. 

I  feel  most  profoundly  how  imperfect  my  services  have 
been  to  my  country,  compared  with  its  desert  of  noble 
services.  But  I  am  conscious  that  I  have  given  all  that  I  had 
to  give,  without  fear  or  favor.  Above  all  earthly  things  is 
my  country  dear  to  me.  The  lips  that  taught  me  to  say 
"Our  Father"  taught  me  to  say  "  Fatherland."  I  have 
aimed  to  conceive  of  that  land  in  the  light  of  Christianity. 
God  is  my  witness,  that  with  singleness  of  heart  I  have 
given  all  my  time,  strength,  and  service  to  that  which  shall 
make  our  whole  nation  truly  prosperous  and  glorious. 
Not  by  the  luster  of  arms,  even  in  a  just  cause,  would  I 
seek  her  glory,  but  by  a  civilization  that  should  carry  its 
blessings  down  to  the  lowest  classes,  and  nourish  the  very 
roots  of  society  by  her  moral   power  and  purity,  by  her 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  SOUTHERN  STA  TES.  749 

public  conscience,  her  political  justice,  and  by  her  intelli- 
gent homes,  filling  up  a  continent,  and  rearing  a  virtuous 
and  noble  citizenship. 

By  night  and  by  day  this  is  the  vision  and  dream  of  my 
life,  and  inspires  me  as  no  personal  ambition  ever  could. 
I  am  not  discouraged  at  the  failure  to  do  the  good  I  meant, 
at  the  misapprehension  of  my  course  by  my  church,  nor 
the  severity  of  former  friends.  Just  now  those  angry 
voices  come  to  me  as  rude  winds  roar  through  the 
trees.  The  winds  will  die,  the  trees  will  live.  As  soon 
as  my  health  is  again  restored,  I  shall  go  right  on  in  the 
very  course  I  have  hitherto  pursued.  Who  will  follow  or 
accompany,  it  is  for  others  to  decide.  I  shall  labor  for  the 
education  of  the  whole  people;  for  the  enfranchisement  of 
men  without  regard  to  class,  caste,  or  color;  for  full  de- 
velopment among  all  nations  of  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  makes  men  free.  In  doing  this  I  will  cheerfully 
work  with  others,  with  parties, — any  and  all  men  that  seek 
the  same  glorious  ends.  But  I  will  not  become  a  partisan. 
I  will  reserve  my  right  to  differ  and  dissent,  and  respect 
the  same  right  in  others.  Seeking  others'  full  manhood  and 
true  personal  liberty,  I  do  not  mean  to  forfeit  my  own. 

Better  days  are  coming.  These  throes  of  our  day  are 
labor  pains.  God  will  bring  forth  ere  long  great  blessings. 
In  some  moments  which  it  pleases  God  to  give  me,  I  think 
I  discern  beyond  the  present  troubles,  and  over  the  other 
side  of  the  abyss  in  which  the  nation  wallows,  that  fair 
form  of  Liberty, — God's  dear  child, — whose  whole  beauty 
was  never  yet  disclosed.  I  know  her  solemn  face.  That 
she  is  divine,  I  know  by  her  purity,  by  her  scepter  of  jus- 
tice, and  by  that  atmosphere  of  Love  that,  issuing  from 
her,  as  light  from  a  star,  moves  with  her  as  a  royal  at- 
mosphere. In  this,  too,  I  know  her  divinity,  that  she  shall 
bless  both  friends  and  enemies,  and  yield  the  fullest  frui- 
tion of  liberty  to  those  who  would  have  slain  her;  as  once 
her  Master  gave  his  life  for  the  salvation  of  those  who 
slew  him.] 

I  am  your  true  friend  and  pastor, 

Henry  Ward   Beecher. 


NATIONAL   UNITY.* 


"  And  he  shall  set  up  an  ensign  for  the  nations,  and  shall  assemble  the 
outcasts  of  Israel,  and  gather  together  the  dispersed  of  Judah  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth.  The  envy  also  of  Ephraim  shall  depart,  and 
the  adversaries  of  Judah  shall  be  cut  off:  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah, 
and  Judah  shall  not  vex  Ephraim." — Isaiah  xi.  12,  13. 


The  feuds  and  separations  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  caused 
their  ultimate  destruction.  Ephraim,  lying  midway,  and 
covering  the  territory  subsequently  known  as  Samaria,  and 
Judah,  lying  on  the  southern  part,  two  of  the  strongest 
tribes,  had  rivalries  of  ambition;  and  each  sought  to  in- 
crease its  own  strength  by  dividing  the  strength  of  its 
antagonist.  In  like  manner  Greece  was  internally  weak- 
ened by  the  strife  of  its  little  states.  It  was  one  of  the  signs 
and  promises  of  the  latter-day  glory,  that  a  time  should 
come  when  contiguous  tribes  would  vex  and  harass  each 
other  no  more,  and  would  study  union  and  not  division. 

The  world  and  the  race  stand,  to  our  modern  thought, 
as  Israel  stood  to  the  thought  of  the  devout  Jew.  This 
passage  has,  therefore,  a  striking  application  to  our  land. 
The  gathering  together  here  of  the  outcasts  of  nations  will 
not  have  escaped  your  attention.  Neither  will  the  dangers 
of  alienation  and  of  quarrel;  nor  again,  the  promises  of 
unity.  All  of  them  have,  or  may  be  made  to  have,  direct 
application  to  our  own  nation,  and  to  our  own  times.  I 
do  not  propose  to  consider  in  symmetrical  fullness  the 
dangers  of  disintegration,  nor  to  suggest  all,  nor  even  all 
of  the  important,  remedial  influences.  The  shortness  of 
the  time  justifies  me  in  sketching  in  a  few  studies  rather 
than  in  elaborating  the  whole  picture. 

*  Preached  in  Plymouth  Church,  Nov.  18,  1869. 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  751 

Let  me  begin  by  mentioning  the  disturbing  influences 
which  are  coming  upon  us  through  the  great  movement 
hither  of  immigrants  from  all  the  world. 

As  the  Nile,  in  its  great  annual  rise,  brings  down  some- 
thing of  the  soil  of  every  formation  through  a  thousand 
miles,  and  deposits  it  as  slime  for  the  sun  to  turn  to  soil 
and  fruitfulness;  as  the  Mississippi,  with  its  great  tribu- 
tary, the  Missouri,  carries  to  the  fat  regions  around  its 
delta  a  tribute  gathered  from  almost  every  point  of  lati- 
tude and  longitude  on  the  continent,  so  upon  these  United 
States,  with  annual  deposit,  come  the  immigrating  freshets 
of  the  world.  It  falls  upon  us  like  mud.  It  shall  be  our 
richest  soil.  When  it  is  aerated,  and  when  intelligence  and 
religion  and  liberty  shall  have  penetrated  it,  it  will  be 
most  precious.  Its  trouble  is  all  now,  and  at  the  first.  Its 
bounty  and  reward  shall  go  on  with  increasing  abundance 
to  the  very  end.  Can  this  nation  survive,  however,  the 
chill  and  fever  of  malarial  influence  engendered  by  this 
new  soil,  until  by  culture  the  vast  mass  of  new  deposit 
shall,  by  the  sun,  the  air,  and  the  plow,  be  sweetened,  and 
become  as  wholesome  for  men  as  it  is  fertile  for  grain  ? 

Men  change  their  country,  their  national  dress,  their 
laws  and  governments;  but  their  personal  habits,  their  re- 
ligious beliefs,  their  domestic  traits,  their  manners  and 
customs,  their  pleasures  and  amusements,  they  cannot 
easily  change.  They  bring  hither  with  them  their  uncon- 
scious conflicts.  Things  that  at  home  are  most  innocent, 
they  find  here  to  be  pugnacious.  Nor  do  they  know 
whence  the  conflict  springs. 

There  is  the  everlasting  conflict  of  religious  ideas,  and 
the-organizations  to  which  they  give  rise.  We  import  vast 
material  of  spiritual  welfare.  The  Catholic  sect  is  a 
valiant  fighter;  and  it  grows  apace  among  us,  as  it  has  a 
right  to  do.  It  has  its  own  genius,  which  it  must  attempt 
to  spread  abroad.  It  brings  hither  the  ark  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  thunders  at  the  world  which  will  not  walk  back- 
ward into  it.  Swarming  about  it  are  all  forms  of  infidel- 
ity— for  infidels  are  the  legitimate  children  of  superstition: 
and  by  "superstition"  I  mean  simply  all  religious  impulse 


752  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

from  which  the  element  of  free  individual  reason  is  left 
out.  Besides  these  come  the  minor  sects;  all  sects  swarm 
and  multiply  in  the  atmosphere  and  summer  of  liberty. 

The  mingling  together  of  these  strange  materials  will 
give  rise  to  quite  enough  of  jarring  and  of  activity;  but 
we  perceive  still  another  element  of  discord  in  the  conflict 
of  social  customs.  Our  Puritan  fathers  made  channels, 
and  Europe  is  furnishing  the  water  that  flows  in  them. 
We  see  that  the  landmarks  are  going.  We  see  that  under 
foreign  influences  our  channels  are  becoming  too  narrow, 
and  too  straight.  We  perceive  laws  overwhelmed,  sacred 
ideas  rudely  overborne,  and  the  venerable  Lord's  day 
given  up  to  festive  songs,  to  dances  and  to  bibulous  hilar- 
ity. Many  are  alarmed,  and  think  that  the  end  of  the 
world  hath  come.     Nay,  not  by  some  space  yet ! 

We  should  reflect,  in  regard  to  this,  how  differently  the 
native-born  citizen  and  the  European  immigrant  have 
been  related  to  this  question  of  amusements.  In  America, 
so  free  have  we  been,  so  large  an  outlet  has  been  given  to 
our  religious  liberty,  so  large  has  been  the  expression  of 
every  political  want,  so  free  has  industry  been  and  so  re- 
munerative, that  our  people  have  not  felt  the  need  of 
amusements.  These  have  seemed  like  moths  to  our  in- 
dustry. We  have  found  rest  and  exhilaration  in  other 
things.  And  to-day  we  urge  amusements  upon  our  peo- 
ple chiefly  on  moral  and  esthetic  and  not  at  all  upon  po- 
litical grounds. 

But  in  Europe  political  liberty  is  mostly  unknown,  and 
religious  liberty  is  a  pinched  dwarf.  A  crowded  popula- 
tion have  but  slender  hopes  of  wealth  from  industry. 
Human  nature  would  explode  if  there  were  not  some  vent 
given  to  it.  Not  free  on  the  side  of  religion,  not  free  on 
the  side  of  politics,  and  not  free  on  the  side  of  industry, 
somewhere  the  window  must  be  opened  to  let  the  air  in. 
This,  alike,  the  hierarch  and  the  monarch  saw.  Govern- 
ments therefore  fostered  popular  amusements.  In  these, 
almost  only,  the  common  people  of  Europe  found  them- 
selves at  liberty  to  do  what  they  pleased.  Amusements 
are  the  safety-valves  of  Europe. 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  753 

Now,  a  people  who  have  had  the  chief  happiness  of  their 
lives  clustering  about  amusements,  come  to  a  land  where 
exceeding  freedom  has  left  almost  no  place  for  such  things. 
We  have  liberty  in  association  with  politics,  with  religion, 
and  with  business;  they  with  amusements  only.  With  the 
German  on  the  one  side,  and  with  the  Yankee  on  the  other, 
is  the  same  instrument  of  liberty,  and  for  the  most  part  it 
plays  the  same  tunes;  but  that  instrument  in  the  hand  of 
the  Yankee  is  set  four  notes  higher  than  it  is  in  Europe. 
It  plays  business  and  commerce,  and  government  and  re- 
ligion, here.  There  it  plays  amusements.  And  liberty 
discords  with  liberty,  because  the  instruments  are  not  set 
to  the  same  key.  And  when  immigration  brings  all  the 
pipers  together,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  music  clashes. 
It  is  next  in  mellifluous  strains  to  the  bagpipe;  and  that 
is  the  instrument  that  was  made  to  express  what  was  left 
of  sound  after  other  instruments  had  used  up  all  smooth- 
ness and  harmony  ! 

For  the  rest,  immigration  brings  strength.  On  the 
whole,  it  is  intelligent — not  exactly  in  our  way,  but  never- 
theless, intelligent.  The  Dane,  the  Swede,  the  German 
certainly,  add  to  the  cerebral  power  of  the  nation.  The 
Irish  add  to  its  activity.  They  bring  large  actual  wealth. 
They  bring  indomitable  industry,  which  is  the  father  of 
wealth.  This  is  true  of  the  mass.  But  to  the  educated 
men  and  women  who  come  we  owe  a  greater  debt.  They 
bring  to  us  a  culture,  a  means  of  culture,  in  art,  in  science, 
in  classic  instruction,  which  lays  us  under  solid  obligations 
to  them. 

There  are,  however,  other  dangers  of  disintegration  upon 
this  great  nation,  besides  those  which  come  from  the  con- 
flict of  old  peoples  moving  among  new  ones.  It  is  the 
general  tendency  of  human  nature  to  degenerate  in  the 
midst  of  great  and  long  continued  physical  prosperity. 
Our  institutions  are  the  best  if  they  are  the  best  served; 
but  the  poorest  if  poorly  served.  Republican  institutions 
demand  energetic  and  virtuous  citizens.  Compared  with 
oars,  what  great  advantage  has  the  steam   engine  !     But 

if  for  want  of  steam  you  attempt  to  work   the   engine  by 

4s 


754  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

men's  hands,  it  becomes  far  inferior  to  oars.  Steam-engines 
require  steam.  Superior  institutions  require  superior  mo- 
tive power,  or  they  are  worse  than  the  governments  of 
primitive  force.  And  nowhere  else  is  government  subject 
to  so  much  attrition,  and  so  easily  made  feeble,  as  where 
it  is  republican. 

The  immense  extent  of  our  country,  too,  gives  bold  op- 
portunity to  the  development,  in  its  remote  sections,  of 
antagonisms  which  might  in  times  of  heat  and  violence 
break  up  the  nation  into  combative  fragments.  The  re- 
cent failure  of  such  an  attempt  ought  not  to  breed  undue 
security.  Few  know  how  near  it  came  to  success.  It 
was  an  attempt,  however,  founded  upon  bad  grounds, 
odious  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  world.  It  had  bad  coun- 
selors, and  it  followed  a  course  of  events  which  tended  to 
arouse  and  unite  the  nation  in  behalf  of  union  to  a  greater 
extent  than  before  seemed  possible. 

But  should  the  Pacific  States,  in  another  generation,  for 
strong  commercial  reasons,  developed  without  slavery  as 
an  underlying  cause,  undertake  a  separation,  the  issue  would 
probably  be  very  different.  Our  late  success,  then,  must 
not  argne  its  like  on  every  subsequent  occasion;  and  the 
failure  of  the  late  attempt  must  not  lead  us  to  suppose 
that  no  more  attempts  will  be  made.  If  now,  with  slavery 
gone,  these  very  Southern  States  that  lie  exhausted  tem- 
porarily, waiting  a  few  generations,  should  on  the  ground 
of  mere  political  economy  and  of  good  government  again 
demand  separation,  the  issue  is  not  to  be  prophesied  from 
the  experience  of  the  recent  struggle.  It  is  not  wise,  it  is 
presumptuous  to  rest  down  in  the  belief  that  the  question 
of  union  is  settled  forever.  For,  in  the  growths  of  the 
future,  great  regions  of  this  nation  will  be  so  large  and  so 
vastly  populous,  that  while  they  may  *be  prevented  from 
rupture  by  reason  of  transient  passion  or  sudden  anger, 
they  can  never  be  prevented  from  separation  if  their  real 
interest  lies  in  separation. 

We  cannot  too  deeply  ponder  this  truth,  that  national 
unity  cannot  be  secured  except  by  making  it  the  interest 
of  each  section  to  remain   in  unity.     For,  so  vast  are  the 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  755 

outlying  members  of  this  nation,  that  there  is  no  power, 
even  in  all  that  remains,  to  hinder  any  one  of  them  by  and 
by  if  it  clearly  sees  its  interest  in  leaving  the  national  or- 
ganization. 

Rhode  Island  may  not  be  able  to  withdraw  alone,  nor 
New  Jersey,  nor  Connecticut,  nor  South  Carolina  even, 
nor  any  single  State;  but  the  whole  South,  the  whole 
Southwest,  or  the  vast  Pacific  slope,  move  on  different  planes 
from  single  States.  And  that  which  might  be  prevented 
in  a  nook  or  corner,  cannot  be  prevented  on  a  quarter  of  a 
continent. 

It  was  from  peculiar  reasons  not  likely  to  occur  again,  that 
military  power  was  successful  lately.  Hereafter  only  moral 
power  remains  to  us.  That,  or  nothing  !  For  myself, 
while  I  long  with  intense  patriotism  for  the  continued 
unity  of  this  nation,  I  by  no  means  regard  the  future 
friendly  separation  of  its  parts  with  such  repugnance  and 
detestation  as  I  did  the  late  attempt.  If  four  great  repub- 
lics, homogeneous,  civilized,  and  not  in  antagonism,  but 
friendly,  should  be  created  out  of  the  one,  I  should  fear 
no  such  evils  as  if  vast  fragments  were  to  break  off  and 
organize  governments  of  reaction,  rear  up  a  monarchy — 
or  a  servile  aristocracy — and  infix  principles  of  mutual  an- 
tagonism into  the  organic  structures  of  the  separated 
parts.  Yet,  absolute  political  union  of  the  whole  conti- 
nent is  better,  so  far  as  we  now  can  see.  Separation  will 
not  be  fatal.  At  the  same  time,  unity  is  so  much  better 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian  patriot  to  lay  wise 
plans,  long  forecasting,  to  maintain  the  present  happy 
union,  and  to  maintain  it  remembering  that  there  is  no 
band  or  strap  of  iron  strong  enough,  that  there  is  no  polit- 
ical force  so  great,  no  sword  so  sharp,  and  no  artillery  so 
multitudinous,  as  to  have  power  to  hold  together  long  the 
unwilling  parts  of  so  vast  a  republic  as  this;  that  if  we 
are  to  maintain  national  unity,  it  is  to  be  by  common  con- 
sent founded  upon  common  interest.  The  arrogance  of 
any  part,  whether  it  be  the  arrogance  of  intellect,  or  the 
arrogance  of  wealth,  or  the  arrogance  of  skill,  or  the  arro- 
gance of  political  power,  would  tend  to  disaffect  and  drive 


756  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

off  other  parts  of  this  great  nation.  There  must  be  not 
simply  conciliation,  but  organic  working  toward  common 
moral,  intellectual,  physical,  and  political  interests.  In 
that,  and  in  that  alone,  we  shall  have  stability  in  unity. 

When  it  is  once  understood  that  our  only  hope  of  con- 
tinued unity  is  to  be  found  in  the  exertion  of  influence 
rather  than  of  force,  it  will  give  a  new  impetus,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  to  all  the  moral  energies  of  Christian  men. 

Let  us  look  at  some  few  of  the  hopeful  and  potential 
elements  by  which  we  may  prevent  attrition,  disintegra- 
tion, and  final  separation. 

First,  we  will  consider  the  spread  of  intelligence. 
Knowledge  is  that  which  a  man  knows.  Intelligence  is 
that  which  knows  it.  Knowledge  bears  the  same  relation 
to  intelligence  which  invested  wealth  does  to  that  spirit  of 
enterprise  which  creates  wealth.  One  is  the  active  cause; 
the  other  is  the  product  or  effect  of  that  cause.  Mere 
knowledge  will  not  save  men.  Intelligence  is  a  preserva- 
tive force. 

American  institutions  have  been  criticised  as  not  pro- 
ducing knowledge  of  the  highest  kind,  nor  full  symmetric 
culture;  but  all  things  in  their  order!  The  problems  of  an 
old  society  and  of  a  new  one  are  not  the  same.  Intelli- 
gence is  of  more  value  to  us  than  high  culture,  though 
high  culture  may  be  more  valuable  to  an  old  monarchy 
than  general  intelligence;  and  of  more  value  to  us,  by  and 
by,  than  just  now.  It  is  giving  eyes  to  the  whole  people 
to  give  them  intelligence.  It  gives  them  training  enough, 
at  any  rate,  to  guide  them  safely  in  their  paths.  It  gives 
them  a  certain  instrument  by  which  to  resist  the  outburst 
of  passion,  and  the  warpings  and  bias  of  undue  selfishness 
and  interest.  The  eye  of  the  engineer,  the  eye  of  the 
trained  scientist,  may  be  better  than  the  eye  of  mere  intel- 
ligence; but  for  the  whole  people,  till  such  time  comes  in 
the  millennial  day,  that  all  may  be  engineers  in  eye  and 
scientists  in  eye,  general  intelligence  in  all  is  better  than 
high  training  and  fine  culture  in  a  few. 

This  intelligence  is  to  be  produced  largely  by  the  free- 
dom of  religious  discussion  in  the  land.     For,  of  all  things 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  757 

that  are  dangerous,  nothing  is  more  so  than  that  unity 
which  means  stupidity — the  mere  not  resisting  or  not  dis- 
cussing— the  condition  of  inactivity,  or  torpid  swallowing 
and  deglutition.  That  which  men  most  feel  in  religious 
discussion  is  that  which  is  vital  to  it,  and  that  which  makes 
it  an  element  of  salvation.  It  is  that  it  is  fire,  and  men  can- 
not have  fire  put  on  them  and  sit  still.  It  is  that  it  comes 
from  life  in  earnest,  and  wakes  life  in  earnest  again.  And 
life  is  the  one  great  necessary  quality  in  national  existence. 

It  is  right  here  that  patriotism  and  Romanism  are  rad- 
ically and  irreconcilably  in  antagonism.  There  might  be 
some  agreement  in  respect  to  symbols  and  worship — 
though  we  cannot  hope  for  much  approximation.  There 
might  be  some  coming  together  on  doctrines;  but  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  agreement  on  the  question  of  the 
submission  of  men's  religious  understanding  to  an  order  of 
men  appointed  to  think  for  them.  Our  people  will  never 
think  by  proxy — and  that  is  the  vital  point  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  "Authority  "  it  is  called;  but  authority 
on  the  one  side  is  non-independence  on  the  other. 

If  Pere  Hyacinthe  had  denied  transubstantiation,  a  way 
of  forgiveness  might  have  been  found.  If  he  had  denied 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  he  might  still  have  been  par- 
doned. If  he  had  even  denied  orders  in  the  priesthood, 
there  might  have  been  some  escape.  But  for  him  to  deny 
that  superiors  had  a  right  to  think  for  their  inferiors;  for 
him  to  stand  in  front  of  Europe,  and  dare  to  say,  "  I  think 
my  own  thoughts,  though  my  own  order  and  my  superior 
think  another  way  " — that  is  a  treason  that  never  can  be 
cleansed,  either  by  baptism  or  by  blood. 

The  highly  organized  animals — the  birds  and  beasts  of 
the  upper  rank — select  their  own  food,  and  reject  what 
they  dislike.  They  range  the  air  or  the  earth,  rind,  take, 
or  leave,  as  it  pleases  their  tongue.  It  is  the  round  clam 
that  lies  still,  and  lets  the  water  bring  him  what  it  will.  It 
is  the  round  clam — that  pattern  of  devotion!  which  opens, 
eats,  shuts,  and  is  a  clam  still.  And  the  clam  ranks  not  a 
degree  higher  on  the  scale  because  the  whole  ocean  is  so 
big,  that  brings  in  his  food  to  him.     He  is  but  a  clam. 


758  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

So,  though  the  church  of  two  thousand  years  may  roll 
in  its  waves  upon  the  individual,  if  the  individual  only 
opens,  takes,  shuts,  eats,  digests,  and  opens,  takes,  shuts, 
eats,  digests,  it  is  but  a  clam  spiritual.  And  Protestants 
are  not  clams.  They  are  winged  and  legged.  They  wan- 
der wide,  and  fly  far,  and  select  diversely. 

Many  men  may  be  fascinated  by  the  poetry  in  the  hier- 
archy; many  may  be  juggled  by  its  casuistry;  many  may 
be  philosophically  scared  by  its  doctrine;  but  when  it 
comes  to  that  which  is  the  spinal  marrow  of  the  question 
— the  submission  of  individual  liberty  of  thought  to  the 
authority  of  an  organized  class  of  thinkers— that  will 
never  "  go  down  "  in  America — or  rather  it  will  go  down  ! 

But  the  conflicts  which  go  on  between  sect  and  sect — 
between  the  greatest  of  all  sects  and  the  numerous  minor 
sects — whatever  they  may  have  of  mischief  in  their  bitter- 
ness, have  also  much  of  education.  And  it  is  far  better 
that  religion,  with  all  the  mischiefs  of  division,  be  subdi- 
vided thus,  if  it  keeps  man  alive  and  awake  and  at  work, 
than  that  there  should  be  one  supreme  unity  without 
vitality. 

I  might  mention,  also,  the  distribution  of  intelligence, 
the  progression  of  thought  through  books  and  news- 
papers; but  time  will  not  permit  me  to  dwell  upon  that 
head,  as  I  have  other  things  in  store. 

I  mention  next,  the  ministration  of  the  free  common- 
school,  as  vital  to  the  hope  of  a  great  united  republic  cov- 
ering a  whole  continent.  The  free  common-school  gives 
to  every  child  the  one  indispensable  element,  intelligence. 
Not  only  does  it  teach  him  by  the  master,  but  the  scholars 
are  all  masters  to  each  other.  There  is  an  atmosphere  of 
intelligence  in  the  school,  and  a  public  sentiment  of  intelli- 
gence among  the  young  and  rising  generation  around  the 
school  house.  Intelligence  becomes,  where  common-schools 
abound,  one  of  the  signs  and  tests  of  manhood.  The  ques- 
tion is  no  longer,  "  Who  can  throw  the  heaviest  weight 
furthest  ? "  or  "  Who  can  run  and  leap  the  most  like  a  deer, 
or  hug  most  like  a  bear?"  Another  test  of  manhood  is 
introduced;  and  it  is  no  longer  mere  muscle  that  makes  the 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  759 

man,  but  nerve,  and  brain — the  father  of  nerve.  Intelligence 
becomes  popular  in  the  district  and  in  the  village,  and 
manliness  goes  up  a  grade,  where  common-schools  abound. 

Thus  it  equalizes,  too.  For  human  life  is  incessantly 
creating  diversity.  And  if  such  diversity  were  to  be  car- 
ried on,  some  men,  or  classes  of  men,  would  grow  mount- 
ain-high, and  the  less  favored  would  lie  valley-low.  And 
so,  a  kind  of  aristocracy  would  follow  classification.  Classi- 
fication inheres  in  nature,  but  it  ought  not  to  reign  except 
throughout  the  generation  where  it  asserts  itself.  Aris- 
tocracy is  individual.  It  does  not  belong  to  classes  in 
perpetuity.  As  an  attribute  of  individual  excellence  and 
power,  it  is  divine,  and  carries  with  it  aspiration,  and  am- 
bition, and  lordly  success.  But  if  human  life  permits 
itself,  by  institutions,  to  hold  these  elevations  for  the  pros- 
perity of  other  individuals  than  those  that  have  earned 
them,  you  have  instantly  classified  human  society  into  an 
artificial  aristocracy  and  a  low-lying  common-people. 

Now,  Brain  is  master  and  owner  in  this  world.  Men 
may  make  resolutions,  and  form  combinations,  and  devise 
plans;  but  as  long  as  God  keeps  his  original  decrees  un- 
changed, so  long  brain  will  be  found  to  own  and  to  govern. 
And  they  that  have  it  will  be  masters.  They  that  have  it 
not  will  be  servants — with  protest  and  rebellion,  but  under 
the  decree  of  God.  And  the  true  equity  which  comes 
with  an  ideal  democracy,  must  be  that  equity  which  gives 
to  every  man  an  equal  share  of  brain  culture.  He  that 
has  it  not  is  made,  by  that  very  deprivation,  lower  than 
his  fellow  who  has  it.  Democracy  does  not  mean  a  uni- 
versal level.  It  does  not  mean  compulsory  equality.  It 
means  equitable  opportunity.  No  government  has  a  right 
to  thrust  a  strong  man  down  to  the  level  of  weakness.  No 
institution  has  a  right  to  force  a  weak  man  up  to  the  level 
of  the  strong.  Organized  society  will  always  be  graded. 
True  equity  classifies  men  into  superior  and  inferior.  All 
that  can  be  rightfully  demanded  is,  that  all  men  shall  have 
education,  for  their  full  development;  opportunity,  for  the 
use  of  their  powers;  protection,  from  the  grasp  and  greed 
of  unjust  passions  in  their  fellow  men.     After  that,   men 


760  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

must  find  their  own  level.  The  liberty  of  becoming  all 
that  God  gave  to  a  man  the  power  of  being,  is  all  a  true 
philosophy  can  demand. 

The  common-school,  by  beginning  early  in  the  child's 
life,  by  giving  a  new  ideal  of  life,  by  affording  the  primal 
stimulus,  not  only,  but  by  opening  the  eyes  so  that  a  man 
can  avail  himself  of  all  the  other  stimuli  which  by  and  by 
he  will  meet,  is  keeping  up  a  true  democratic  equality,  by 
giving  all  men  their  own  proper  chance  of  brain  power. 

It  is  democratic  in  another  sense,  because  it  is  bringing 
back  to  a  common  level  again  the  irregularities  produced 
by  active  life.  Knowledge,  riches,  skill,  I  have  said,  create 
classes,  and  so  inequalities.  If,  in  the  spring,  you  should 
look  along  a  level  cultivated  field  where  corn  grew  the 
previous  year,  you  would  see  ridges  that  remain.  Now 
comes  the  plow  to  turn  over  the  soil,  and  all  the  old  hill- 
ocks go  down,  and  lie  level  again  for  the  next  crop.  The 
common-school  is  the  plow  that  levels  each  generation  of 
human  life.  All  the  children,  without  regard  to  superi- 
orities or  excellencies  of  parentage,  have  to  come  together 
and  stand  on  a  common  dead-level  in  the  school-house. 
The  schoolmaster  does  not  call  the  roll  of  the  boys  by 
their  parents'  altitudes,  but  by  the  alphabet;  and  if  A  is  a 
poor  man's  son,  and  B  is  a  rich  man's  son,  B  comes  after 
A,  notwithstanding.  And  the  rich  man's  dunce  stands  be- 
low the  poor  man's  smart  boy — and  must.  In  this  little 
germinant  republic  of  the  common-school,  the  boys  whose 
parents  live  in  vastly  different  mansions,  and  with  vastly 
different  customs,  are  brought  down  to  the  fellowship  and 
brotherhood  and  communion  of  a  common  humanity; 
they  are  obliged  to  mix  together,  and  they  frame  laws 
with  each  other.  There  is  a  public  sentiment  of  the  school 
which  is  just  as  real,  and  as  vital,  and  as  despotic  even,  as 
the  public  sentiment  of  the  great  community;  and  it  is 
a  good  thing  to  bring  down  to  the  original  starting  point 
all  the  elevations  and  inequalities  which  the  various  forces 
of  active  life  produce,  and  to  say  to  all  the  boys,  "Your 
feet  must  stand  on  one  level:  now  shoot  your  heads  as 
high  as  you  please  !  "     Liberty  of  growth  and  equality  at 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  76x 

the  start,  is  the  law  of  true  democratic  life;    and  this   is 
what  the  common-school  gives. 

Under  no  excuse,  then,  let  it  be  suffered  to  go  to  waste. 
It  is  not  simply  the  knowledge  that  it  gives,  but  the  capac- 
ity to  get  knowledge  which  it  breeds;  it  is  not  merely  the 
intelligence  which  it  puts  in  the  way  of  the  youth,  but  the 
fellowship  and  the  common  feeling  which  grows  up  among 
the  boys  of  different  families,  that  makes  the  common- 
school  valuable.  And  it  is  to  the  last  degree  desirable,  not 
only  that  it  should  be  common,  but  that  it  should  be 
free;  and  not  only  that  it  should  be  free,  but  that  it  should 
be  superior.  No  community  can  afford  to  let  a  primary 
private  school  be  better  than  their  free  common-school. 
No  academy  should  be  permitted  to  be  better  than  the 
district  common-schools.  You  cannot  anywhere  else  so 
ill  afford  to  be  parsimonious,  and  call  it  economy,  as  in 
the  administration  of  your  common-schools.  Secure  more 
buildings,  larger  buildings,  better  furniture,  more  teachers, 
with  ampler  support  (for  the  support  of  common-school 
teachers,  especially  of  women  teachers,  is  a  shame  and  dis- 
grace to  our  civilization),  with  more  capacity,  bringing 
hither  the  noblest  men  and  the  noblest  women.  This  is 
political  wisdom.  And  nowhere  is  wisdom  so  squandered, 
and  folly  so  regnant,  as  where  men  are  unwilling  to  be 
taxed,  and  are  parsimonious  in  those  revenues  which  go 
to  maintain  free  common-schools  for  all  the  children  of 
the  whole  community.  The  rich  and  the  proud,  the  aris- 
tocratic and  the  arrogant,  may  be  unwilling  to  send 
their  children  with  the ''common  herd;"  but  their  chil- 
dren need  it.  It  is  one  of  the  best  things  of  their  whole 
education;  and  they  should  be  compelled  to  do  it, — not  by 
law,  but  by  the  fact  that  they  cannot  find  a  private  school 
that  is  as  good  as  the  public  school. 

These  schools  should  not  only  be  free  and  common,  but 
they  should  be  unsectarian.  If  it  be  needful  that  the  teach- 
ing of  technical  religion  should  be  excluded  from  our 
common-schools  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  their  univer- 
sality, I  vote  to  exclude  it.  If  it  be  needful  that  the  Bible 
should  not  be  read  in  the  common-schools  in  order  to  main- 


762  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

tain  their  universality,  their  freedom   and   their   common- 
ness, I  should  vote  not  to  read  it. 

Because  I  disesteem  it?  I,  the  son  of  a  Puritan,  and  a 
Puritan  myself;  I,  that  would  have  burned  at  Oxford,  and 
fought  with  Cromwell — I  disesteem  the  Bible  ?  Most  ven- 
erable is  it  of  all  the  memorials  that  have  come  down 
through  all  time  to  our  day.  More  joy  is  in  it  for  the 
common  people,  more  comfort  has  it  for  the  afflicted,  than 
any  other  book.  It  is  the  very  home  of  a  true  democ- 
racy. It  is  the  very  temple  of  liberty  in  this  world.  I  re- 
gard the  Bible  as  being  that  which  stands  between  aggres- 
sive power  and  organized  selfishness,  and  the  welfare  of 
the  great  mass  of  the  common  people.  It  is  the  common 
people's  book;  and  there  is  no  class  of  people  that  "need 
to  read  it  so  much  as  the  children  of  the  poor  and  the 
needy.  Therefore  I  would  be  glad  if  every  immigrant's 
child,  and  every  home-born  child,  of  every  faith,  not  only 
had  the  Bible,  but  had  the  opportunity  to  read  it  every 
single  day.  And  yet,  I  would  not  force  it  upon  any.  And 
if  the  reading  of  the  Bible  obliges  us  to  forego  our  prin- 
ciples of  toleration,  I  shall  maintain  our  principles  of  tol- 
eration. It  was  because  they  would  not  suffer  others  to 
impose  their  faith  upon  them,  that  our  fathers  came 
hither;  and  shall  we,  now  that  the  power  is  with  us,  take 
the  ground  that  we  may  impose  our  faith  upon  those  who 
do  not  believe  as  we  do,  because  they  are  in  the  minority  ? 
Shall  we,  after  a  hundred  years,  with  all  the  glowing  light 
and  knowledge  which  has  come  down  to  us  on  this  sub- 
ject, commit  the  fatal  blunder  that  sent  the  Pilgrims  across 
the  sea  in  winter,  to  lay  the  foundations  of  this  noble  re- 
public? We  believe  in  the  freedom  of  religion,  and  do 
not  believe  in  forcing  one  man's  faith  upon  another  man. 
And  this  being  so,  how  can  you  organize  the  common- 
school,  which  is  supported  by  the  public  funds,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  force  the  Bible  on  the  Jews,  who  do  not  believe 
in  the  New  Testament,  or  upon  skeptical  men  who  do  not 
believe  in  either  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New?  This  is 
manifestly  inconsistent  with  the  great  principles  of  Chris- 
tian   toleration    in  which  we   believe,  and  which  we   love. 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  763 

To  say  that  a  Christian  nation  has  a  right  to  have  Chris- 
tianity taught  in  its  schools,  even  if  it  be  distasteful  to 
the  minority,  is  to  put  forth  a  formula  for  any  religious 
sect  as  soon  as  it  is  in  the  majority.  Put  the  term  "  Cath- 
olic "  in  the  place  of  the  word  "Christian"  in  the  forego- 
ing sentence,  and  how  would  the  logic  suit  a  Protestant? 

"What !  "  says  the  Catholic,  with  real  fear  and  conscien- 
tious earnestness,  "Do  you  propose  to  bring  up  the 
children  of  the  community  a  nest  of  infidels?"  No,  I  pro- 
pose no  such  thing.  You  might  as  well  say,  "Do  you  pro- 
pose to  bring  up  these  boys  in  school  a  lazy  set?"  because 
husbandry  is  not  taught  in  the  common-schools.  We  do 
not  teach  the  mechanic  arts  in  the  common-school.  There 
are  a  hundred  things  that  society  needs  which  are  not 
taught  there. 

In  proportion  to  civilization,  work  is  divided  and  sub- 
divided. There  is  one  kind  of  instrument  for  one  func- 
tion, and  another  kind  of  instrument  for  another  function. 
Early  in  the  primitive  times,  when  a  dozen  functions  clus- 
tered around  one  instrument,  the  teacher  used  to  teach 
religion,  the  Bible  and  the  catechism,  as  well  as  the  spell- 
ing-book and  the  arithmetic;  but  in  our  day  of  general 
intelligence  we  divide  the  functions  of  society,  letting  the 
church  teach  dogma  and  social  religion,  letting  the  family 
teach  personal  religion,  and  letting  the  common-school 
perform  the  task  of  teaching  intelligence.  And  because 
we  take  out  of  the  common-school  the  special  function 
of  teaching  religious  dogma  and  religious  history,  do  we 
therefore  take  away  religion  from  education  ?  Is  there  no 
other  religion  but  that?  We  teach  the  child  to  read;  we 
teach  him  to  seek  knowledge  as  a  means  of  manhood;  we 
give  him  the  impulse  to  learn;  and  we  say,  "If  we  may 
not  give  religious  instruction  in  the  school,  there  is  all  the 
more  reason  why  we  should  bring  upon  the  Christian 
household  the  responsibility  of  greater  fidelity."  Build 
up  Sunday-schools  in  greater  numbers.  See  to  it  that  the 
church  becomes  a  true  teacher  of  the  whole  community. 
Let  religion  be  taught,  without  which  a  man  is  not  a  man 
in  his  whole  nature,  and  is  not  fully  equipped   for   this  life 


764  r A  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

or  the  life  which  is  to  come;  but  let  us  not  forswear  our 
own  principles  of  toleration  and  oppress  the  conscience  of 
the  Jew,  the  skeptical  minded  man,  the  Chinaman,  the 
Buddhist,  or  any  person  of  any  belief,  or  nation,  or  class. 
Let  us  not  impose  our  religious  books  as  a  yoke  upon 
others  because  we  happen  to  have  the  majority  and  the 
power.  That  would  be  giving  to  power  the  charter  of 
universal  tyranny. 

But  are  there  no  other  ways  of  giving  religious  instruc- 
tion ?  Do  you  suppose  religion  is  all  given  to  men  when 
you  have  read  the  Bible  to  them,  or  taught  them  the  cate- 
chism ?  If  a  man  can  say  the  catechism — the  Lesser 
catechism,  or  the  Greater  catechism,  the  Westminster  cate- 
chism, the  Episcopal  catechism,  or  the  Lutheran  catechism 
— without  stumbling,  from  beginning  to  end,  he  is  a  saint? 
Is  religion  all  taught  through  such  instrumentalities  ?  By 
no  means.  If  the  teacher  that  stands  in  the  school  is 
an  example  of  justice;  if  justice  as  represented  by  the 
teacher  is  sweetened  by  lenity;  if  the  teacher  is  full  of 
sympathy,  and  goes  down  to  the  dull  and  stupid,  and 
with  infinite  tenderness  lifts  them  up,  and  supplies  their 
want,  is  not  that  teacher  better  than  any  catechetical  in- 
struction ?  You  cannot  help  having  religion  taught  in 
the  school  if  you  have  a  man  or  a  woman  there.  But  it 
need  not  be  dogma.  It  need  not  be  instruction  in  the 
philosophy  of  religion.  It  is  not  theological  doctrine  alone 
which  will  teach  religion.  It  is  not  anything  that  belongs 
to  the  sects,  as  sects.  It  is  that  which  is  given  to  all.  For 
I  say  that  "  whatsoever  things  are  true,"  and  "  honest," 
and  "just,"  and  "pure,"  and  "lovely,"  and  "of  good  re- 
port," are  esteemed  by  men  outside  of  the  sects  as  really 
as  by  men  inside  of  them.  The  things  which  you  and  I 
believe  to  be  essential  elements  of  religion — the  all-inspir- 
ing love-power,  with  its  train  of  justice,  and  purity,  and 
true  sympathy — with  those  graces  which  it  creates  in  the 
individual,  those  virtues  of  universal  good  report  which 
dwell  in  every  Christian  bosom — these  things  all  men  be- 
lieve in.  Men  believe  in  practical  religion,  though  they 
may  not  believe  in  religious  doctrines  or  institutions. 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  765 

I  therefore  say,  let  your  common-schools  take  care  of 
that  for  which  they  were  instituted — namely,  universal  in- 
struction for  the  children  of  the  community  in  the  first 
elements  of  intelligence.  Make  the  children  readers.  Give 
them  such  knowledge  and  training  that  they  may  become 
thereafter  their  own  instructors.  This  is  the  function  of 
the  common-school.  And  you  cannot  tax  too  heavily  nor 
too  often  to  secure  the  fulfillment  of  that  function.  The 
wisest  expenditure  a  State  can  make  is  for  the  support  of 
common -schools.  For,  every  time  you  educate  a  child, 
you  stop  up  a  hole  at  the  bottom  of  the  ship  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. 

You  will  of  course  expect  me  to  speak  not  only  of  in- 
telligence, but  also  of  religion,  as  one  of  the  indispensa- 
ble elements  in  producing  unity  and  in  maintaining  the 
integrity  of  our  national  life. 

The  spirit  of  religion  is  reconciling  and  peace-bearing; 
but  religion  developed  into  a  philosophy,  or  religion  in  the 
form  of  an  institution,  is  pugnacious,  and  divisory;  and 
always  has  been.  The  spirit  of  dogma  is  not  useless: 
nevertheless,  it  is  combative  and  divisive.  The  propaga- 
tion of  the  Church  has  always  been  a  conflict.  This  is 
not  to  be  reckoned  a  fault;  but  it  shows  that  religion  in 
this  world  passes  through  stages  of  development  depend- 
ent upon  the  condition  of  the  hearts  upon  which  it  is 
acting.  While  it  works  upon  the  lower  portions  of  the  dis- 
position in  the  individual,  and  yet  more  strikingly  in  com- 
munities, we  find  it  to  be  a  disturbing  force.  But  when 
by  disturbance  and  strife,  when  by  fermentation,  human 
nature  is  at  last  brought  to  a  higher  condition,  and  com- 
munities are  brought  under  the  constant  control  of  the 
higher  reason,  and  of  the  moral  feeling,  then  there  is  a 
true  ripening  and  sweetening  influence  in  religion.  In 
other  words,  that  which  religion  does  at  first,  divides  and 
shatters;  but  after  a  time,  when,  going  through  the  neces- 
sary developments,  religion  comes  to  its  last  work,  that 
will  be  "  peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  to  men." 

It  is  true  that  the  religion  of  to-day  is  doing  an  incal- 
culable  work    of    softening,   smoothing,   and    reconciling; 


766  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

but  it  is  in  the  smaller  organizations  of  society,  and  not 
in  governments  and  in  whole  communities,  that  its  chief 
work  is  doing.  Religion  is  enriching  the  household.  It 
is  making  the  relationships  of  the  family  far  more  pure 
and  far  nobler  than  ever  they  were  before  upon  so  broad 
a  surface  of  population.  It  is  refining  social  life,  not 
simply  by  the  progress  of  elegance,  but  by  a  larger  good 
will  and  a  truer  fellowship  than  ever  before  existed.  It  is 
developing  in  individuals  purity,  self-denial,  benevolence, 
and  true  moral  heroism.  It  is  at  work  in  society,  restrain- 
ing the  outrage  of  passions,  inspiring  indolence  with  ac- 
tivity and  enterprise,  building  up  schools,  cleansing  the 
ways  of  business,  and  producing  an  intelligent  morality. 

This  work  is  constantly  going  on.  It  is  engaged  still  in 
its  primary  tasks.  It  is  a  fire,  a  sword,  a  war-trumpet. 
The  music  belongs  to  the  future.  As  apples  grow  in  their 
sourness,  all  summer  long,  and  find  their  sweetness  as 
they  ripen  in  autumn,  so  the  fruit  of  religion  in  its  insti- 
tuted life  yet  puckers  the  mouth  with  its  acrid  bitterness 
of  immaturity.  By  and  by  it  will  ripen  to  sweetness.  In- 
stead of  unity,  it  now  creates  division.  A  hundred  sects 
there  are,  and  each  one  thinks  itself  to  be  the  spiritual 
navel  of  the  universe.  All  of  them  alike  cry,  "  Come  to 
me  !  "  Every  sect  in  Christendom,  from  the  oldest — the 
Greek  and  the  Roman — down  to  the  last  and  latest,  which 
is  proudly  Christian  on  the  ground  of  disowning  Christ, 
is  in  its  organic  spirit  selfish  and  intolerant.  The  spirit  of 
the  sects,  whether  in  the  Catholic,  the  Greek,  or  the  Prot- 
estant Churches,  is  exclusive,  dictatorial,  divisive.  The 
membership  is  often  far  more  Christian  than  the  organiza- 
tion to  which  it  belongs.  At  present,  and  especially  in  the 
relations  of  the  sects  to  each  other,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  combative  conscience  is  the  nerve  of  the  church.  In- 
stitutional religion  has  bred  divisions,  and  it  is  its  nature 
to  do  so.  Sects  are  but  the  splinters  and  fragments 
which  fly  off  by  explosive  violence  of  the  moral  sense  of 
warrior  Christians. 

This  is  just  as  true  of  the  Roman  Church  as  of  the 
Protestant,  though  the  boastful  and  arrogant  affirmation 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  767 

is  widely  prevalent  to  the  contrary.  The  boasted  unity  of 
the  Catholic  Church  is  only  the  unity  of  a  tenement  house 
filled  with  quarreling  families.  The  Protestant  sects  quar- 
rel out  of  doors.  The  Catholic  sects  quarrel  inside  of  the 
house.  Twenty  families  pecking  at  each  other  in  a  tene- 
ment house — that  is  the  Roman  Church.  Twenty  families 
pecking  at  each  other  in  separate  houses  of  their  own — 
that  is  the  Protestant  Church.  There  is  no  difference  be- 
tween them  so  far  as  division  is  concerned.  Protestants 
bring  forth  sects  and  carry  their  young  with  them  exter- 
nally. The  Catholic  Church  is  marsupial.  Like  the  opos- 
sum and  the  kangaroo,  it  brings  forth  its  young;  but  it 
has  a  pouch  into  which  they  run,  and  where  they  nestle 
and  quarrel.  There  is  as  much  quarreling  in  the  pouch 
as  there  is  outside  on  the  back. 

I  do  not  speak  this  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Though  it  will  not  be  owned  by  them,  I  speak 
it  to  their  credit.  It  is  an  honorable  sign;  because  it  is  a 
sign  of  vitality.  The  age  of  unity  has  not  come.  We  are 
living  in  the  age  of  attrition,  of  division,  of  vitality  by 
excitement.  Many  generations  beyond  us  there  will  be  a 
better  time;  but  to-day  vitality  comes  with  agitation  and 
division.  So  vastly  predominant  yet,  in  the  individual 
and  in  the  community,  is  the  coarse  and  belluine  element, 
that  for  a  long  time  religion  must  be  in  conflict.  A  re- 
ligion without  conflict  is  dead. 

Our  past  history  is  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  relig- 
ious institutions  do  not  tend  to  national  unity,  or  to  any 
considerable  power.  The  civil  war  was  not  checked  by 
the  spirit  of  the  churches.  The  Presbyterian  Church  di- 
vided into- the  North  and  the  South;  the  Methodist  Church 
divided  into  the  North  and  the  South;  and  then  the  Epis- 
copal Church  divided  into  the  North  and  the  South.  In- 
deed all  national  churches  were  split,  and  the  halves  stood 
in  mutual  oppugnation.  The  Baptist  and  Congregational 
Churches  having  no  national  form,  by  their  very  nature 
could  not  divide  ecclesiastically;  but  the  churches  of  the 
North  and  those  of  the  South  were  morally  separated  as 
much  as  were  the  two  halves  of  the  national  churches. 


768  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Neither  do  we  perceive  that  the  work  of  cohesion,  unity 
and  homogeneity,  as  it  was  not  favored  by  religion  in  its 
sectarian  forms,  will  be  much  helped  by  religious  bodies, 
now  that  they  are  reunited;  for  as  hitherto,  in  this  dis- 
tressed world,  it  will  so  require  men's  religion  to  maintain 
the  organic  life  and  separateness  of  each  sect,  that  they 
will  have  little  to  spend  beyond  that.  The  Catholic  sect 
is  busy  with  converting  Protestants,  and  Protestants  are 
busy  with  protesting  against  being  converted.  Calvin 
pursues  Arminius,  and  Arminius  pursues  Calvin.  John 
the  Baptist  is  still  at  the  Jordan  immersing.  The  enginery 
of  a  hundred  sects  is  brilliant,  and  all  proclaim  the  lapse 
of  others,  and  their  own  divinity.  Meantime,  Religion, 
descending  as  a  dove,  rests  silently  upon  a  myriad  souls, 
comforts  sorrows,  purifies  love,  overcomes  fear,  and  visits 
men  in  prisons,  at  sick  beds,  in  houses  of  poverty,  amid 
trials  and  sufferings,  saying,  "  Peace,  my  peace,  I  give 
unto  you." 

In  the  unity  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  reduction  of  its 
materials,  we  hope  much  from  religion;  very  little  from 
sectarian  churches;  much  from  the  Spirit  of  God  blessing 
the  truth  of  his  Word  to  the  hearts  of  individual  men; 
much  from  individual  men  that  are  nobler  than  their  sect; 
much  from  free  men  whose  adhesion  to  forms  and  cere- 
monies is  the  least  part  of  their  existence;  much  from  re- 
ligion as  it  exists  in  its  higher  forms  in  individual  natures 
and  in  public  sentiment;  very  little  from  dogmas;  very 
little  from  theology,  as  such. 

And  yet,  if  it  could  be  understood  by  them,  here  is  a 
new  call  to  the  sects,  not  to  disband,  but  to  hold  each 
other  in  true  fellowship;  to  act  in  harmony,-  if  not  in 
unison.  The  prevalence  of  gross  immorality;  the  conti- 
nental proportions  of  infidelity;  the  waste  of  the  stock 
notions  in  religion  that  is  going  on  through  tendencies 
generated  by  material  science;  the  vast  work  of  civilization 
and  Christianization  which  opens,  impossible  to  quarrel- 
ing sects,  but  not  difficult  to  harmonious  and  co-ordinated 
denominations,  each  working  and  suffered  to  work  in  its 
own  way,  and  suffering  all  others  to  work — these  are  prov- 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  769 

idential  calls  to  the  great  body  of  Christian  men  and 
women  to  truce;  to  new  leagues  of  amity;  to  co-operation 
and  to  harmony. 

We  ask  not  that  any  should  cast  down  their  altar,  but 
that  they  should  permit  us,  on  the  other  hand,  to  worship 
unharmed  at  ours.  We  ask  not  that  any  shall  revamp 
their  creed,  but  that  it  may  not  be  considered  a  crime  for 
us  to  maintain  ours.  We  ask  none  to  let  the  full  sunlight 
pour  through  their  windows,  instead  of  shutting  it  out  by 
colored  and  grotesque  panes.  If  they  prefer  their  win- 
dows let  them  have  them;  and  let  them  permit  us  to  have 
ours.  Let  us  look  for  a  true  humanity,  let  us  look  for  the 
true  fruit  of  religion,  not  in  the  associated  body  of  this  or 
that  denomination,  but  in  the  majesty  and  power  of  love 
in  the  individual  hearts  of  those  who  are  gathered  into 
sects.  Let  us  look  no  more  into  books,  merely.  Let  men 
be  the  living  epistles  in  which  we  shall  read  what  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  hath  to  teach  in  any  sect.  Here,  in  the  out- 
pouring life,  where  religion  means  vital  power,  power  of 
conscience,  power  of  love,  power  of  faith,  power  of  benefi- 
cence, power  of  sympathy — here  let  there  be  co-operative 
harmony  and  true  union.  And,  if  it  please  God,  with  a 
civilization  which  comes  from  commerce,  which  comes  by 
intelligence,  which  comes  by  schools,  which  comes  by  the 
peculiar  position  of  all  parts  of  this  land — if  it  please  God, 
with  this,  at  length  to  give  us  a  religion  that  will  teach 
men  to  love  one  another,  then  we  shall  be  saved;  our  na- 
tion will  be  maintained  by  bonds  made  and  riveted  in 
heaven,  which  no  instrument  yet  formed  can  cut  or  sun- 
der. 

Until  men's  reciprocal  interests  upon  the  higher  plane 
of  moral  ideas  shall  be  better  understood,  until  religion 
shall  be  a  uniting  and  not  a  divisive  element,  we  must  with 
more  eagerness  than  ever  look  to  the  harmonizing  influ- 
ence of  men's  reciprocal  interests  upon  the  lower  plane  of 
commercial  and  industrial  life.  So  wide-spread  is  this  na- 
tion, that  it  has  within  itself  almost  all  the  elements  of 
prosperity  which  other  nations  seek  beyond  their  own  bor- 
ders. The  far  North  and  the  extreme  South  work  for 
49 


77°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

different  products,  but  in  difference  they  find  reciprocal 
advantage.  If  legislation  be  hindered  from  making  im- 
pertinent interference  and  restriction  of  our  home  and 
foreign  commerce,  if  industry  be  left  free  to  find  its  own 
laws  and  channels,  we  shall  have  in  commerce  a  force 
drawing  together  into  undisseverable  unity  the  vast  dis- 
tricts of  this  continent,  and  binding  them,  we  are  ashamed 
to  say,  with  a  force  which  cannot  yet  be  found  in  moral  or 
social  influences.  For  human  nature  is  as  yet  riper  and 
wiser  at  the  bottom  than  at  the  top.  Self-interest  has 
more  power  in  promoting  peace  and  unity,  than  justice, 
humanity,  and  religion. 

I  shall  advert  to  but  a  single  political  agency  in  the 
maintenance  of  National  Unity,  and  that  is  the  sacred  and 
jealous  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the 
vital  local  governments  of  States,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Federal  National  Government.  New  England,  from  her 
earliest  colonial  days,  with  a  fervor  and  intensity  that  have 
never  been  surpassed,  preserved  inviolate  the  one  political 
doctrine  which  will  enable  this  vast  nation,  if  anything  will 
enable  it,  to  maintain  Federal  Unity;  and  that  doctrine  is, 
the  rights  of  the  States.  When  the  wholesome  doctrine  of 
States  Rights  reappeared  in  the  South,  it  had  in  those 
warm  latitudes  undergone  fermentation,  and  had  passed 
into  a  new  thing,  viz.:  States  Sovereignty.  There  can 
never  be  more  than  one  sovereignty  in  a  political  body. 
The  Nation  alone  is  Sovereign.  It  is,  to  be  sure,  a  limited 
sovereignty.  The  metes  and  bounds  have  been  fixed. 
All  within  them  is  Federal,  all  without  belongs  to  the  in- 
dividual States.  Within  their  own  spheres,  however,  the 
self-jurisdiction  of  the  States  is  absolute.  It  cannot  be 
meddled  with  or  usurped  by  the  general  government. 
Things  belonging  to  any  single  State  alone,  and  not  to  all 
the  States  in  common,  must  be  under  the  supreme  disposal 
of  that  State.  This  simple  doctrine  of  State  Rights — not 
State  Sovereignty — will  carry  good  government  with  it 
through  all  the  continent.  No  central  government  could 
have  sympathy  and  wise  administrative  adaptation  to  the 
local  peculiarities  of  this  huge  nation,  couched  down  be- 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  771 

tweeri  two  oceans,  whose  Southern  line  never  freezes,  and 
whose  Northern  border  never  melts. 

The  States  are  so  many  points  of  vitality.  The  nation, 
like  a  banyan  tree,  lets  down  a  new  root  where  each  new 
State  is  established,  and  when  centuries  have  spread  this 
gigantic  commercial  tree  over  a  vast  space,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  branches  most  remote  from  the  center  do  not 
draw  their  vitality  through  the  long  intricate  passages 
from  the  parent  trunk,  but  each  outlying  growth  has  roots 
of  its  own,  and  draws  straight  from  the  ground  by  organ- 
isms of  its  own,  all  the  food  it  wants,  without  dissociating 
its  top  from  the  parent  branches  ! 

The  dignity  and  power  of  National  Sovereignty  will  be 
secured  by  maintaining  unimpaired  the  local  Rights  of  the 
States. 

Let  us  then  all  labor  for  the  unity  of  the  nation  by 
working  for  the  education  of  its  citizens,  for  the  spread  of 
virtue  and  true  morality,  for  the  promotion  of  an  industry 
which  shall  redeem  the  poor  from  servile  and  sordid 
drudgery,  for  the  freedom  of  its  commerce,  for  a  more 
just  and  generous  sympathy  between  all  its  races  and 
classes,  for  a  more  benignant  spirit  to  its  religion;  and 
finally,  let  us  implore  the  God  of  our  fathers,  by  his  own 
wise  providence,  to  save  us  from  our  wanton  passions, 
from  impertinent  egotism,  from  pride,  arrogance,  cruelty, 
and  sensual  lusts,  that  as  a  nation  we  may  show  forth  his 
praises  in  all  the  earth  ! 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.* 


In  the  momentary  disturbance  which  just  now  alarms 
the  timid  and  inflames  the  partisan,  men  are  liable  to 
forget  the  whole  field,  and  form  evil  auguries  on  account 
of  a  few  distempered  spots.  It  is  now  twelve  years  since 
the  great  civil  war  closed.  Let  us  consider  the  facts  which 
that  war  left  upon  our  hands,  and  the  history  of  those 
facts  down  to  this  hour,  and  instead  of  applying  a  rigor- 
ous ideal  moral  standard  in  forming  a  judgment,  let  us 
ask  what  was  to  have  been  expected  of  our  people  judged 
by  the  tendency  of  ordinary  human  nature  in  such  condi- 
tions as  existed  at  the  end  of  this  war.  We  shall  then  be 
able  to  judge  whether  this  should  be  a  fast  day  or  a  day 
of  thanksgiving. 

The  War  of  Independence,  in  1776,  broke  off  our  ex- 
ternal allegiance  to  Great  Britain  without  materially 
changing  the  internal  condition  of  this  people.  It  did  not 
directly  affect  their  condition.  The  laws  remained  the 
same.  The  general  policy  remained  the  same.  Political 
economy  was  precisely  the  same.  Under  different  names 
the  very  civil  government  carried  out  the  substantial 
principles  of  liberty  which  existed  in  the  British  Constitu- 

*  Thanksgiving  Day,  Thursday,  Nov.  30,  1876.  Lesson :  Psa.  cxlv. 
Preached  shortly  after  the  Presidential  election,  in  which  R.  B.  Haves  was 
the  candidate  of  the  Republican,  and  Samuel  J.  Tilden  that  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  Fraud  was  charged  by  both  sides,  and  the  result  disputed, 
especially  as  to  the  votes  in  Louisiana,  South  Carolina,  and  Florida,  from 
each  of  which  States  were  forwarded  two  sets  of  certificates  of  election. 
The  Republicans  charged  the  Democrats  of  fraud  at  the  Southern  polls; 
the  Democrats  accused  the  Republicans  of  fraud  in  the  Southern  count 
of  votes.  The  question  was  finally  decided,  after  several  months  of  gen- 
eral excitement,  by  an  Electoral  Commission  appointed  by  Congress  for 
the  purpose,  which  rendered  its  decision  on  March  2d,  by  awarding  the 
election  to  Mr.  Hayes,  the  Republican  candidate.  He  was  duly  inaugu- 
rated on  March  5th,  1877. 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  773 

tion.  How  to  confederate  into  one  nation  thirteen  States, 
thus  organizing  thirteen  nations  into  one  nation,  without 
destroying  the  local  autonomy  of  the  separate  States — 
this  was  a  very  difficult  task;  it  was  a  task  of  the  greatest 
magnitude  and  importance,  then  and  since;  but  it  did  not 
touch  the  vital  sources  of  prosperity;  and  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  simply  left  us  to  go  forward  along  the  lines 
already  marked  down,  which  we  have  had  no  occasion  to 
crook  or  change  since  that  day. 

But  the  Civil  War  of  1861  was  probably  the  most  con- 
firmatory and  revolutionary  war  that  ever  was  waged — 
confirmatory  toward  the  ideas  of  our  Northern,  and  rev- 
olutionary toward  those  of  our  Southern,  populations.  The 
effect  of  this  war  upon  the  North  cannot  be  stated  in  de- 
tail, it  can  scarcely  be  stated  in  outline,  in  the  time  which 
is  allowed  us. 

The  Civil  War  changed  no  institutions  of  the  country 
upheld  by  Northern  opinion.  It  disturbed  no  civil  law  of 
the  government.  It  interrupted  no  industry.  Still  less 
did  it  subvert  any.  It  changed  the  relations  of  citizens  in 
the  state  in  no  respect,  one  toward  another  or  toward  the 
government.  It  impoverished  no  State.  What  it  did  was 
to  confirm  the  great  principles  of  internal  liberty  on  which 
the  frame-work  of  government  was  founded  by  the  Fathers. 
It  was  a  testimony  to  their  doctrines  of  the  rights  of  men. 
It  ratified  our  history,  and  illumined  it.  It  made  the  old 
paths  broader,  more  honorable,  and  safer.  It  sent  for- 
ward our  people  with  renewed  impetus.  In  no  respect, 
then,  was  it  revolutionary.  No  theory  of  government  was 
changed.  No  practice  founded  on  the  philosophy  of  State 
Rights  or  of  industrial  economy  was  modified.  Every 
great  element  of  civic  and  social  life  was  left  unaltered 
except  in  being  made  clearer,  stronger,  and  more  lustrous. 
Capital  flowed  in.  Enterprise  was  stimulated.  Inven- 
tions multiplied  on  every  hand.  Every  form  of  industry 
was  augmented  by  machinery.  Factories  increased  in 
number,  and  improved  in  methods,  until  they  have  ena- 
bled cotton  men,  at  least,  to  beat  Great  Britain  in  her 
own   markets.     From    the   beginning,   or   within    the    last 


774  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

twenty  years,  some  forty  thousand  miles  of  railroad  have 
been  established  and  completed,  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant lines  since  the  activity  started  by  the  war.  Col- 
leges were  endowed.  Debts  were  liquidated.  Mortgages 
were  wiped  out.  Churches  and  schools  were  lit  up  along 
the  whole  line  of  advancing  emigration.  The  last  twenty- 
five  years  in  America — from  1850  to  1876 — have  been  a 
marvel  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.  The  heart  and 
the  brain  of  our  people  were  stimulated  by  the  discussion 
of  the  fundamental  question  of  manhood  in  society,  and, 
fertilized  by  this  divine  enriching,  brought  forth  on  every 
hand  an  unexampled  harvest  of  thought,  of  skill,  of  in- 
vention, of  industrial  wealth,  of  happiness  and  of  piety. 

Now  turn  to  the  South.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  us  to 
conceive  of  the  revolutionary  results  of  the  Civil  War 
upon  the  Confederate  States, — especially  upon  those  that 
lie  along  the  ocean  edge  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  took 
from  the  hands  of  a  proud  and  imperious  people  their 
whole  political  control.  For  nearly  fifty  years,  or  during 
the  founding  of  our  institutions  and  the  formulating  of  our 
principles,  the  North,  and  chiefly  New  England,  bore  rule; 
but  no  sooner  were  our  principles  formulated  and  our  in- 
stitutions put  in  full  operation,  than  the  South  assumed 
control;  and  for  the  past  fifty  years  and  more  the  policy 
of  this  nation  has  been  dictated  wholly  by  the  South. 
The  North  was  busy  with  business:  the  South  with  gov- 
ernment.    We  worked;  they  ruled. 

Now,  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  there  are  no  South- 
ern influences  exerted  upon  our  government;  for  five  years 
her  men  had  not  appeared  in  our  Congress;  and  when 
they  re-entered  they  were  no  longer  the  men  of  old, — 
imperious,  brilliant,  willful,  united,  and  locally  selfish. 
Strangers  came,  one  by  one, — impoverished,  worn,  wasted, 
as  men  that  had  just  escaped  from  the  fire.  The  reins 
had  fallen  from  their  hands;  and  they  who  once  drove 
this  magnificent  chariot  of  a  continent,  now  hung  on  be- 
hind, walking. 

The  war  had  also  introduced  into  citizenship  a  million 
colored  voters,  so  that  at  home  the  old    Southern  element 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  775 

found  itself  swamped  with  this,  to  them,  odious  compan- 
ionship at  the  polls.  Human  imagination  can  hardly  con- 
ceive of  a  trial  greater  than  for  such  men  as  Wade  Hamp- 
ton to  go  about  among  his  late  slaves  canvassing  for  their 
votes.  The  question  before  that  was,  "Are  they  men  or 
monkeys?"  Politics  was  the  very  nerve-system  of  South- 
ern gentlemen.  No  humiliation  conceivable  could  be 
greater  than  that  which  befell  them  after  the  war,  to  find 
themselves  going  to  the  polls  with  their  ex-slaves,  and  in 
a  helpless  minority  at  that.  Always,  before,  the  whites 
had  voted  not  only  in  their  own  persons,  but  in  proportion 
to  their  slave  property;  but  now,  their  property,  standing 
on  two  legs,  was  voting  against  the  masters.  For  years 
large  multitudes  of  Southern  men  were  utterly  disenfran- 
chised; and  when  they  were  suffered  at  length  to  vote 
again,  they  moved  under  a  shadow  to  the  polls. 

Then,  consider  that,  aside  from  this  utter  revolution  in 
political  government  and  in  methods,  there  was  taking 
place  at  the  same  time  an  equally  striking,  and  if  possible 
more  odious,  civil  revolution.  Severe  as  was  their  polit- 
ical change,  their  social  change  was  still  more  intolerable. 
The  general  equality  of  citizenship  is  not  so  hard  to  bear 
by  those  who  always  held  to  democratic  equality;  but  in 
the  South  the  colored  man  was  always  put  outside  the 
line  of  mankind,  as  well  as  of  citizenship.  The  law  was 
the  Roman  law;  and  the  Roman  law  held  that  the  slave 
was  not  a  human  being,  but  a  chattel;  and  this  was  the 
decision  even  of  Southern  judges,  who  spoke  with  the  ut- 
most indignation  of  the  necessity  which  compelled  them 
to  say  such  things  of  men.  For  twenty  years  at  the  South 
it  had  been  the  business  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  of 
professors  in  colleges,  of  political  economists,  of  many 
scientific  men,  and  of  politicians,  to  prove  the  inferiority 
of  the  African;  and  they  had  crowded  him  back  almost 
to  his  Darwinian  ancestors.  It  was  a  sore  retribution 
that  this  despised  race  should  be  suddenly  advanced  al- 
most to  a  perfect  equality  with  his  white  neighbors.  The 
position  which  the  whites  had  occupied  for  years  was  not 
calculated  to  fit  them  for  welcoming  these  outcasts. 


776  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

These  things  are  not  to  be  fully  appreciated  by  descrip- 
tion. One  must  measure  the  irritation  of  this  change  by 
actual  experience.  Considering  what  human  nature  is, 
and  what  Southern  human  nature  is,  is  it  not  a  wonder 
that  there  has  been  so  little  outbreak,  and  that  the  South 
has  been  as  quiet  as  she  has  ? 

But  even  more  significant  has  been  the  change  of  the 
whole  industrial  system  of  the  South.  Those  that  were 
rich  have  become  impoverished.  They  were  rich  in  slaves; 
they  do  not  now  own  one.  They  were  rich  on  account  of 
the  plantation-system,  which  robs  one  class  to  make  an- 
other class  excessively  rich;  but  after  the  war,  not  only 
were  the  slaves  not  theirs,  but  their  plantations  were  not 
a  source  of  wealth  to  them.  Those  who  owned  the  land 
could  not  work  it,  and  those  who  could  work  the  land  did 
not  own  it,  and  could  not  buy  it;  and  so  there  was  a  land- 
lock.  Free  labor  in  the  place  of  enforced  labor  brought 
in  not  only  a  new  principle  in  Southern  industry,  but  a 
revolutionary  and  antagonistic  one. 

It  is  the  necessity  of  every  man  to  work  out  his  own 
support.  Now,  in  the  South  that  necessity  carries  in  it 
the  divine  blessing,  and  an  unexampled  prosperity;  for  I 
foresee  a  South  that  yet  one  day  may  out  of  her  radiant 
height  look  down  upon  the  North  and  challenge  compari- 
son in  every  element  of  civilization  and  of  social  comfort; 
and  I  foresee  that  the  South  will  dig  it  out  in  this  hard 
mine  in  which  she  is  now  working  with  sweat,  and  tears, 
and  complaint.  The  necessity  of  working,  in  order  that 
every  man  shall  earn  his  own  living  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow,  is  a  moral  revolution  as  well  as  an  industrial  one. 
Men  may  say  what  they  please,  but  the  moment  a  man 
works  for  his  living,  new  influences  get  hold  of  him.  I 
care  not  who  the  leaders  are,  what  the  prevailing  philoso- 
phy is,  or  what  men's  religious  sectarianism  may  be,  the 
moment  the  whole  body  of  men  in  society  are  obliged  to 
work  for  their  own  living  a  new  state  of  things  comes 
upon  them  which  will  in  the  end  control  them.  Under 
such  circumstances  a  man  measures  society  by  a  different 
standard.     Skill,  industry,  good  management  and  the  like, 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  777 

begin  to  be  things  sought  and  admired  by  him.  Formerly 
dogs,  horses,  dances,  and  sprees,  were  the  delight  of  the 
elegantly  idle,  and  they  marked  the  difference  between 
those  that  worked  and  the  society  gentleman;  but  that 
which  is  now  becoming  the  question  with  the  gentlemen 
is,  whether  he  can  pay  his  board,  and  whether  he  knows 
how  to  work.  "  Do  you  know  how  to  be  tastefully  idle  ?" 
asked  the  old  regime  in  the  South;  "then  step  into  society." 
"  Do  you  know  how  to  earn  a  living  ?  "  asks  the  new  state 
of  things  in  the  South.  And  work  is  a  necessity  which 
no  man  there  can  escape  from — thanks  to  the  bravery  and 
perseverance  of  the  South  in  the  war.  They  burned  up 
their  property,  and  stood  on  barren  ground  again;  and 
no  man  of  them  can  exempt  himself  from  this  universal 
and  primal  necessity  of  working.  Work  to-day,  through- 
out the  South,  is  doing  gradually  and  silently  what  work 
did  for  the  North  in  times  gone  by.  Work  quickens 
the  flow  of  sympathy,  and  the  worker  learns  to  "conde- 
scend to  men  of  low  estate,"  when  he  is  obliged  to  seek 
his  living  in  the  soil,  and  in  the  shop,  and  on  the  ship, 
and  in  all  the  thoroughfares  of  industry.  This  change  of 
political  economy,  of  wealth-producing  methods,  pene- 
trates every  pore,  and  pervades  every  interest  in  the 
South.  It  is  universal  and  continuous  throughout  so- 
ciety. You  may  send  philosophers  to  teach,  ministers  to 
preach,  and  schoolmasters  to  educate;  but  I  tell  you  the 
plow  and  the  hammer  will  do  more  to  educate  the  South 
into  new  life  than  all  of  these  put  together. 

No  greater  wrench  could  be  given  to  a  state  than  a  rev- 
olution of  its  whole  wealth-producing  economy  within  a 
period  of  two  or  three  years;  and  when  this  takes  place 
by  force,  amidst  the  desolations  of  war,  among  an  im- 
poverished people,  standing  in  the  ashes  of  their  former 
riches,  defeated,  stripped  of  power  and  influence,  and 
humiliated,  it  taxes  human  nature  to  the  utmost  bound  of 
endurance,  and  tasks  our  imagination  to  conceive  of  it. 
And  yet  the  South  has  stood  the  strain;  and  I  think  in 
that  regard  has  gained  more  glory  by  her  well-doing  since 
the  war  than  in  all  her  past  history,  and  is   greater  in  her 


;;S  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

misfortune  even  in  spite  of  all  the  mistaken  outbreaks  that 
have  occurred,  than  ever  she  was  on  the  battle-field,  or  in 
the  council  chamber. 

To  all  this  must  be  added  the  first  periods  of  the  new 
governments  in  the  South  under  the  new  regime.  Two 
things  were  certain:  first,  that  many  of  the  most  important 
offices  in  the  reconstructed  states  would  fall  to  the  lot  of 
Northern  citizens,  for  the  reason  that  the  offices  must 
be  filled,  and  yet  the  public  sentiment  in  the  South  for- 
bade the  native  to  execute  the  duties  of  certain  offices  at 
certain  times,  in  a  way  which  should  be  suited  to  the  new 
condition.  They  ejected  themselves  from  the  offices;  yet 
these  had  to  be  filled.  It  was  a  pity;  it  was  a  great  evil; 
but  not  to  fill  them  was  a  greater  evil — and  that  is  what 
can  be  said  in  behalf  of  "  carpet-baggers."  This  great 
evil  sprang  not  from  the  North,  but  from  the  temper  and 
spirit  of  the  South — a  spirit  and  temper  which  should  not 
surprise  us,  which  we  should  expect,  and  which  very  likely 
we  ourselves,  under  like  circumstances,  would  manifest  in 
even  a  stronger  manner;  but  causes  and  effects  have  no 
respect  to  such  considerations.  There  was  the  fact,  and 
there  was  the  way  in  which  the  fact  compelled  circum- 
stances. 

It  also  was  inevitable  that  in  many  States  the  newly  en- 
franchised citizen  should  become  the  legislator,  and  that 
by  reason  of  his  inexperience  and  ignorance  he  should 
carry  out  a  policy  destructive  to  the  best  interests  of  peace 
and  prosperity;  and  would  you  expect  that  men  who  had 
been  under  the  heel  all  their  days,  and  were  suddenly 
thrown  up  into  the  liberty  of  manhood  and  citizenship, 
and  had  changed  by  reason  of  their  majorities  in  elections 
the  whole  legislation  and  judicial  economy  of  the  States, 
— would  you  expect  that  they  could  administer  wisely? 
Slavery  would  not  be  the  devil  that  it  is  if  its  victims  could 
be  used  with  so  little  injury,  that  immediately  on  becom- 
ing freemen  they  could  manage  popular  affairs  with  discre- 
tion. It  was  the  folly  of  Southern  States  that  brought  on 
revolution;  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  legitimate  re- 
sults  of   the    war   that    the    legislatures   of    those   States 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  779 

should  come  into  the  hands  of  unwise  and  inexpert  men; 
and  it  was  to  be  expected  that  they  would  be  afflicted 
with  most  desolating  legislation.  It  was  the  necessity 
of  the  case.  When  South  Carolina  precipitated  this  na- 
tion into  war,  she  established  that  logic  of  events  which 
has  wrought  the  disasters  that  are  now  goading  her  to 
desperation.  She  sowed  the  wind,  and  is  reaping  the 
whirlwind.  She  says  that  it  is  a  wind  set  in  from  the 
North:  I  say  that  it  is  a  wind  from  above,  falling  down 
from  the  seat  of  justice. 

Upon  this  broad  exposition  of  facts,  let  us  set  forth  cer- 
tain considerations  which  may  in  their  issue  befit  this  day. 

First,  the  evils  of  the  South  are  of  her  own  procur- 
ing. They  are  not  Northern  inflictions.  They  are  the 
logical  sequences  of  those  actions  against  which  the  North 
protested,  which  she  bore  long  with  resentment,  and  which 
she  resisted  by  the  sword  only  when  they  threatened  to  sub- 
vert the  very  foundation  of  the  national  government.  The 
South  took  her  chances,  and  must  abide  by  the  issues  of 
those  chances, — issues  which  had  not  run  out  and  expended 
themselves  the  moment  that  peace  was  declared.  You  can 
make  a  wound  in  a  moment  which  you  cannot  heal  in  a 
year.  The  Southern  people  could  by  a  vote  in  a  few 
months  bring  on  secession;  but  from  it  have  flowed  on  and 
on  a  long  series  of  disasters  that  have  been  filling  the 
South  with  complaint.  Poverty;  the  loss  of  position;  the 
dissemination  of  her  population;  the  interposition  of  a 
foreign  magistracy  upon  her  affairs;  a  military  force, — all 
these  were  a  part  of  the  risks  taken.  When  she  declared 
war,  she  substantially  declared  that  she  was  willing  to  take 
the  issues.  The  very  sharpest  pinch,  therefore,  of  Southern 
trouble,  she  should  bear  in  mind  evermore,  is  of  her  own  pro- 
ducing. General  Gordon  [of  Georgia]  is  very  loud  in  his 
denunciations  when  the  white  man  suffers;  he  cannot  bear 
to  see  the  heels  of  the  white  man  touched  by  the  toes  of 
the  United  States  soldiers.  Thousands  of  black  men  were 
driven  from  the  polls,  scores  of  hundreds  of  them  were 
maltreated  and  killed,  whole  counties  were  brought  under 
anarchy,  and  he  had  no  telegrams  filling  Northern  papers; 


7 So  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

but  when  for  the  simple  preservation  of  order  the  United 
States  soldiers,  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  stand  at  the  State-house  doors,  he  and 
men  like  him  send  forth  a  wail  of  despair;  and  their  North- 
ern partisans  sit  in  sackcloth,  in  the  valley  of  desolation, 
and  mourn  over  the  wrongs  of  the  poor  Southern   people  ! 

Notice,  too,  that  upon  the  two  States  which  were  the 
most  vicious  and  insubordinate  (thorns  in  the  side  of 
Peace,  from  their  very  origin,  and  the  sections  where  Slav- 
ery exhibited  its  worst  features)  have  fallen  most  severely 
the  troubles  of  reconstruction, — South  Carolina  and  Lou- 
isiana. It  is  as  if  God  had  said,  "  I  will  make  slavery  the 
punishment  of  slave-holders,  so  that  all  the  earth  shall  see 
and  know  that  I,  the  Lord,  delight  in  justice,  and  hate  op- 
pression, and  make  the  oppressor  drink  of  the  cup  which 
he  himself  has  mingled." 

Second,  taking  the  Southern  States  collectively,  blame 
them  as  much  as  you  will,  I  cannot  but  say  that,  consid- 
ering their  accumulated  sufferings;  considering  their 
strangely  altered  conditions,  for  which  they  are  at  fault, 
since  the  war,  with  its  distress  and  its  exhaustion;  in  view 
of  their  poverty,  which  has  come  upon  them  like  an  armed 
man,  and  their  social  disintegration,  which  has  gone  on 
step  by  step,  and  their  new  industrial  organization,  and 
their  humiliating  political  condition, — considering  these 
things,  I  cannot  but  say  that  in  spite  of  all  outbreaks  and 
errors  and  complaints,  their  general  conduct  ought  to  ex- 
tort admiration  from  all  men  whose  expectations  were 
founded  on  the  average  of  nations.  It  is  not  in  human 
nature  to  bear  every  conceivable  affliction  and  kiss  the  rod 
— and  the  South  never  were  given  to  kissing  the  rod.  For 
fifty  years  they  were  supreme.  They  said  to  one  man 
"Go,"  and  he  went;  and  they  said  to  another  man 
"  Come,"  and  he  came — not  on  the  rice  or  cotton  planta- 
tion alone,  but  on  the  larger  plantations  of  politics;  and 
when  you  consider  how  their  eyes  stood  out  with  fatness, 
when  you  consider  what  unbounded  wealth  belonged  to 
the  South,  though  poverty  belonged  to  the  poor  whites, 
and  when  you  consider  how  totally  their  social  condition  has 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  781 

been  reorganized,  how  all  their  old  paths  have  been  rubbed 
out,  and  how  they  who  sat  under  the  shadow  of  the  mag- 
nolia are  sitting  under  the  shadow  of  the  thistle  and  the 
nettle,  is  it  strange  that  they  rub?  Is  it  strange  that  they 
do  not  seem  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  their  desolation  ?  And 
yet,  in  the  main,  with  what  vigor  have  they  prosecuted  their 
industries  !  In  the  main  their  tendencies  are  all  whole- 
some. Of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  class  of  whites  who  are 
uncontrollable  by  the  wiser  and  more  cultured  of  the 
Southern  people,  no  man  is  ignorant;  and  that  these  tur- 
bulent spirits  have  often  bubbled  and  broken  forth  like 
boiling  springs,  we  know;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  no  one 
could  expect  less.  And  taking  Virginia,  and  North  Caro- 
lina, and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  and  Florida,  and 
Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and 
Arkansas,  and  Missouri,  and  Tennessee — taking  them  all 
together,  how  have  they  adapted  themselves  to  their 
changed  circumstances  !  I  never  feel  so  sure  of  the  tri- 
umph of  the  cardinal  principles  of  liberty  under  a  republi- 
can government,  and  I  never  feel  so  proud  of  the  stock  to 
which  I  belong,  reckoning  the  South  with  the  North,  as 
when  I  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  conduct  of  the 
South,  under  the  disasters  that  she  has  brought  upon  her- 
self. There  have  been  some  outbreaks  and  outrages;  in 
many  States  systematic  wrongs  have  been  done;  there 
have  been  numerous  threats  and  much  cruelty;  but  taking 
the  people  throughout  all  the  Southern  States,  they  de- 
mand and  deserve  credit  for  the  conduct  they  have  pur- 
sued. 

This  leads  me,  next,  to  call  to  your  mind  the  criticisms 
which  have  been  urged  in  every  form,  and  with  the  most 
fiery  intemperance,  upon  that  great  political  division  of 
our  people  who  have  had  control  of  this  government  for 
the  last  fifteen  years.  How  many  men  do  I  hear  to-day 
finding  fault  with  presidents,  with  secretaries,  with  promi- 
nent leaders  in  the  Republican  party  !  It  would  seem  as 
if  they  thought  that  all  that  has  taken  place  in  the  time 
that  has  gone  by  was  as  simple  as  the  raising  of  a  harvest 
on    a    Northern    farm.     It    would    seem    as    though    they 


782  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

thought  that  it  was  only  to  be  reaped  by  appropriate  meth- 
ods, and  threshed  out  with  an  appropriate  machine,  and 
garnered  in  a  proper  manner,  and  sent  to  a  regulation 
mill,  and  converted  into  food;  it  would  seem  as  if  they 
thought  it  was  all  very  easy.  But  was  there  ever  any- 
where an  administration  which  had  such  intrinsic  difficul- 
ties to  settle  ?  That  they  have  come  short,  no  man  denies; 
that  they  have  fallen  into  many  errors,  everybody  will 
admit;  but  they  were  walking  in  a  path  that  had  never 
been  explored.  They  were  doing  things  for  which  there 
had  never  been  a  pattern  nor  a  hint.  They  were  perform- 
ing duties  without  any  illumination  from  experience, 
which  were  unknown  to  the  past,  and  which  were  intrin- 
sically almost  impossible.  To  turn  five  million  slaves 
into  citizens — is  that  an  easy  thing  ?  To  give  them  citizen- 
ship right  in  the  midst  and  presence  of  those  who  yester- 
day owned  them  and  had  them  under  their  feet,  and  to 
maintain  peace  between  the  two  classes — was  that  easy  ? 
To  see  to  it  that  these  enfranchised  men  should  have  some 
opportunity  for  gaining  intelligence,  and  some  chance  for 
self-earning,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  whites  should  be 
perfectly  protected — was  that  easy  ?  To  bring  this  great 
horde  of  men — who  were  made  citizens,  not  on  moral  con- 
siderations, but  merely  for  self-protecting  political  reasons, 
— into  the  administration  of  government  throughout  the 
whole  bounds  of  the  South;  and  yet,  to  preserve  equal 
justice  everywhere  without  any  jar  of  local  self-govern- 
ment, with  a  minimum  of  physical  force  among  a  people 
chafed  by  defeat  and  impoverished,  and  sore  in  their  pov- 
erty, and  seeing  from  the  very  ground  the  dirt  rise  up  to 
equality  with  them;  and  to  hold  them  back  from  violence, 
and  carry  them  safely  from  year  to  year  without  collision 
and  attrition  to  a  final  and  a  perfectly  restored  and  recipro- 
cal love  and  confidence, — never  was  there  put  in  the  hands 
of  any  government  such  a  task  as  this  !  And  are  we  to 
forget  it,  in  measuring  administrations  ? 

It  is  said  that  some  high  officials  have  stolen;  it  is  said 
there  has  been  some  profligacy  in  the  Treasury.  As  if 
this  were  the  first  time  that  government  officials  ever  stole  ! 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  783 

As  if  there  had  ever  been  a  nation  whose  Treasury  was 
not  a  red-hot  infernal  den  of  temptation  to  every  one 
around  about  it  !  When  you  come  to  compare  the  amount 
of  money  that  has  passed  through  the  hands  of  the  fiduci- 
ary agents  of  our  government  during  the  last  twelve  or 
fifteen  years  with  the  amount  that  passed  through  the 
hands  of  the  government  under  President  Washington,  you 
find  that  the  percentage  of  fraud  is  vastly  less  now  than 
it  was  during  the  administration  of  this  government  in  its 
earlier  periods.  Look  at  it  whichever  way  you  will,  mul- 
tiply the  mistakes  which  have  been  made  as  much  as  you 
please  (I  care  not,  except  to  have  them  remedied),  by  and 
by,  when  the  excitement  of  the  present  is  all  past,  and  they 
stand  in  history  against  the  background  of  justice,  then 
the  lives  of  these  men  who  have  assisted  in  the  reforma- 
tion of  this  land  will  stand  higher  than  the  heroes  who 
framed  our  Constitution,  and  brought  in  the  primitive 
days  of  liberty. 

And  let  me  say  one  word  more:  that  when  that  reckon- 
ing shall  be  made,  not  far  from  the  side  of  the  Martyrs 
will  stand  the  illustrious  Warriors;  and  that  the  man*  who 
brought  peace,  at  last,  by  his  sword,  and  who,  for  eight 
years  has  administered  this  government  by  singular  silence 
and  singular  disinterestedness,  will  stand  second  only  to 
Lincoln. 

The  question  now  arising  on  every  side,  especially  among 
the  timid,  the  fearful,  and  the  unknowing, — that  is,  among 
almost  all  men, — is  whether  the  conditions  in  which  we 
find  ourselves  at  this  period  of  the  reconstructive  history 
of  this  country,  whether  the  strain  that  is  brought  upon  it 
by  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  to-day,  are  not  going  to  be  a 
tension  greater  than  it  can  bear  ? 

If  I  read  aright,  we  are  contending  with  difficulties  in 
South  Carolina,  in  Florida  and  in  Louisiana;  and  those 
difficulties,  as  I  shall  show  in  a  moment,  take  hold  high 
up;  and  the  question  is,  Can  this  government  endure  a 
pressure  like  that  which  is  brought  to  bear  upon  it  ?     The 

*  General  U.  S.  Grant,  who  was  now  nearing  the  end  of  his  second  presi- 
dential term. 


784  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

safety  of  law,  of  government,  and  of  public  weal,  under 
free  institutions  is  every  day  made  more  apparent  by  the 
parallel  drawn  between  the  strong  governments  in  Eu- 
rope, with  a  minimum  of  liberty  in  them,  and  the  republi- 
can government  on  this  side  of  the  water,  with  a  maxi- 
mum of  liberty  in  it. 

Nothing  is  more  justly  dreaded  in  Europe  than  a  dis- 
puted succession  to  the  throne;  and  it  is  justly  dreaded,  as 
you  know  from  what  has  taken  place  there.  What  wars 
have  deluged  France;  what  convulsions  have  shaken  Italy; 
what  turmoils  there  have  been  in  the  German  Empire  and 
in  Russia;  what  storms  have  burst  forth  in  Great  Britain, 
fillins:  the  land  with  confusion,  on  account  of  roval  succes- 
sion  !  But  there  have  been  fifteen  Presidents  within  a 
hundred  years  in  these  United  States;  there  have  been 
twenty-two  elections  here  during  the  same  period;  the 
question  of  succession  has  been  debated  with  fiery  zeal 
before  this  great  people,  and  settled  without  sword  or 
bayonet,  twenty-two  times,  and  I  am  not  afraid  to  put 
alongside  of  the  experience  of  Europe  this  record  of  a  free 
people  under  free  institutions. 

But  the  strain  which  this  nation  bears  every  four  years 
is  not  its  only  strain,  though  that  is  a  great  one.  This  is  a 
thorough-bred  nation;  and  the  place  where  other  horses 
break  down  is  the  place  where  the  thorough-bred  horse 
comes  out  victorious — the  point  where  the  strain  comes. 

If  it  comes  to  that,  it  is  better  for  us  to  sit  patiently  under 
a  wrong,  rather  than  invoke  tumult.  In  1844,  when  Henry 
Clay  was  defeated  in  his  race  for  the  Presidency  and  Louisi- 
ana cast  her  electoral  vote  for  Polk,  it  was  not  a  question 
of  doubt  that  the  Plaquemine  frauds  robbed  Clay  of  the 
vote  of  Louisiana.  It  is  not  certain  that  he  would  have 
been  elected  if  he  had  received  the  vote  of  that  State;  that 
is  fairly  open  to  doubt;  but  that  the  whole  Whig  party 
honestly  and  firmly  believed  that  Clay  had  been  fairly 
elected,  and  that  the  Presidential  office  was  withheld  from 
him  by  gross  fraud,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  What  hap- 
pened ?  What  did  the  great  Whig  party  do  under  the 
sting  and  outrage  of  losing  by  fraud  what  they  had  gained 


CENTENNIAL   REVIEW.  785 

by  votes  ?  They  made  no  riots,  no  revolution,  and  no  civil 
war.  They  yielded  to  necessity,  and  saved  law,  even  when 
it  was  corrupted,  and  appealed  to  the  future  for  redress. 

The  same  strain  wras  brought  on  our  State  of  New  York. 
John  Jay  was  fairly  elected  governor,  and  George  Clinton 
was  counted  in  by  indisputable  fraud.  What  did  the  citi- 
zens do  ?  They  submitted  to  the  form  of  law  out  of  which 
it  was  designed  that  equity  should  spring,  and  then,  at  the 
next  election,  triumphantly  overthew  their  adversary,  and 
elected  Jay. 

Consider  the  struggle  between  the  North  and  the  South 
that  grew  out  of  slavery;  consider  the  usurpation  of  office 
by  Southern  men;  consider  how  courts  were  in  the  hands 
of  biased  judges;  consider  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise;  consider  the  needless  and  useless  insult  to 
the  North  by  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law;  con- 
sider the  gross  outrages  that  were  perpetrated  in  Kansas; 
consider  the  refusal  of  the  South  to  accept  the  arbitrament 
of  the  vote  when  Lincoln  was  elected.  And  what  did  the 
North  do  ?  It  bore  every  strain,  and  sought  relief  by  legal 
and  moral,  and  not  by  physical  force. 

The  violence  which  brought  forth  the  war  was  Southern, 
and  not  Northern.  It  was  South  Carolina  that  assailed  the 
flag  of  this  nation,  and  the  hand  that  smote  the  flag  was 
itself  smitten  with  paralysis. 

Whatever  may  be  the  formal  decision  respecting  the  Pres- 
idency in  this  great  exigency,  whatever  the  justice  of  the  case 
may  be,  the  North,  by  both  of  its  great  parties,  will  accept 
that  decision.  They  will  abide  by  the  declaration  of  the 
legal  judges  of  election,  whatever  suspicion  or  conviction 
there  may  be  of  fraud,  and  they  will  look  to  the  future  for 
redress.  The  South  certainly  will  not  offer  violence  to  the 
final  decision.  She  has  no  blood  left.  She  is  pale  yet 
from  the  wounds  of  war. 

Besides, — Buchanan  is  not  President  to-day  ! 

Lastly,  can  we,  at  this  point  of  our  history,  afford  to 
have  the  whole  machinery  by  which  the  will  of  the  people 
is  made  manifest  to  the  Government  vitiated  by  fraud  ? 
We  cannot — we  cannot !     Let  me  say  to  you   that  though 


786  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  danger  of  this  people  springing  from  riches  is  great,  it 
is  not  the  greatest.  Though  the  danger  springing  from  a 
corrupt  luxury  is  great,  it  is  not  the  greatest.  Though 
the  danger  springing  from  the  vast  and  complicated  ap- 
paratus of  this  Government  that  rules  a  continent,  and 
that  is  the  most  complicated  government  in  the  world — 
though  this  is  great,  it  is  not  the  greatest  of  our  dangers. 
The  danger  that  hangs  over  the  vote  is  the  most  imminent 
peril  that  threatens  our  liberty;  for  while  there  is  around 
about  almost  every  act  of  men  a  sense  of  right,  a  con- 
science, there  has  come  to  be,  to  a  large  extent,  no 
conscience,  no  sense  of  right,  among  American  citizens  as 
to  their  duty  in  regard  to  the  vote.  It  is  bought  and  sold 
shamelessly  in  the  market.  Capitalists  and  corporations 
find  it  more  economical  to  trade  by  wholesale  than  by 
retail.  They  find  that  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  the  representa- 
tive who  is  sent  to  the  legislature,  than  to  buy  all  of  those 
who  send  him  there;  and  our  courts  are  presided  over  and 
our  public  economy  is  determined,  largely,  by  men  who 
are  under  the  influence  of  those  who  buy  and  sell  votes; 
and  if  this  fraud  which  corrupts  and  destroys  the  integrity 
of  the  vote  in  small  spheres,  advances  from  neighborhoods 
to  States,  and  from  States  to  larger  sections,  rising  till  it 
touches  the  sacred  height  of  the  chief  Executive  of  this 
nation,  from  that  moment  we  shall  be  no  better  than 
Mexico,  and  our  greatness  will  be  the  measure  of  the 
pangs  that  we  shall  suffer  in  coming  disorganizations  and 
revolutions.  No,  we  cannot  afford  to  have  a  'President 
who  sits  in  Washington  placed  there  upon  a  fraudulent 
counting  of  votes. 

I  know,  and  you  do  know,  that  if  there  had  been  a  fair 
election  permitted  in  South  Carolina,  in  Florida,  in  Lou- 
isiana, and  in  Mississippi,  there  would  have  been  an  over- 
whelming majority  given  for  the  Republican  candidate;  I 
know,  and  you  do  know  that,  not  by  fraud  in  counting, 
but  by  physical  force  and  intimidation,  men  were  denied 
their  rights  at  the  ballot-box,  and  that  majorities  were 
rolled  up  which  in  this  respect  were  fraudulent,  that  they 
did   not  represent  the  will  of  the  whole   people  freely  ex- 


CENTENNIAL  REVIEW.  787 

pressed,  but  represented  the  will  of  those  who  seized  the 
power,  and  by  threat  or  actual  bloodshed  wrought  a 
change  in  the  result  of  the  political  campaign. 

What  then?  Wholesale  fraud  on  one  .side  does  not 
justify  friud  on  the  other  side;  and  if  there  is  to  be  a 
President  sitting  in  Washington  by  fraud,  in  the  name  of 
heaven,  let  not  the  emancipating  party,  that  has  con- 
ducted this  nation  through  war  to  settled  peace,  be  tainted 
with  the  irredeemable  corruption  of  that  fraud!  Better  a 
thousand  times  that  your  antagonist  should  be  in  the 
Presidential  chair  than  that  your  chosen  friend  should  be 
there,  if  you  put  him  there  by  one  single  tainted  vote;  for 
we  cannot  afford  to  set  a  bad  precedent.  When  good  men 
set  bad  precedents  bad  men  use  them;  and  rather  than 
that  the  Republican  party  should  hold  the  reins  of  power 
by  putting  a  President  in  the  chair  at  Washington  who 
goes  there  by  one  vote  that  prudent  and  honest  men  have 
reason  to  believe  is  tainted,  better,  far  better  would  it  be 
that  that  party  should  retire,  and  give  place  to  the  other 
side.  Therefore  it  is  my  hope  and  wish  that  if  Governor 
Hayes  should  have  reason  to  believe  that  there  has  been 
unfairness  in  the  count  in  Louisiana,  or  Florida,  or  South 
Carolina,  and  that  the  reported  electoral  vote  does  not 
represent  the  actual  vote,  though  the  fraud  in  the  vote 
itself  is  on  the  other  side — it  is  my  hope  and  wish  that 
under  such  circumstances  he  should  say,  and  make  himself 
forever  illustrious  by  saying,  "  I  will  not  sit  in  Washing- 
ton's seat  unless  I  can  sit  there  with  Washington's  purity." 

Meanwhile,  dismiss  from  your  minds  all  thought  of  lurid 
war  and  social  disorganization  and  distress.  These  are 
but  the  fireballs  with  which  political  parties  illumine  their 
campaign.  The  country  is  safe.  A  part  of  the  road  from 
Egypt  through  the  desert  has  been  passed,  and  the  rest  of 
that  road  is  to  be  gone  over.  Forty  years  in  the  wilder- 
ness is  the  inevitable  necessity.  If  the  Republican  party 
have  the  administration  of  the  government  I  hope  they 
will  abbreviate  the  period  in  which  the  remnant  of  conflict 
will  be  ended.  If  they  are  thrust  out,  and  the  other  side 
come  in,  they,  in  the  end,  will  bring  about  the  same  result; 


788  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

by  a  longer  road,  by  a  more  circuitous  route,  and  with 
more  vexation  and  suffering;  but  surely,  in  the  end. 
Whether  one  side  or  the  other  go  to  Washington,  the  free 
citizens  of  this  whole  nation  have  in  charge  the  liberty 
and  prosperity  of  the  nation,  and  these  will  be  preserved. 
A  glorious  future  is  before  us.  The  difference  lies  in  this: 
Shall  it  be  brought  in  easily,  and  speedily,  and  justly,  or 
must  it  come  by  roundabout  ways,  with  more  pain  and 
tears?     That  it  will  come,  I  have  no  doubt  whatsoever. 

Therefore,  I  call  on  all  men,  and  on  you  especially, 
to  join  with  me  in  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  God  this 
day,  that,  while  we  have  harvests  and  health  and  essential 
peace  throughout  the  nation,  and  an  abundant  chance  of 
prosperity  in  the  future,  a  revolution  has  taken  place  by 
which  five  million  slaves  became  five  million  freemen;  by 
which  men  leagued  for  oppression  were  smitten  and  over- 
thrown in  thirteen  States;  by  which  the  whole  economy 
of  those  States  was  reorganized;  by  which  all  their  social 
relationships  and  political  policy  were  changed;  and  by 
which  there  have  been  laid  again  new  foundations  in 
righteousness,  with  the  promise  that  when  the  tears  are 
done,  and  the  sighs  and  groans  are  past,  they  shall  have  a 
future  that  never  could  have  dawned  on  them  if  they  had 
remained  intact  in  their  old  economies.  And  the  day  will 
speedily  come  when  your  children  and  miae,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  Southern  men,  shall  sit  down  together  in  amity 
and  speak  of  the  deeds  of  their  fathers,  forgetting  the 
furor,  the  irritation,  the  anger,  and  the  bloodshed,  when 
their  interests  shall  be  not  merely  identical,  but  reciprocal, 
and  this  whole  land  shall  be  Immanuel's  land. 

Never  in  my  life  have  I  stood  to  exhort  you  to  thanksgiv- 
ing with  a  more  profound  sense  of  our  obligations  to  God, 
and  of  gratitude  in  especial  for  that  guidance  by  which 
we  have  been  brought  through  a  peril  that  seldom  comes 
to  any  nation,  and  that  never  before  came  to  a  nation  so 
large  and  difficult  of  administration  as  this. 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF 

TO-DAY.* 


"  Samuel  said  unto  the  people,  It  is  the  Lord  that  advanced  Moses  and 
Aaron,  and  that  brought  your  fathers  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  Now 
therefore  stand  still,  that  I  may  reason  with  you  before  the  Lord  of  all  the 
righteous  acts  of  the  Lord,  which  he  did  to  you  and  to  your  fathers." —  i 
Sam.  xii.  6,  7. 


The  Hebrew  literature  is  colored  with  intense  patriot- 
ism. The  events  of  their  history — their  origin,  their 
fathers,  their  bondage,  their  release,  their  wanderings, 
their  final  settlement  in  Palestine,  their  wars,  their  laws, 
their  captivities,  their  restorations — are  the  staple  of  their 
sacred  books,  and  became  the  types  upon  which  their 
prophets  and  sweet  singers  fashioned  an  ideal  future. 
This  whole  human  life  on  earth  was  to  them  the  symbol 
of  the  wanderings  of  "strangers  and  pilgrims;"  and  when, 
at  length,  a  clear  conception  of  another  life  dawned,  they 
called  Heaven  the  New  Jerusalem.  Thus  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  time  and  eternity,  were  dressed  out  in  the  robes 
of  their  national  history. 

It  was  a  wholesome  practice.  It  harvested  every  great 
deed  and  achievement  of  their  race,  and  made  it  seed-corn 
for  the  future;  it  trained  their  children  to  heroism,  to 
patriotism,  and  to  a  religion  which  enshrined  them  both. 

I  propose,  this  morning,  a  retrospect  of  American  his- 
tory, from  a  single  point  of  view — namely,  its  eminent 
Periods  of  Peril.  I  do  this  within  the  hour — that  is  to 
say,  I  do  it  in  outline. 

The  vital  nerve  which  runs  through  and  connects  the 
whole  history  of  these  United  States  is  the  power  of  in- 

*Sermon    in    Plymouth    Church,    Thanksgiving    Day,    Nov.    29,    1877: 
preached  when  it  was  proposed  to  pay  the  United  States  Bonds  in  silver. 


79°  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

telligence,  of  rectitude,  of  patience,  and  of  liberty  to  achieve 
every  great  end  needed  for  national  prosperity.  Physical 
force  has  had  less  part  in  the  vast  results  achieved  in 
national  life  in  this  country  than  in  the  results  achieved  in 
any  other  national  life  of  such  magnitude  and  duration. 

I.  The  first  Period  is  the  Colonial;  the  settlement,  the 
intermediate,  and  the  revolutionary,  are  its  three  divisions. 

The  fermentations  of  Europe  had  so  far  perfected  the 
wine  of  principle  that  our  fathers  brought  hither  no 
doubtful  mixture.  There  were  certain  definite  faiths,  in 
part  derived  from  old  English  liberty  and  in  part  from  the 
new  Reformation, — they  were  principles,  and  not  theories, 
that  they  brought.  They  had  no  Utopian  schemes,  no  Pla- 
tonic Republics,  no  phalansteries  or  communistic  dreams. 
They  believed  in  the  sacredness  of  manhood  by  reason  of 
its  alliance  with  Christ  and  immortality.  They  believed 
in  that  liberty  which  consists  in  taking  on  law.  Men  are 
free  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  spheres  of  obedience 
that  they  can  fill.  Laws  are  not  shackles  to  impede,  but 
tools  and  harnesses  to  assist  human  force.  The  peculiar- 
ity of  our  early  ancestry  was  not  that  they  loved  liberty — 
everything  in  heaven,  on  earth,  and  in  the  sea  does  that; 
but  they  discerned  the  royal  fact,  which  others  had  missed 
who  threw  off  law  to  find  liberty,  that  by  taking  on  law  iticn 
are  made  free.  Obedience  to  God's  law  is  the  highest  lib- 
erty to  which  humanity  may  ever  reach. 

With  these  rational  principles  not  yet  quite  ripe  in  their 
hands,  to  be  somewhat  more  developed  through  mistakes 
and  suffering,  the  special  peril  of  the  colonial  period  was 
in  its  gestation  and  birth  of  the  institutions  of  liberty. 

Liberty  is  but  a  vapor  without  its  appropriate  engines. 
As  a  disembodied  principle,  it  wanders  up  and  down  the 
earth,  seeking  rest  and  finding  none.  It  needs  a  body. 
In  other  days  that  body  has  been  sometimes  a  shapeless 
giant,  or  a  dwarf,  or  some  monster  form.  In  our  colonies 
it  pleased  God  to  give  to  it  such  a  shapely  body  as 
suited  its  merit.  The  church,  the  state,  the  legislatures, 
the  courts,  the  executive,  the  body  of  wise  laws  all  re- 
volving within  well  defined  spheres — these  were  the  prod- 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  79  * 

ucts  of  that  long  colonial  history,  which,  because  it 
threw  up  no  auroral  glow  upon  the  heavens,  seems  to 
many  of  little  importance. 

In  the  New  Testament,  the  life  of  Mary  after  the  an- 
nunciation retires  from  sight;  but  in  that  obscurity  was 
silently  forming  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  The  whole 
history  of  America  lay  in  silent  shadow  in  the  early  and 
middle  colonial  periods.  Our  fathers  were  incarnating 
principles  in  institutions.  For  the  purposes  of  romance, 
their  straitness,  their  rigorous  life,  their  seclusion  upon  the 
hard  soil  in  a  hard  climate,  were  not  full  of  interest;  but 
for  great  practical  uses  these  were  elements  of  good  fort- 
une. When  the  army  of  fowls  prepare  for  their  young, 
they  do  not  sit  down  upon  the  fat  marshes  of  the  south,  or 
on  the  sedgy  edges  of  southern  rivers.  They  lift  them- 
selves into  the  heavens  and  sail  to  the  Arctic  circle,  and 
there,  upon  rocks,  under  the  edge  of  ice,  find  security  for 
their  young. 

New  England  was  the  breeding -ground  of  America. 
Her  seclusion  and  her  hard  ways  were  mercies.  It  was 
not  in  soft  places  and  amidst  Egyptian  leeks  and  onions 
and  melons  and  cucumbers  that  Israel  planned  the  He- 
brew commonwealth,  but  under  the  crags  of  Sinai,  and 
along  the  sands  of  the  wilderness.  The  pitiable  part  of 
colonial  history  is  the  best  part  of  it,  and  its  glory. 

II.  The  second  Period  of  Peril  was  that  of  transition 
from  dependence  to  a  free  and  independent  national  life. 
All  republics  have  been  short  lived,  perishing  from  the 
weakness  of  their  political  system,  or,  more  often,  the  want 
of  morality  in  their  citizens.  At  the  bottom  of  every  en- 
during system  must  lie  a  principle  of  universal  rectitude. 
"Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation."  That  is  the  ledge  out 
of  which  every  nation  must  quarry  foundation  stones. 
This  was  the  cry  of  Israel  through  ages;  but  Israel  did  not 
know  how  to  build  upon  this  sure  foundation. 

Now  New  England  was  the  point  in  time  where  in 
mental  development  Palestine  and  Greece  met.  In  New 
England  were  Socrates  and  Moses,  Isaiah  and  Plato. 
There    was   for   New   England    no    art.     Phidias  and    his 


792  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

brethren  had  perished  in  the  Red  Sea  of  time.  But  the 
profound  moral  sentiment,  the  passionate  yearning  for 
righteousness,  the  feeling  after  God,  which  centered  in  the 
old  Hebrew,  came  down  into  New  England.  The  Greeks 
could  bring  no  conscience.  There  was  never  enough 
moral  sense  in  Greece  long  to  hold  a  government  together. 
Iron  was  wanting  in  their  blood.  But  the  Greek  brought 
to  New  England  the  keen  intellect,  the  speculative  genius, 
the  hunger  for  ideas;  and  the  typical  New  Englander 
may  say,  "  Greece  was  my  father,  and  Palestine  was  my 
mother."  Jonathan  Edwards  stands  forth  as  the  best  type 
of  this  extraordinary  union. 

When  the  war  burned  the  cords  that  held  the  colonies  to 
the  throne  there  was  an  hour  of  perplexity.  "  I  have 
taken  off  my  coat,  and  how  shall  I  put  it  on  again  ?  "  was 
the  sentiment  of  the  time.  Then  it  was  that  Virginia 
kindled  her  light  at  the  altars  of  New  England;  in  whose 
public  assemblies,  called  in  times  of  peril  to  consider  the 
general  welfare,  in  whose  bills  of  rights,  in  whose  town- 
ships, and  in  whose  minor  colonial  unions  for  temporary 
purposes,  were  found  the  motives  and  sketch-forms  of  that 
great  Constitution  which  stands  without  a  parallel  among 
institutions  of  human  formation.  If  you  say  that  Virginia 
led  our  republic  in  the  revolutionary  period,  and  in  the 
primitive  period  of  our  Constitution,  I  answer,  Yes;  hers 
was  the  root  and  stock,  but  New  England  gave  the  scions 
that  were  grafted  in,  and  that  formed  the  top  and  fruit. 

But  that  after  times  had  something  to  add  and  some- 
thing to  change  does  not  take  away  from  the  grandeur 
of  that  great  instrument  which  has  for  nearly  one  hun- 
dred years  proved  itself  adequate  to  the  conservation  of 
liberty  and  of  power.  The  perils  through  which  it  came 
to  strength  are  largely  hidden  by  the  glow  of  its  abun- 
dant prosperity. 

The  foundation  of  those  great  piers*  that  stand  over 
against  each  other,  on  our  river,  are  forever  hidden.  Men 
see,  and  will  see,  only  the  majesty  of  the  accomplished 

*  Of    the    East    River    suspension    bridge,   between    New   York    and 
Brooklyn. 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  793 

work;  but  few  remember  the  darkness,  the  perils,  the  un- 
matched difficulties  of  the  caisson  in  the  beginning. 

New  applications  and  larger  developments  have  been 
given  to  the  elements  of  the  Constitution,  and  some  impost- 
humes  have  been  cleansed  from  it,  and  some  weak  spots 
have  been  removed  by  the  strong  hand  of  war;  yet  the  hun- 
dred years  have  but  rounded  out  and  finished  the  great 
work  exactly  planned  and  framed  by  the  fathers.  Forty 
free  States  are  held  together  in  one  sovereignty,  and  fifty 
millions  of  people  move  in  a  safe  liberty  under  a  system 
that  touches  the  nation  as  summer  touches  the  Continent; 
with  a  pressure  that  enforces  growth  and  develops  strength, 
but  oppresses  nothing. 

III.  Now  comes  the  third  Period  of  Peril,  from  fungoid 
growth.  It  befalls  men,  sometimes,  to  carry  about  a  fun- 
goid growth,  which,  feeding  on  juices  elaborated  in  the 
body,  is  steadily  sucking  out  that  very  life  upon  which  it 
is  feeding.  Such  was  Slavery.  Its  cancerous  roots  had 
spread  to  every  department  of  life  and  government.  It 
had  suborned  the  legislation  and  politics  of  the  country. 
It  had  thrown  its  filmy  net  of  "construction"  around  the 
courts.  It  had  full  possession  of  the  executive  govern- 
ment. It  had  filled  the  channels  of  commerce  with  its  ill- 
gotten  wealth.  It  had  fascinated  the  free  laborer,  who, 
like  a  bird  charmed  by  a  serpent,  fluttered  and  chirped 
before  the  very  mouth  that  was  opening  to  swallow  him. 
It  had  benumbed  the  conscience  of  the  church,  and  priests 
and  preachers  were  chanting  lullaby  to  this  Devil's  brood. 
The  voice  of  liberty  was  heard  as  the  voice  of  one  crying 
in  the  wilderness.  Even  brave  men  had  some  revelations 
of  despair.  They  knew  not  the  riches  of  God's  resources. 
Like  the  traitor  of  old,  who  hanged  himself  and  all  his 
bowels  gushed  out,  so  this  traitor  to  liberty  destroyed 
itself  by  its  own  audacity  and  judicial  blindness.  A  little 
policy,  a  show  of  courtesy,  and  the  golden  yoke  of  pros- 
perity would  yet  have  been  easily  borne  upon  the  servile 
merchant's  and  manufacturer's  neck.  It  might  have  won 
with  smiles  that  which  it  could  not  gain  with  frowns.  It 
might  by  courtesy  and  kindness  and  some  appearance  of 


794  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

compliance  have  ruled  half  a  hundred  years  longer;  but  it 
had  grown  impudent,  arrogant,  domineering,  and  su- 
premely foolish. 

And  yet,  as  one  recalls  the  condition  of  parties  when 
the  fuse  was  kindled  at  Sumter,  there  were  fearful  chances 
against  liberty.  No  man  by  the  mere  force  of  ideas  would 
have  dared  to  take  the  chances.  They  were  in  favor  of 
continued  Southern  supremacy.  A  united  South  and  a 
divided  North,  with  all  the  accustomed  political  enginery 
in  secret  agreement  to  paralyze  the  Northern  conscience 
and  the  Northern  hand,  gave  promise  of  a  short  outbreak 
and  a  quick  peace  of  despotism.  When  I  look  back  upon 
that  period  I  feel  as  he  felt  who  had  traveled  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  across  a  bridge,  when  he  learned 
what  a  risk  he  had  run.  When  he  reached  the  house 
of  the  gate-keeper  he  was  saluted  with  exclamations  of 
amazement,  and  asked  how  he  came  over.  In  the  morn- 
ing he  was  taken  out  to  look  at  the  bridge.  Every  plank 
had  been  stripped  off  from  it,  only  the  stringer  in  the 
middle  remained,  and  below  was  a  chasm  a  hundred  feet 
deep  with  a  roaring  torrent  rushing  through  it;  and  along 
that  single  beam  his  sagacious  and  sure-footed  horse  had 
walked,  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  borne  him  safely  across. 

So  came  we  over  the  great  abyss  and  peril  of  that  early 
period  of  the  war. 

No  man  could  have  anticipated  that  heaven-sent  freshet, 
that  flood  of  popular  patriotism,  that  came  from  no  man 
knows  where,  rolling  in  upon  the  Pharaohs  of  the  day.  It 
was  this,  of  which  there  were  no  prognostications,  no 
calculations,  and  no  expectations,  that  saved  us.  The 
arrangements  of  that  perilous  opening  of  the  war  were 
such  as  to  give  every  promise  of  success  to  the  conspirators 
of  slavery. 

There  were,  even  down  to  within  a  year  of  the  close  of 
the  struggle,  such  despondencies,  at  times,  that,  had  the 
South  been  wise,  she  could  have  asked  a  truce,  and  laid 
down  her  arms  upon  conditions  that  would  have  renewed 
her  power  substantially,  and  for  a  long  period  held  liberty 
paralyzed  in   the  arms  of   compromise.     That  the   South 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  795 

believed  in  its  cause  was  our  safety.  Had  Southern  men 
had  less  faith  that  they  were  right  they  would  have  given 
up  earlier,  and  given  up  before  their  property  was  wasted, 
voluntarily,  on  conditions  such  that  this  nation  would 
have  been  stranded  on  sand-bars  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  instead  of  sailing  as  now  full  and  free  on  the  fathom- 
less ocean.  From  this  peril  we  were  delivered  by  the 
tenacity  of  Southern  leaders  for  the  cause  which  did  not 
seem  to  us  right;  and  they  were  made  tenacious  by  a  love 
of  their  own  liberty  and  independence,  although  it  seemed 
to  us  that  they  were  standing  for  the  slavery  of  others. 
This  was  one  of  those  instances  of  the  concentric  working 
of  Providence  in  which  the  exterior  sphere  seems  to  be 
human  and  the  interior  divine. 

IV.  The  Fourth  Period  was  that  of  the  close  of  the  war, 
which  brought  three  pre-eminent  perils — that  of  the  army, 
first;  that  of  reconstruction,  second;  and  that  of  taxation, 
third.  The  experience  of  the  world  would  have  led  men 
to  prophesy,  as  they  did  prophesy,  a  series  of  disasters  of 
the  most  dangerous  kind  upon  the  dispersion  of  a  million 
and  a  half  of  men  who  had  learned  their  lessons  of  morals 
and  politics  in  the  camp.  It  was  supposed  that  there  would 
be  great  violence  breaking  out  on  every  side  from  men  who 
lacked  occupation,  who  had  been  broken  off  from  honor- 
able industries,  who  had  been  supplanted  by  others  that 
had  taken  their  places,  and  who  should  come  home  in 
great  multitudes  to  suffer  want.  Insubordination  under 
civic  rule,  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
look  with  indifference  upon  magistrates  and  with  respect 
only  upon  military  officers — who  despised  men  without 
swords  and  worshiped  warriors — this  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. Dissoluteness  and  vagabondage  we  had  a  right  to 
fear.  But,  so  far  from  the  realization  of  such  fears,  I  aver 
that  there  never  was  an  instance  of  the  subsidence  with  so 
little  disorder  of  an  army  that  had  possessed  such  great 
power,  and  had  dominated  a  continent,  headed  by  in- 
numerable leaders  not  lacking  in  ambition.  As  the  rains 
which  fall  upon  the  mountains  melt  the  snow,  dissolving 
the    avalanche,   and    each    drop,   confluent,   finds    its  own 


796  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

channel  down  the  mountain-side  to  water  the  meadows 
below  and  bring  summer  harvests;  so  this  great  army 
found  its  way  back  again  without  one  riot,  without  a  single 
uproar,  without  a  solitary  recorded  trouble.  It  gave  us 
exceeding  trouble  to  gather  this  million  and  a  half  of 
men;  but  to  disband  them  and  send  them  home,  many  of 
them  maimed,  many  of  them  poor,  and  many  of  them 
workless,  cost  not  a  proclamation  nor  an  edict! 

Military  officers,  in  whom  it  is  supposed  resides  a  per- 
petual ambition  for  power,  have  been  our  very  exemplars 
of  peace.  Our  first  President  and  our  last  were  elected 
from  the  fields  of  war.  Washington,  though  a  man  of  war, 
is  less  thought  of  to-day  in  this  nation  as  the  commander 
of  our  armies  than  as  the  man  who  taught  us  peace.  And 
Grant,  who  by  his  skill  and  indomitable  courage  wrought 
for  us  final  deliverance,  sat  in  the  Presidential  chair,  not 
without  some  mistakes — for  he  was  human — but  without 
one  single  tendency  to  military  rule,  and  with  as  absolute 
respect  for  civil  law  as  has  been  manifested  by  any  Presi- 
dent from  the  time  of  Washington  down  to  this  day. 

As  I  recede,  along  the  adjoining  fields  of  Jersey,  from 
the  great  city,  I  speedily  lose  sight  of  the  masts,  of  the 
warehouses,  and  of  the  spires  themselves;  and  yet  when  I 
have  gone  so  far  that  the  last  glimmer  of  these  things  is 
lost,  the  towers  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  stand  full  and  high 
in  the  air,  conspicuous.  As  time  goes  on  we  shall  forget 
that  which  called  down  such  a  storm  of  fury  upon  the 
name  of  Grant;  and  when  all  incidental  and  collateral 
things  have  gone  below  the  horizon,  his  name  and  just 
fame  will  stand  towering  high  in  the  air,  unobscured  and 
imperishable! 

There  was  not  a  single  military  riot.  There  was  scarcely 
a  suspicion  of  military  ambition.  There  was  not  a  sus- 
picion of  the  purport  of  meetings  multitudinous.  The 
Army  of  the  Tennessee,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and 
Divisions  of  every  name,  meet  from  year  to  year,  and 
neither  the  papers  of  the  one  side  nor  those  of  the  other 
have  ever  charged  them  with  coming  together  for  pur- 
poses of  ambition.     The   Grand   Army  of    the  Republic, 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  797 

without  a  banner,  a  rifle,  or  a  sword,  camping  down  in  the 
field  of  peace,  has  not  brought  upon  itself  any  suspicion  of 
military  aspirations;  and  yet,  what  people  ever  acquitted 
themselves  more  bravely  in  war  ?  What  people,  on  both 
sides,  ever  hung  up  more  trophies  in  the  halls  of  memory? 
What  deeds  of  heroism  have  been  recorded  to  be  remem- 
bered as  long  as  history  shall  last!  And  there  is  no  sus- 
picion that  those  on  the  side  either  of  the  North  or  the 
South  have  learned  the  nefarious  arts  of  Catiline,  or 
plotted  any  conspiracy  against  liberty.  Nay,  the  reaction 
has  been  so  extreme  that  I  fear  gratitude  to  the  soldier  is 
in  danger  of  being  left  out,  forgotten.  The  man  without 
an  arm,  standing  before  the  government,  has  less  chance 
than  he  who  has  two  arms.  The  man  who  has  lost  a 
foot  cannot  travel  so  fast  after  place  and  support  as  the 
man  who  has  two  feet.  The  thunder  of  battle  is  dead, 
and  the  sense  of  safety  is  swallowing  up  our  gratitude  to 
the  soldier-boy  that  comes  crippled  home,  and  is  obliged 
to  ask  his  fellow  citizens  for  opportunity  to  earn  a  liveli- 
hood, having  given  to  his  country  the  substance  and  mar- 
row of  his  life. 

Next  to  the  military  period  of  danger,  on  the  subsidence 
of  the  war,  came  the  danger  of  reconstruction — a  danger 
so  great  that  persons  not  accustomed  to  the  usages  and 
the  temper  of  a  free  and  intelligent  people  prophesied  un- 
mitigated mischief.  Their  prophecies  happily  have  all 
perished  on  their  utterance.  The  first  great  peril  arising 
from  this  source  was  the  condition  of  the  blacks  through- 
out the  South.  Four  millions  of  men  had  been  suddenly 
uprooted  from  a  state  of  slavery.  The  South  had  felt  that 
its  industry  rested  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  blacks.  The 
welfare  of  innumerable  families  in  the  South  was  made 
dependent  upon  ownership  of  these  people.  Therefore, 
to  give  them  liberty  was  to  plow  and  subsoil  the  whole 
South.  It  was  to  turn  over  its  fences,  bury  its  orchards, 
destroy  its  houses,  so  to  speak,  introduce  a  new  political 
economy,  and  change  the  whole  means  of  support  of  the 
Southern  people.  Was  that  a  thing  easy  to  do,  trying  the 
future  by  any  lesson  that  has  been  taught  us  by  the  past  ? 


798  rA  TRIO  TIC  ADDRESSES. 

It  was  a  thing  that  could  not  be  risked  upon  any  vaticina- 
tion. It  found  its  own  way  out,  however.  A  supreme  act 
of  justice  set  the  slaves  free;  but  no  counsel  or  wisdom  of 
man  alone  has  made  their  freedom  so  harmless  to  them- 
selves and  so  harmless  to  their  late  masters  as  it  has  been. 
That  nature  which  hath  God  in  it  hath  done  this.  Meas- 
uring by  abstract  rectitude  and  justice,  you  may  blame  this, 
that,  and  the  other  act  on  the  part  of  the  South;  but  on 
the  whole,  considering  the  difficulties  which  arose,  the 
multitudes  that  were  concerned,  the  state  in  which  the 
war  left  citizenship,  the  revolutionized  condition  of  things, 
in  the  light  of  ordinary  human  nature,  or  of  the  expecta- 
tions which  men  found  on  human  nature — considering 
these  things,  the  conduct  of  the  great  mass  of  black  people 
in  the  South  has  been  without  a  parallel  for  industry  and 
for  general  kindliness.  Regard,  too,  the  conduct  of  the 
whites  who  were  recently  their  masters!  When  I  put  one 
over  against  the  other  I  hardly  know  on  which  side  my 
wonder  preponderates.  If  there  have  been  mischiefs,  cru- 
elties, and  oppressions,  look  for  the  perpetrators  of  them 
not  to  the  men  that  owned  slaves  and  controlled  public 
sentiment  at  the  South;  look,  rather,  to  "  the  poor  white 
trash"  that  never  owned  slaves,  and  that  were  but  a  little 
above  the  colored  man,  being  degraded  and  brutalized  by 
the  necromancy  of  the  accursed  system  of  slavery  itself  ! 

Much  work  is  yet  to  be  done  in  the  South.  Much 
cruelty  is  yet  to  be  looked  for  there.  He  who  expects 
Israel  to  come  out  of  the  hands  of  Pharaoh  and  go  into 
the  promised  land  inside  of  forty  years  expects  without 
knowledge  and  without  good  reason.  I  do  not  expect  the 
blacks  ever  to  come  to  their  full  possession  of  liberty  and 
civility  until  they  have  had  the  equivalent  of  the  Jews' forty 
years  of  pilgrimage.  For  saying  so  ten  years  ago  I  was 
held  in  derision  and  contempt  by  the  Republican  press  at 
large;  but  we  shall  have,  at  our  leisure,  time  to  revise  all 
such  judgments  as  that.  Whenever  you  can  construct 
human  nature  by  a  vote,  or  change  it  by  legislation;  when- 
ever you  can  handle  men  as  the  potter  handles  clay,  then 
you  may  by  an  edict  convert  slaves  into  intelligent  men 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  799 

instantly,  blowing  them,  as  you  would  soap-bubbles,  into 
objects  of  beauty !  But  human  nature  is  the  toughest 
thing  that  man  ever  works  on.  To  take  four  million  men  of 
an  inferior  race,  educated  in  the  school  of  slavery,  and,  by 
a  constitutional  vote  of  the  people,  make  them  as  if  they 
had  never  been  ignorant  slaves,  is  impossible;  and  if  men 
have  expected  it,  it  only  shows  to  what  overfed  enthusiasm 
they  were  led. 

Men  grow;  and  of  all  growths  there  is  nothing  that 
grows  so  slowly  as  manhood.  The  reason  why  it  grows 
so  slowly  is  that  there  is  so  much  of  it,  that  it  is  so  subtle, 
and  that  it  is  so  precious  in  its  results — for  the  best  things 
are  the  scarcest,  and  are  the  longest  in  coming  to  perfec- 
tion. 

Then,  next,  was  the  peril  arising  from  the  anomalous 
position  of  the  rebellious  States  themselves.  After  such 
rude  embraces  as  they  had  experienced,  after  such  ruinous 
conflicts  as  they  had  gone  through,  and  after  such  intense 
bitterness  as  had  been  aroused,  men  said,  "  It  contravenes 
every  canon  of  experience  to  suppose  that  you  can  have 
more  than  provinces  at  the  South  to  be  governed  by  im- 
perial rulers."  Certainly  it  was  necessary,  in  their  anoma- 
lous condition,  that  they  should  be  made  to  respect  the 
government  by  the  power  of  the  military;  but  were  there 
ever  before  so  many  high-spirited  provinces  held  in  quiet- 
ness by  so  few  men  ?  Caesar  could  send  to  Gaul  an  army  of 
trained  veterans,  and  slay  an  hundred  thousand  men,  and 
have  peace;  but  there  were  not  enough  soldiers  in  all  the 
South  to  constitute  the  fraction  of  an  army;  and  those  that 
were  there  were  there  not  for  the  sake  of  overawing  the  pop- 
ulation, but  simply  to  give  that  part  of  the  population  who 
earnestly  meant  peace  and  obedience  to  the  national  law 
advantage  over  the  rude  men  at  the  bottom  of  society 
ready  for  any  turbulence.  I  bear  witness  that  the  leading 
men  of  the  South,  as  a  general  thing,  were  men  who  kept 
faith.  When  they  made  covenants  they  stood  upon  those 
covenants;  and  whatever  have  been  their  sufferings — and 
no  people  have  gone  through  more — the  Southern  people 
themselves,  being  the   victims  of   the   system    of   slavery 


800  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

which  led  them  into  a  career  of  war  and  ruin,  have  carried 
themselves  with  a  gallantry,  with  a  courage,  yes,  and  often- 
times with  a  chivalry,  which  has  not  been  surpassed  by 
any  other  people,  and  which  might  have  given  us  patterns 
of  self-devotion  worthy  of  our  following.  Their  prospects 
have  been  ruined;  their  homes  and  houses  have  been 
burned;  their  property  and  money  were  thrown  into  the 
throat  of  war;  their  slaves  were  not  only  liberated,  but 
were  in  many  cases  placed  over  their  heads  with  their 
votes  by  which  they  turned  everything  bottom  side  up; 
States  were  furrowed  and  subsoiled.  Where  have  ever 
been  found  so  many  people,  as  high  spirited  as  they,  who 
have  borne  such  things  with  a  patience  and  self-govern- 
ment more  creditable  to  human  nature  than  they  ?  Bear 
me  witness,  that  so  long  as  they  tampered  with  the  Con- 
stitution, so  long  as  {hey  were  enemies  of  the  working 
man,  so  long  as  they  sought  to  undermine  justice,  so  long 
as  they  undertook  to  poison  the  conscience  of  the  North 
— so  long,  without  fear  or  favor,  I  denounced  their  course; 
but  now  the  great  wheel  of  God's  providence  has  turned 
around,  and  those  evils  are  swept  away  never  to  appear 
again,  in  this  generation  at  any  rate,  I  look  out  upon  the 
South,  and  my  heart  turns  to  them,  not  only  with  that  love 
which  I  bear  to  every  other  heart  in  this  land  of  mine,  but 
with  a  zeal  and  admiration  which  I  never  felt  before;  and 
I  say  that  the  conduct  of  leading  Southern  men  since  the 
war  has  largely  redeemed  their  misconduct  before  the  war. 

But  that  peril  of  reconstruction  has  passed.  Some  med- 
ication, some  surgery,  there  has  been,  I  admit;  legislation 
and  constitutional  amendments  have  performed  a  needed 
task;  but  the  great  forces  of  nature,  I  assert,  have  done  far 
more  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  South  than  our  legislation  has. 

When,  by  some  accident,  a  man's  leg  has  been  splintered, 
he  calls  surgeons  to  attend  him,  and  they  all  agree  that 
the  parts  shall  be  put  together  as  speedily  as  possible;  but 
whether  the  leg  shall  be  afterwards  treated  by  homoeopa- 
thy or  hydropathy  or  allopathy  they  are  divided  in  opin- 
ion, and  a  dispute  is  waged  over  the  man  that  lies  suffering. 
Meanwhile,  nature  takes   things   into  her  own  hand,  and 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DAY.  80 1 

knits  the  bones,  and  heals  the  limb;  and  by  the  time  the 
doctors  have  come  to  an  agreement  the  man  is  able  to  rise 
and  kick  them  all  out ! 

There  was  even  a  more  perilous  danger  in  connection 
with  the  period  of  reconstruction — the  danger  of  infamous 
dishonesty.  So  sure  was  it  thought  to  be  that  this  great 
nation,  which  came  out  of  the  war  bearing  an  absolute 
burden  of  more  than  four  thousand  million  dollars,  the 
interest  on  which  was  to  be  paid  by  a  universal  taxation, 
would  flinch,  and  refuse  to  bend  its  shoulders  to  the  work, 
that  certain  men  rushed  to  the  front  with  theories  of  what 
was  substantially  "greenback"  repudiation;  and  rushed 
to  find  no  following  !  In  the  earlier  periods  of  recon- 
struction the  question  arose  as  to  whether  the  bonds  that 
had  been  given  by  this  government  for  the  maintenance 
of  our  armies  should  be  paid,  and  paid  in  full.  That  was 
the  question  which  came  before  this  country  in  the  North- 
west, in  the  far  West,  clear  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  in  the  great 
intermediary  valleys,  and  on  these  shores  where  people 
who  pinched  their  money  first  pinched  the  rocks  to  get  it; 
and  in  every  quarter,  North,  South,  East,  and  West,  there 
was  but  one  substantial  result.  The  voices  of  the  men 
who  favored  repudiation,  like  the  sound  of  an  evil  bird 
retreating  into  the  depths  of  the  forest,  piped  softer  and 
softer,  and  finally  died  away  in  the  distance;  while  the 
voice  that  thundered  forth  from  the  nation  was:  "The 
promises  of  the  Government  by  which  it  has  maintained 
unity  and  liberty  must  be  kept."  And  for  that  result  we 
are  as  much  indebted  to  our  foreign  population  as  to  our 
native  population.  To  their  honor  and  credit  I  say  that 
our  foreign  citizens,  or  those  who  have  become  citizens 
here,  having  been  born  in  other  lands,  stood  by  the  honor 
of  the  republic,  and  saved  the  nation  from  the  disgrace  of 
a  shameless  dishonesty  ! 

Ten    thousand    mishaps    may    flow    from    their  coming 

among  us;  but  the  benefits  which  arise  from  the  presence 

here  of  those  who  have  come  from  old   countries  and  are 

settled  among  us  are  a  hundred  to  one  to  the  mishaps  and 

inconveniences   that   result   from  their  mingling  with  us. 
51 


802  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

And  there  should  be  a  monument,  if  it  would  not  be  an 
imputation  upon  their  honesty,  to  commemorate  the  fact 
that  they  stood  up  for  the  integrity  of  the  nation  when 
they  knew  that  every  dollar  paid  for  taxes  would  be  so 
wrung  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow  out  of  the  fields  that 
they  tilled. 

So,  then,  when  you  take  those  three  dangers,  the  danger 
of  repudiation,  the  danger  of  reconstruction,  and  the  dan- 
ger arising  from  the  anomalous  condition  of  the  people  of 
the  South, — were  there  ever  three  such  great  problems 
brought  forward  to  be  solved  at  such  a  time,  involving  so 
many  appeals  to  the  bad  side  of  human  nature,  at  a  time  of 
transition,  always  a  time  of  disorder,  —  were  there  ever 
three  such  great  problems  so  peacefully  solved  ?  It  was 
not  the  zeal  of  senators,  or  of  scholars,  nor  was  it  the 
voice  of  the  pulpit,  but  it  was  the  sound  moral  instincts 
in  the  great  thinking  mass  of  the  common  people,  that 
developed  those  grand  results  which  have  followed  the 
war  ! 

I  emphasize  this  because  I  wish  to  make  the  point  of 
this  discourse,  that  it  is  safe  to  give  liberty  to  an  intelli- 
gent common  people.  They  form  a  parliament  before 
which  the  weightiest  and  most  transcendent  questions  of 
ethics  may  be  safely  brought  for  adjudication. 

V.  The  Perils  of  the  Hour  are  the  last  that  I  shall  men- 
tion— and  they  are  the  least.  Whatever  may  betide  the 
questions  that  are  now  at  issue,  they  will  result  in  nothing 
worse  than  simple  transient  mischief,  moral,  political,  and 
civil.  The  foundations  are  settled.  The  future  policy  of 
this  nation,  whichever  hands  undertake  to  hold  the  helm, 
is  assured.  I  would  rather  that  the  nation,  which  has  been 
rescued  by  the  great  Republican  party,  and  borne  through 
all  the  shoals  and  whirls  and  troubles  of  the  reconstruct- 
ive period,  for  which  they  are  now  receiving  more  curses 
than  kindnesses,  and  whose  mistakes  are  multiplied  before 
the  eyes  of  men,  while  their  wisdom  is  little  thought  of — 
I  would  rather  that  this  nation  should  remain  in  their 
hands,  if  they  are  worthy  to  hold  the  helm;  but  if  not, 
give  me  a  hand  that  can  hold  the  helm,  whosesoever  it  is. 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DA  Y.  803 

If  their  light  is  extinguished  along  the  coast,  and  they 
have  no  longer  power  to  guide  the  ship  of  state  to  a  safe 
harbor,  let  other  lights  be  kindled.  We  cannot  afford  to 
wait  for  any  party.  The  nation  is  more  important  than 
any  party.  It  is  not,  then,  any  particular  peril  of  a  change 
of  Administration  that  is  to  be  feared.  I  look  upon  that 
with  interest,  but  still  with  equanimity. 

But  there  is  a  danger  from  suppressed  repudiation. 
When  children  have  the  measles,  and  when  after  an  appro- 
priate time  saffron  and  all  the  other  drinks  fail  to  bring 
them  out,  the  doctors  shake  their  heads  and  call  them 
suppressed  measles;  and  the  measles  suppressed  are  more 
dangerous  than  when  brought  out.  And  suppressed  re- 
pudiation is  all  the  more  dangerous  than  any  open  and 
avowed  repudiation.  Whenever,  in  any  nation,  there  is 
such  an  attempt  to  tamper  with  standards  that  the  moral 
sense  of  men  is  bewildered,  and  liberty  is  given  to  unprin- 
cipled men  at  large  to  cheat,  to  be  unfaithful  to  obliga- 
tions, to  refuse  the  payment  of  honest  debts — wherever 
that  takes  place,  it  is  all  the  worse  if  done  with  the  per- 
mission of  law  !  I  hate  the  devil  riding  on  a  law  worse 
than  I  do  the  devil  riding  without  a  law  under  him.  Who- 
ever tampers  with  established  standards  tampers  with  the 
very  marrow  and  vitality  of  public  faith. 

What  would  become  of  this  land  if  all  standards  were 
tampered  with  ?  What  if  the  legislature  this  year  should 
ordain  that  a  foot  should  consist  of  only  ten  inches,  and 
next  year,  the  power  being  taken  out  of  their  hands  by 
the  other  party,  it  should  be  ordained  that  a  foot  should 
measure  fourteen  inches;  and  so  every  three  or  five  years 
the  standard  should  be  changed  on  which  immense  and 
innumerable  contracts  were  based,  it  being  necessary  for 
such  contracts  to  follow  the  alteration,  sometimes  damag- 
ing and  sometimes  unjustly  favoring  the  contractors,  and 
enabling  men,  under  the  shield  of  party  and  of  law,  to 
commit  fraud  as  if  it  were  an  equity  ?  What  if  the  pound 
weight  should  be  tampered  with,  and  it  should  be  or- 
dained now  that  a  pound  is  ten  ounces,  now  that  it  is 
twelve,  and  now  that  it  is  fifteen  ?     What  if  the  quart  and 


804  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

pint  should  be  tampered  with,  and  made  to  differ  to-mor- 
row from  what  they  are  to-day  ?  What  if  the  yard- 
measure  should  be  tampered  with  ?  What  if  all  the 
standards  on  which  business  is  conducted  should  be  sub- 
ject to  fluctuations  and  caprice,  so  that  no  man  could  tell 
what  was  right  or  just,  and  so  that  ethical  questions,  with 
all  their  casuistry,  should  swarm  as  mosquitoes  in  summer 
about  a  swamp,  or  insects  in  a  country  tavern  ?  What 
chance  would  there  be  for  honesty,  for  integrity,  or  for 
solid  prosperity  ? 

The  danger  into  which  we  are  running  is  hidden  under 
the  mystery  of  finance  and  the  currency.  All  money  is 
but  a  representative  of  property.  As  now,  by  facility  of 
intercourse,  all  the  world  is  one  open  market,  the  need  of 
one  and  the  same  standard  of  money,  uniform,  universal, " 
and  unalterable,  becomes  imperious  !  Gold  is  the  world's 
standard.  Gold  is  the  universal  measure  of  value.  Other 
kinds  of  money  there  are — silver,  copper,  paper — but  they 
all  must  conform  to  gold  and  be  measured  by  it,  and  be 
interchangeable  with  it,  in  fixed  and  definite  proportions. 
Gold  is  king  in  commerce.  All  other  money  must  repre- 
sent gold.  No  vote  of  legislature  can  change  the  nature 
of  commerce,  the  nature  of  property,  the  nature  of  its 
representative  in  money,  or  the  relative  superiority  or  in- 
feriority of  different  currencies.  Gold  came  to  its  suprem- 
acy as  a  representative  of  property  by  the  long  established 
consent  of  mankind.  Congress  cannot  change  it  for  the 
world,  nor  even  for  this  nation  except  upon  past  transac- 
tions. It  may  give  impunity  to  men  to  cheat  confiding 
creditors,  but  it  cannot  rule  the  value  of  currency  in  all 
future  transactions.  The  crime  of  paying  a  debt  in  a 
currency  inferior  in  value  to  that  in  which  it  was  con- 
tracted, base  at  all  times  and  anywhere,  has  a  deeper  guilt 
and  a  baser  infamy  in  our  case.  When  in  our  mortal 
struggle  capitalists  were  solicited  to  lend  their  money  to 
us  on  the  faith  of  the  nation,  we  were  too  glad,  most 
grateful  for  their  aid.  Then  they  were  not  grasping  and 
swollen  usurers.  O,  no;  they  were  benefactors  !  We  re- 
joiced in  their  bounty,  and  gave  thanks  for  their  confiding 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DA  Y.  805 

faith  in  our  national  honesty.  Now,  our  dangers  past,  we 
revile  them,  finding  no  epithets  too  violent,  and  strive  to 
pay  them,  not  gold  for  the  gold  they  lent  our  misery,  but 
in  a  dishonest  measure  of  an  inferior  metal.  In  the  court 
of  the  commercial  world's  conscience  we  shall  be  con- 
victed of  endeavoring  to  cheat  the  men  who  came  to  our 
rescue  in  the  dark  day.  This  Congress  would  not  have 
existed,  nor  any  government  of  the  United  States,  but  for 
the  strength  given  to  our  armies  by  foreign  capitalists;  and 
now  to  return  their  aid  by  a  base  treachery  is  to  deserve 
an  infamy  as  deep  as  the  lowest  depths  of  hell. 

But  woe  to  those  men,  bull-headed,  without  eyes,  who 
are  attempting  to  undermine  the  integrity  and  simplicity 
of  the  nation  by  locating  discussion  in  that  most  difficult 
point  for  ordinary  men  to  understand — in  finance;  in  the 
history  and  meanings  of  currency  !  I  do  not  care  what 
width  and  liberty  you  give  to  greenbacks  or  metallic  cur- 
rency; only,  there  is  a  congress  of  time,  and  a  congress  of 
the  world;  and  at  the  present,  and  for  the  future,  gold,  in 
certain  definite  proportions,  has  been  made  the  standard; 
and  it  is  the  standard  in  Asia,  in  Europe,  in  Africa,  and  in 
America,  north,  south,  east,  and  west;  and  it  is  so,  not  be- 
cause Congress  voted  it,  and  courts  adjudicated  it,  but 
because  the  human  race  are  united  on  this  one  point:  that 
gold  represents  property,  and  that  it  is  a  universal,  un- 
changing standard. 

Now  put  whatever  else  you  will  as  subsidiary,  collateral, 
auxiliary,  but  do  not  change  that  standard,  either  by  a 
suppressed  assault  upon  the  thing  itself,  or  by  attempting 
to  equalize  with  it  that  which  is  not  equal  to  it.  No  act  of 
Congress  can  ever  make  one  pound  equal  to  two  pounds. 
No  act  of  Congress  can  ever  make  a  thing  inferior  equal  to  a 
superior.  Silver  coin  must  be  made  proportionate  to  the 
value  of  gold,  as  determined  in  the  open  markets  of  the 
world  !  All  paper  currency  must  be  convertible  into  gold. 
Any  other  course  is  to  teach  men  to  cheat  by  law  ;  it  is  to 
teach  honest  men  to  cheat  without  knowing  that  they 
cheat  ;  it  is  to  teach  fraud  by  legislation  ;  it  is  a  high 
crime  and  misdemeanor;  and  if  men  in  Congress  do  not 


8c6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

know  it,  what  are  they  there  for?  When  the  blind  are 
leading  the  blind,  and  they  all  fall  into  the  ditch  together, 
it  will  not  help  them  to  find  that  the  ditch  is  silver-lined. 

The  attempt  to  cheat  capitalists  by  paying  bonds  in 
silver  coin  of  less  value  than  gold  is  hardly  worse  than  the 
other  attempt  to  derange  and  poison  business  by  a  re- 
newal of  the  plague  of  greenbacks.  No  paper  currency 
has  any  intrinsic  value:  no  government  can  give  it  lawful 
power.  Gold  is  its  only  basis.  It  is  worth  what  it  can 
command  in  gold — the  royal  metal  ! 

How  pitiable  is  the  plea,  that  if  greenbacks  were  good 
enough  for  war  they  are  good  enough  for  peace  !  That  if 
they  bought  munitions,  paid  debts,  purchased  lands, 
cleared  farms,  built  railroads,  and  carried  the  business  of 
a  continent  through  a  continued  and  desperate  peril,  they 
are  good  enough  now.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  the  medicine 
that  carries  a  man  through  his  sickness  is  good  enough 
for  food  after  he  gets  well  ?  Shall  a  man  walk  on  crutches 
all  his  days  because  they  helped  him  while  lame  ?  An  in- 
convertible paper  has  its  value  in  the  promise  of  gov- 
ernment to  pay  its  face  in  gold  as  soon  as  it  is  able.  It  is 
the  reasonableness  of  that  hope  that  gives  it  value.  As 
the  hope  of  speedy  payment  in  gold  receded,  the  green- 
back depreciated.  As  soon  as  prosperity  gave  promise 
that  the  government  would  soon  pay  in  gold,  dollar  for 
dollar,  greenbacks  appreciated,  until  now  they  are  worth 
nearly  their  face  in  gold.  A  debased  or  enfeebled  cur- 
rency may  be  the  desperate  necessity  of  war,  but  it  is  the 
infatuation  of  ignorance,  or  an  insanity  of  dishonesty,  to 
pour  out  inconvertible  paper  in  peace,  or  to  attempt  to 
make  short-legged  silver  keep  step  with  gold  ! 

Every  father  who  has  a  family  to  bring  up,  and  who 
therefore  has  a  greater  interest  in  integrity  than  in  every- 
thing else  on  earth;  every  mother  that  has  a  child  to  rear, 
who  represents  the  stand-point  of  supremest  wisdom,  and 
who  looks  upon  the  universe  as  merely  an  instrument  for 
rearing  that  child;  every  teacher  that  has  under  his  care 
the  young,  whose  minds  are  to  be  developed;  every  young 
man  whose  ambitions  are  honorable,  every  man  who  loves 


PAST  PERILS  AND  THE  PERIL  OF  TO-DA  Y.  807 

his  country  more  than  his  own  estate;  every  editor  whose 
heart  throbs  with  patriotism, — every  such  person  ought  to 
stand  up  in  open  and  unequivocal  testimony  against  the 
infamy  of  this  suppressed  repudiation  which  is  tending  to 
destroy  honesty  in  our  land.  Not  because  it  will  work  a 
great  while;  not  because  it  is  going  to  make  such  a  differ- 
ence in  the  long  run  with  silver  and  gold — that  is  not 
worthy  of  consideration:  but  because  such  a  nation  as 
this,  with  such  an  ancestry  and  such  a  history;  that  has 
been  carried  through  such  an  illustrious  career  in  the 
formation  of  institutions  and  in  the  maintenance  of  them; 
that  is  a  beacon  light  to  the  world,  and  whose  example  is 
emancipating  France  and  transforming  England;  that  has 
gone  through  a  war  and  come  out  of  it  with  such  clean, 
unambitious  hands,  and  is  seeking  to  cement  its  people 
more  and  more  firmly  together, —  ought  not  to  be  thus  be- 
trayed by  miscreant  men  to  do  an  act  which  will  make  it  a 
scoffing  and  a  by-word  all  over  the  world  to  the  end  of 
time. 

It  is  not  a  question,  therefore,  which  belongs  to  ordinary 
politics:  it  belongs  to  the  national  conscience;  it  belongs  to 
mankind.  There  ought  to  be  a  dividing  line  running  be- 
tween man  and  man;  and  from  this  time  forth  the  cry 
should  be,  "Who  is  on  the  side  of  honesty  and  integrity?" 
This  is  a  time  for  lauding  with  enthusiasm  those  who  are 
in  favor  of  truth  and  uprightness,  and  for  thundering 
indignation  against  those  who  would  overthrow  national 
integrity.  I  do  not  care  greatly  for  crops,  for  cattle,  for 
merchandise,  for  houses,  or  for  lands,  but  I  do  care  for  the 
reputation  of  my  country;  I  care  for  my  kind;  I  care  for 
the  memory  of  our  fathers  who  have  left  us  this  fair  herit- 
age; I  care  for  my  God. 

We  shall  go  through  this  struggle.  God  who  has  de- 
livered us  in  so  many  perils  will  also  deliver  us  in  this. 
Have  faith  in  God. 

Do  not  give  way  to  the  folly  of  despondency.  The  peo- 
ple are  to  be  trusted;  but  in  order  to  be  trusted  they  must 
be  instructed.  A  people  of  integrity  and  intelligence  are 
competent  to  anything  which   is  necessary  in  the  life  of 


808  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

nations.  A  free,  educated,  and  religious  people  are  the 
surest  in  peace,  the  bravest  in  war,  the  most  enterprising 
in  business,  and  the  strongest  in  morality,  with  more  en- 
thusiasm, more  wisdom,  more  sovereignty — and  that,  too, 
for  emergencies — than  crowns  or  aristocracies  have.  The 
history  of  this  nation  is  a  voice  that  ought  to  carry  cheer 
to  all  the  struggling  nations  of  the  earth.  You  are  not 
seeking  for  an  illusory  thing  when  you  are  seeking  for  a 
free  republic — only  remember  that  enduring  republics 
must  be  based  on  rectitude,  on  intelligence,  and  on  pa- 
tience; and  must  be  maintained  not  by  the  hand,  except 
in  the  direct  exigencies,  but  by  the  head  and  the  heart. 

In  all  these  great  opportunities  our  nation  has  gone 
right;  and  the  nation  will  go  right.  Like  a  ship  against 
which  storms  are  leagued,  it  rolled  heavily,  it  was  dashed 
upon  by  overwhelming  waves,  only  to  rear  up  its  unharmed 
hull,  and,  in  darkness  or  in  light,  against  the  elements  to 
hold  on  its  way,  taking  no  counsel  of  storm  or  of  dark- 
ness, but  of  the  compass  that  lay  silent  before  it,  an  unerr- 
ing guide.  The  Word  of  God  and  the  righteousness 
thereof  have  been  our  compass,  and  have  borne  us  through 
storms  and  troubles,  and  will  still  bear  us  safely;  for  a  free 
people,  standing  on  foundations  of  religious  liberty,  are 
strong  enough  to  brave  Time  and  the  World  ! 

Let  us  not,  therefore,  have  any  such  war  cries  by  the 
way  as,  "  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity  ";  but  let  our  war 
cry  be,  "  Integrity,  Intelligence,  Liberty."  With  that 
legend  we  will  fight  the  World  and  Time,  and  win  all  right 
things. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE 
ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC,* 

Springfield,  Mass.,  June  5, 1878. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  Before  I  utter  a  word 
of  that  which  I  have  prepared,  allow  me  to  respond  in 
one  single  particular  to  the  remarks  that  have  just  fallen 
from  General  Slocum  [the  President  of  the  Society,  who  in 
introducing  Mr.  Beecher  had  spoken  of  his  speeches  in 
England].  He  is  right  in  saying  that  the  weight  of  the 
English  nation  was  against  us  in  the  war:  but  he  inad- 
vertently phrased  it  wrong  when  he  said  that  the  common 
people  of  England  were  opposed  to  us.  It  was  just  they 
that  held  the  government  of  England  in  check.  But  for 
the  great  mass  of  the  common  people  of  England,  we 
should  have  been  involved  in  foreign  difficulties  which, 
added  to  our  other  difficulties,  might  have  sunk  us — though 
I  do  not  believe  that  this  Union  would  have  gone  down, 
even  with  the  South  and  England  on  top  of  us.  [Great 
applause?^  Of  the  weavers,  of  the  day-laborers,  in  all 
central  England,  I  bear  this  witness  :  that  while  the  can- 
non were  shutting  up  their  doors  and  bringing  the  unwel- 
come wolf  in  at  the  window,  they  stood  in  poverty  and 
almost  starvation,  loyal  to  the  North  and  faithful  to  the 
very  end.  [Renewed  applausei\  To  the  industrial  classes 
of  England  we  owe  it  that  Great  Britain's  hand  was  not 
added  to  the  treacherous  hand  of  the  South  in  destroying 
the  great  Union  of  this  land. 

I  return  my  thanks  to  you,  gentlemen,  for  the  honor 
conferred  in  my  appointment  to  address  you  upon  this  oc- 
casion. I  do  not  belong  to  the  number  who  have  forgot- 
ten the  weary  days  of  war.     There  was  an  early  day  when 

*  At  the  Ninth  Annual  Reunion  of  the  Society. 


810  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

our  countrymen  in  the  North  looked  upon  military  parades 
as  so  many  masquerades,  and  upon  officers  walking  the 
streets  in  uniforms  as  gay  butterflies.  There  came  another 
day  and  another  feeling.  We  saw  our  streets  filled  with 
swift-moving  regiments,  and  cheered  their  departure  to  the 
field  with  profound  gratitude  and  boundless  enthusiasm. 
Year  by  year  an  officer  returned  from  the  field  was  honored, 
and  privates  were  lauded  as  brave  defenders  of  their  country. 
The  wounded  and  maimed  were  objects  of  active  sympathy. 

Who  will  forget  the  eagerness  of  each  day  in  the  long 
peril,  the  sickening  suspense,  the  almost  heart-breaking, 
the  shame  and  sorrow,  the  joy  and  glorious  tumult  of 
gratulation  which  accompanied  the  long  history  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  its  disasters,  its  bloody  drawn-bat- 
tles, its  delays,  its  slowly-earned  honors,  its  final  victories  ? 
The  names  of  Scott,  McDowell,  McClellan,  Pope,  Burnside. 
Hooker,  Meade  and  Grant  \_prolonged  ami  enthusiastic  ap- 
plause^ are  more  than  names  of  men — they  are  the  symbols 
of  periods  in  our  war  history. 

When  the  war  was  over,  and  its  heroic  men  came  back 
to  civil  life,  there  were  no  places  too  good  for  them,  no 
honors  too  bright.  But  new  growths  are  pushing  up  from 
the  bottom  of  society,  and  the  generation  that  knew  you 
is  fast  passing  away.  The  scenes  are  growing  dim  in  the 
past  and  already  men  are  courting  popularity  by  doing 
despite  to  the  army  and  to  the  men  that  saved  this  nation. 
I  am  not  of  their  number.  [Applause.]  To-day  I  do 
homage  to  the  heroic  men  who  have  saved  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  unity  of  the  States,  the  honor  and  power  of  the 
nation;  who  have  revolutionized  the  industry  and  political 
economy  of  the  continent,  saved  the  age  from  the  corrup- 
tions of  slavery,  secured  for  labor  a  noble  career,  and 
given  to  the  rights  of  men — of  common  men,  of  laboring 
men,  the  world  over — an  impulse  and  guaranty  unknown 
before. 

It  is  said  that  the  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword.  That 
depends  on  circumstances,  gentlemen.  [Zcz//^// A-;-.]  Some- 
times the  pen,  sometimes  the  sword  is  mightier:  but  there 
come  times  when  both  together  do  the  work  which  neither 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  811 

of  them  can  effect  alone.  If  it  was  the  pen  that  sharpened 
our  swords  before  the  war,  it  has  been  the  sword  that  has 
sharpened  the  pen  since.      [Applause.] 

It  was  yours,  gentlemen,  to  belong  to  a  period  in  which 
we  were  like  to  lose  all  the  fruits  of  civilization.  That 
which  the  school,  the  pulpit,  the  forum,  had  sown,  the  pen 
could  not  reap.  Then  was  fulfilled  gloriously  the  prophecy 
of  old,  and  the  sword  became  a  sickle,  and  reaped  the 
harvests  that  were  ready  to  perish  ! 

The  desire  to  heal  the  wounds  of  war,  the  wish  to  con- 
ciliate and  reunite  those  who  have  been  at  strife,  is  both 
humane  and  patriotic.  But  the  spirit  of  reconciliation 
may  not  be  wisely  guided.  It  certainly  will  not  be  if  it 
glozes  over  the  criminality  of  those  who  led  the  country 
into  this  conflict;  if  it  forgets,  or  calls  by  any  soft  name, 
the  crime  of  disruption  and  disunion.  [Applause.]  The 
virtue  and  rectitude  of  the  endeavor  to  maintain  unity  and 
law  must  never  be  forgotten.  The  value  to  America  and  to 
universal  civilization  of  the  results  of  the  war  must  not  be 
softened  or  hid  away.  [Renewed  applause]  It  began  as  a 
war  for  the  union  of  the  United  States;  it  ended  as  a  war 
for  emancipation  and  liberty.  It  began  on  the  Southern 
part  as  a  war  in  defense  of  a  civilization  based  upon  slavery; 
it  ended  as  a  war  for  free  labor  and  the  laboring  man.  The 
internal  policy  of  this  country  was  undergoing  a  change 
fatal  to  humanity.  You  have  restored  it  to  health  !  The 
constitution  was  wasting  away  with  consumption.  Black 
blood  was  circulated  through  it.  By  your  surgery  the 
danger  has  passed.  Our  lungs  breathe  pure  air.  Our 
hearts  send  vitalized  blood  to  every  member.  Health  and 
vigor  are  restored.  The  recognition  of  these  truths  ought 
not  to  be,  must  not  be,  a  cause  of  offense  to  anybody. 
[Applause.']  Taunts,  vainglorious  comparisons,  deprecia- 
tion of  the  vigor  and  bravery  of  the  enemy,  and  whatever 
springs  from  hatred,  revenge,  or  selfishness,  should  be 
buried.  But  honest  truth  should  be  fearlessly  spoken. 
The  South,  however,  gentlemen,  was  wrong.  [Loud  cheers, 
swinging  of  hats,  and  waving  of  handkerchiefs.]  The  North 
was   right.      [Renewed  cheers,   swinging  of  hats,  and  waving 


812  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  handkerchiefs^]  This  must  stand  out  as  clear  as  the  sun, 
henceforth  and  forevermore.  [Great  applause.]  We  admit 
the  bravery  of  Southern  men;  the  gallantry  of  their  offi- 
cers; the  skill  and  genius  of  their  great  generals.  But  it 
was  bravery,  skill,  and  genius  exerted  in  a  bad  cause. 

We  admit  that,  to  the  men  of  the  South,  their  cause 
seemed  to  be  that  of  liberty — that  they  were  sincere  and 
honest.  But  sincerity  does  not  change  facts.  If  their 
minds  were  darkened  to  the  reality  of  underlying  tenden- 
cies, it  is  all  the  more  important  that  history  should  dis- 
close them.  We  willingly  accredit  them  with  great  military 
virtues.  But  we  deny  to  their  leaders,  to  their  cause,  all 
political  wisdom.  The  South  from  1840  sought  wrong 
ends  by  wrong  methods.  The  war  was  the  result  of  South- 
ern heresies.  In  the  whole  history  of  human  procedure 
there  were  never  more  blunders  committed  than  by  South- 
ern statesmen.  The  conduct  of  kings  and  nobles  preceding 
the  great  French  revolution  was  not  more  unwise,  more 
fatal  to  their  own  interests,  than  the  steps  taken  by  the 
South  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  war. 

These  things  are  of  such  importance  to  mankind  that 
we  cannot  afford  to  let  them  lie  unheeded.  We  shall  not 
reap  the  fruits  of  victory  if  we  suffer  these  things  to  be 
forgotten.  We  shall  wrong  the  memory  of  the  dead  if  we 
admit  the  equality  of  those  who  fell  in  a  good  cause  and  those 
who  fell  in  a  bad.  [Applause.]  Personally,  one  may  have 
been  as  good  as  another.  But,  as  representatives  of  a 
great  principle,  one  fought  for  darkness,  and  the  other  for 
light:  one  strove  for  slavery,  and  the  other  for  liberty. 
[Renewed  applause.]  Admit  that  they  thought  themselves 
soldiers  of  freedom,  that  does  not  change  the  nature  of 
things.  Men  may  believe  that  they  are  sailing  for  a  safe 
harbor,  while  great  undercurrents  are  driving  them  right 
upon  the  rocks.  Whatever  was  the  personal  rectitude, 
sincerity,  heroism,  of  the  individuals  of  the  Southern  army, 
they  were  swept  on  by  the  great  under  influences  of  evil 
which  overruled  their  will,  and  made  them  the  unconscious 
soldiers  of  despotism. 

We  dishonor  our  dead  when  we  make  no  distinction  be- 


ARMY  OF   THE   POTOMAC.  813 

tween  those  who  died  for  liberty  and  those  who  died  for 
slavery.  [Applause.]  Reconciliation  purchased  by  rubbing 
out  the  whole  meaning  of  the  war,  the  moral  significance 
of  its  results,  the  grandeur  to  mankind  of  its  influences, 
is  not  a  compromise,  but  surrender.  If  it  brings /peace,  it 
is  the  ignominious  peace  of  death.  I  am  willing  to  strew 
flowers  upon  the  graves  of  Southern  soldiers  as  men,  and 
at  appropriate  times,  under  the  influence  of  that  generous 
sympathy  which  we  cherish  for  all  mankind;  but  not  as 
soldiers,  not  as  the  defenders  of  a  lost  cause  that  was 
rightly  lost;  not  on  the  same  day  with  the  fallen  cham- 
pions for  liberty!  [Loud  and  long  continued  applause?^  Not 
with  my  right  hand  chaplets  for  soldiers  of  freedom,  and 
my  left  chaplets  for  soldiers  of  disruption,  rebellion  and 
slavery!  [Tremendous  shouts  and  cheers.']  Is  it  becoming 
that  we  should  by  such  actions  testify  to  the  world  that 
the  whole  difference  between  slavery  and  liberty  is  only 
the  difference  of  the  left  and  right  hands — a  mere  differ- 
ence of  degree  and  not  of  kind  ? 

It  is  for  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
to  resist  such  criminal  folly:  to  lift  up  the  true  meaning 
of  the  war  so  high  that  no  cloud  should  obscure  it;  and,  as 
by  your  heroic  service  you  have  become  an  example  to 
our  youth  in  courage  and  self-devotion,  so  you  should  be 
their  instructors  in  the  everlasting  principles  of  truth, 
equity,  and  liberty  which  underlay  the  war,  and  without 
which  it  was  not  a  grand  sacrifice,  but  a  gigantic  butchery. 
It  was  gloriously  right  for  you  and  for  the  great  slumber- 
ing brotherhood  of  your  fallen  companions  to  proffer  all 
for  the  constitution,  for  the  unity  of  national  life;  sternly 
refusing  to  Europeanize  this  continent,  and  split  it  up 
into  a  swarm  of  stinging,  quarreling  States  with  boundary 
lines  that  never  cooled,  with  strife  forever  inflammatory 
and  incendiary!  The  North  was  bound  by  the  highest  rec- 
titude, when  the  divine  opportunity  came,  to  wipe  out 
slavery,  and  by  emancipation  here  to  lift  the  condition  of 
labor  over  the  whole  world.  This  is  not  a  matter  to  be 
muffled  up  and  softened,  by  us  at  any  rate.  [Applause.] 
It  would  consign  us  justly  to  everlasting  contempt  to  be 


814  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ashamed  of  or  indifferent  to  the  brightest  page  of  modern 
history.  No  war  of  all  time  was  so  needless  as  that  on  the 
part  of  the  South,  and  none  so  indispensable  and  honor- 
able as  that  on  the  part  of  the  North. 

When  Prussia  shifted  the  center  of  the  German  Empire 
no  great  change  was  wrought  in  the  condition  of  man- 
kind. The  imperial  crown  of  Germany,  before  in  Austria, 
went  over  to  Prussia.  That  was  all.  Laws,  policies,  gov- 
ernments, remained  the  same.  But  our  great  war  revolu- 
tionized the  affairs  of  half  a  continent  to  the  very  founda- 
tions. The  South  was  aristocratic.  It  must  inevitably  be 
democratic.  It  had  a  false  system  of  servile  labor.  It 
has  changed  it  to  free  labor.  Its  whole  organization  of 
society  was  affected  by  its  heretical  political  economy. 
That  is  regenerated.  The  springs  are  changed.  The  fount- 
ains out  of  which  its  life  was  flowing  were  poisonous. 
The  prophet  has  thrown  salt  therein,  and  they  now  flow 
with  life  and  health.  On  these  new  foundations  we  greet 
the  rising  South,  and  with  cordial  confidence  and  fra- 
ternal sympathy  rejoice  to  see  her  sons  again  in  the  halls 
of  legislation,  and  to  join  with  her  in  a  generous  emula- 
tion for  the  future  glory  and  strength  of  our  Union  undi- 
vided and  indivisible.     \Applausei\ 

With  these  remarks  I  dismiss  the  past,  and  turn  to  the 
present  and  to  the  future.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the 
changed  feeling  of  the  public  toward  soldiers.  It  may  be 
called  the  decay  of  the  military  spirit  in  the  North.  The 
fire  which  flamed  forth  for  a  few  years  has  well-nigh 
burned  out.  We  have  returned  to  our  looms,  our  plows, 
our  ships.  Our  young  men  are  becoming  engrossed  in 
the  arts  of  peace;  and  since  military  life  is  not  profitable 
in  the  market,  nor  popular  just  now  in  politics,  it  is  dying 
out  of  our  favor  and  out  of  public  thought.  This  is 
greatly  to  be  deplored.  Some  one  should  speak.  Clergy- 
men will  not,  because  they  are  the  messengers  of  peace. 
Politicians  will  not,  because  just  now  it  will  lose  votes  to 
either  party  that  advocates  the  army;  for  the  slight  symp- 
toms of  socialistic  fever  which  are  creeping  upon  the  labor 
party  raise  an  apprehension  that  the  chief  functions  of  an 


ARMY  OF   THE   POTOMAC.  815 

army  hereafter  will  be  to  defend  the  order  of  society 
against  the  violence  of  riotous  reformers,  and  against 
tumultuous  strikes  that  interrupt  internal  commerce  and 
carry  confusion  to  every  form  of  business.  But  these  are 
the  very  reasons  why  some  one  should  call  public  atten- 
tion to  the  danger  of  suffering  the  military  spirit  of  the 
North  to  decay. 

The  history  of  armies  and  wars  in  Europe  inspired 
our  fathers  with  a  just  fear  of  large  standing  armies. 
They  are  dangerous  alike  in  monarchies  and  in  democra- 
cies; but  it  is  by  an  abuse  of  a  good  and  necessary  thing. 
Things  are  dangerous  in  the  proportion  in  which  they  are 
good.  Weakness  never  alarms  men:  it  is  power  that 
makes  them  afraid;  and  in  this  world  there  is  nothing 
good  that  has  not  power  within  it.  Armies  are  good;  but 
they  are  powers  capable  of  the  utmost  evil. 

So  long  as  society  is  made  up  of  large  multitudes  of  ig- 
norant men  who  dwell  in  the  sphere  of  appetite  and 
passion,  and  who  are  not  sensitive  to  reason  and  moral 
influence,  it  must  be  prepared  to  deal  with  such  men  by 
the  motive  which  they  can  feel — physical  force.  If  men 
will  keep  the  road  by  their  eye,  all  the  better.  If  they  are 
blinded,  or  they  will  not  see,  then  the  thorn-hedge  must 
be  planted  on  each  side  of  the  road,  that  they  may  know 
when  they  are  stepping  off.     {Laughter  and  apftlause.~\ 

The  world  is  not  yet  Christian  enough  to  trust  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  as  our  only  policy.  If  men  will  not 
respect  each  other's  property,  liberty,  and  rights  by  moral 
suasion,  they  must  be  compelled  to  do  so  by  physical  sua- 
sion. The  existence  of  a  well-regulated  army  stands  upon 
the  same  grounds  as  the  existence  of  a  municipal  police, 
or  a  rural  constabulary  force. 

[Mr.  Beecher,  in  reading  this  sentence,  substituted  "moral" 
for  "rural,"  but  immediately  discovered  his  mistake,  and  said, 
"Moral  is  not  exactly  the  word  to  put  before  constabulary  force;" 
and  then  repeated  the  sentence  with  the  right  word  in  the  right 
place,  the  audience  being  greatly  amused  by  the  coolness  and 
readiness  with  which  he  extricated  himself  from  what  to  some 
persons  would  have  been  an  embarrassing  predicament.] 


8i6  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

To  withdraw  all  physical  force  from  society  would  leave  it 
a  prey  to  lawless  and  violent  men  and  would  bring  on  a 
carnival  of  crime.  But  to  secure  the  best  effects  of  a 
military  organization  it  should  be  surrounded  with  a  mil- 
itary public  spirit.  Every  soldier  should  be  a  citizen, 
every  citizen  should  be  a  soldier.  An  army  ought  not  to 
be  a  body  foreign  to  the  community  in  which  it  exists,  but 
sprung  from  it,  belonging  to  it,  and  continually  returning  to 
it,  and  penetrating  it  with  its  own  spirit.  The  citizen  ought 
not  to  go  far  to  become  a  soldier.  If  it  could  be  done,  it 
would  be  a  wholesome  education  to  require  every  young 
man  to  spend  two  years  of  his  early  life  in  the  camp  under 
rigorous  military  education.  [Applause.]  Health,  regular- 
ity, subordination,  prompt  obedience,  a  facile  carriage  of 
the  body,  beside  the  knowledge  of  military  affairs,  would, 
in  the  long  run,  repay  for  the  abstraction  of  so  much  time 
from  business.  If  that  may  not  be  thought  of  in  our  land, 
then  military  drill  should  constitute  a  part  of  our  whole 
academic  system.  Every  college  and  every  large  academy 
should  give  to  its  students  the  knowledge  and  discipline 
which  military  life  requires.  It  ought  not  to  be  optional. 
It  should  be  a  part  of  duty  enforced.  There  was  hope 
at  the  close  of  the  civil  war  that  this  was  to  be  secured. 
Officers  of  experience  were  assigned  to  many  of  our  colleges, 
and  arms  provided.  But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  zeal  has 
cooled,  and  military  drill  languishes. 

There  is  to  be  no  more  war.  This  is  the  thought  of  men; 
and  I  believe  there  will  be  no  more  war  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  in  this  generation.  [Applause.]  If  there 
is,  you  may  be  sure  that  it  will  not  be  brought  on  by 
Southern  men.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  You  may  be  sure 
that  it  will  not  be  brought  on  by  Northern  soldiers. 
[Renewed  applause.]  You  may  be  sure  that  it  will  not  be 
brought  on  by  any  man  who  ever  did  go  into  the  field  or 
who  ever  wants  to.  [Loud e/ieers.]  And  the  feeling  of  men 
is  that  there  will  be  no  more  war.  The  Indians  are  far 
away.  Not  even  the  biennial  armies  of  the  Fenians  hover- 
ing along  our  Northern  boundary  arouse  our  fears.  Our 
security  is  assured,  and  military  drill  is  burdensome. 


ARMY  OF   THE   POTOMAC.  817 

The  State  military  system  deserves  to  be  more  thor- 
oughly developed.  For,  though  it  will  never  secure  a  pro- 
fessional education  of  officers  and  men,  it  will  secure  the 
materials  out  of  which,  should  war  come,  might  be  built 
up  an  efficient  army. 

The  rise  and  spread  of  tastes  for  manly  and  vigorous 
exercise  of  every  kind  is  a  matter  for  gratulation.  What- 
ever shall  bring  men  out  of  dissolving  ease,  out  of  routine 
industry,  fire  their  ambition,  tighten  their  muscle,  and 
cleanse  their  brain,  should  be  encouraged.  A  robust 
and  vigorous  generation  of  men  will  furnish  the  proper 
material  for  armies  should  the  times  require  them;  and 
though  aptness  in  the  use  of  weapons,  facility  in  rid- 
ing, and  skill  in  all  athletic  exercises  are  not  of  themselves 
a  sufficient  training,  they  yield  a  preparation  by  means  of 
which  military  organization  can  quickly  produce  good  sol- 
diers. 

In  the  important  respect  of  military  training  we  may 
draw  lessons  of  wisdom  from  the  Southern  States.  They 
are  doing  their  duty.  In  almost  every  Southern  State, 
if  not  in  every  one,  excellent  military  academies  are 
established,  and  are  flourishing.  In  many  the  system  of 
education  will  compare  favorably  with  our  government 
academy,  or  with  any  foreign  school  for  military  training. 
For  this  they  are  to  be  commended,  and  for  neglecting  it 
we  of  the  North  are  to  be  blamed. 

If  these  views  shall  seem  to  any  to  be  an  inculcation  of  a 
warlike  spirit,  inconsistent  with  modern  civilization  and  at 
discord  with  the  whole  genius  of  Christianity,  I  reply  that 
in  America  military  education  is  more  likely  to  prevent 
fighting  than  to  produce  it.  To  prepare  for  war  is  often 
the  way  to  prevent  war.  Those  who  most  ardently  long  for 
peace — and  we  count  ourselves  foremost  amongst  them — 
will  best  secure  it  by  cultivating  the  military  spirit.  With 
bad  and  ignorant  men  impunity  is  opportunity. 

Wars  are  among  the  most  grievous  burdens  which  man- 
kind bear.  By  every  just  means  their  frequency  should  be 
diminished  and  their  scope  limited.  But  wars  are  inevita- 
ble until  justice  prevails,  until  ignorance  is  enlightened, 
52 


Si 8  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

until  the  brutal  forces  of  society  are  purged  out,  until  in- 
dustry is  freed  from  unjust  restraints;  and  to  decry  war 
without  raising  human  nature  above  the  animal  line  is  to 
oust  the  surgeon  and  leave  the  cancer. 

We  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  as  this  nation  increases 
in  population,  in  resources,  and  in  political  power,  the 
sources  of  danger  multiply  and  demand  of  our  people  a 
corresponding  energy  in  government,  within  constitu- 
tional bounds. 

We  are  approaching  a  period  in  which  men  must  con- 
sider the  duties  and  limits,  as  well  as  the  rights,  of  prop- 
erty. The  wealth  of  the  future  is  to  be  without  parallel. 
The  skies,  the  sea,  the  soil,  under  the  discoveries  of  science, 
are,  as  it  were,  recreated.  The  development  of  machinery 
has,  in  effect,  multiplied  the  population  ten  thousand  fold. 
Fortunes  are  to  be  amassed,  by  multitudes  of  men,  of  fab- 
ulous magnitude.  The  combinations  of  capital  are  to  go 
on  beyond  the  power  which  we  have  to  foresee  and  predict. 
Insensibly  we  are  rearing  up,  under  names  of  commerce, 
vast  forces  which  must  become  political  forces.  The  rail- 
way system  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the  grandest  de- 
velopments of  modern  civilization  in  its  relation  to  con- 
venience and  wealth.  In  its  reflex  influence  it  has  aug- 
mented, enlarged,  the  scale  of  human  life.  Our  feet  have 
become  wings.  We  each  have  the  hundred  hands  of 
Briareus.  Time  has  been  augmented.  If  a  penny  saved 
is  a  penny  earned,  how  much  more  hours,  days,  and 
months  !     The  final  results,  however,  are  not  doubtful. 

But  mediately  society  is  developing  new  problems;  it 
is  moving  through  untried  ways.  Many  evils  will  arise. 
Mistake  is  the  mother  of  wisdom.  We  are  jealous  of  po- 
litical power.  We  will  not  suffer  any  man,  nor  any  combi- 
nation of  men,  to  gain  and  wield  all  the  political  power  of 
which  they  are  capable.  We  stop  men  short  of  their 
capacity.  We  compel  them  to  walk  between  walls,  and 
limit  their  liberty  for  the  sake  of  greater  average  liberty. 
But,  shall  we  permit  the  development  of  wealth,  in  few 
hands,  especially  in  the  hands  of  artificial  individuals,  in 
corporations,  or  in  allied   families,  without  jealousy  and 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  819 

without  limit  ?  Minor  corporations  are  held  in  check  by- 
salutary  laws.  But,  are  continental  corporations,  the  vast 
railways,  with  enormous  capital,  liable  to  exert  no  dan- 
gerous influence  ?  At  present  the  rival  interests  and  con- 
flict of  these  roads  are  a  sufficient  check.  But  will  it 
always  be  so  ?  The  combined  capital  of  four  roads  run- 
ning westward  from  the  Atlantic  must  be  a  thousand 
million  dollars.  .The  relation  of  this  gigantic  sum  to  the 
States  through  which  the  roads  run,  to  their  army  of  em- 
ploye's, to  the  Legislatures,  and  even,  indirectly,  to  the 
constitution  of  courts  and  appointment  of  judges,  is  but  a 
small  part  of  their  possible  power.  The  possession  of  the 
federal  government  becomes  every  year  more  and  more  an 
object  not  alone  of  ambition  but  of  commercial  impor- 
tance. 

The  days  are  near  at  hand  when  money  is  to  bear  a  re- 
lation to  politics  scarcely  yet  suspected,  notwithstanding 
our  recent  experiences  of  corruption.  If  it  were  in  the 
interest  of  these  four  vast  corporations  that  a  certain  policy 
should  be  pursued,  and  that  certain  men  should  be  put  in 
power  to  execute  them,  their  concentrated  councils  and 
their  enormous  wealth  and  influence  would  go  far  to  coun- 
terbalance all  resistance.  I  do  not  assail  the  system  of  the 
general  management  of  railroads.  They  are  young,  they 
are  lion  cubs;  and  it  is  wise  to  consider,  while  we  play 
with  them  as  kittens,  what  they  will  do  when  their  nails 
and  teeth  are  grown  and  their  haunches  are  strong  !  ap- 
plause and  laug/iter.~\ 

While  the  developments  of  enterprise  and  wealth  are 
giving  extraordinary  force  to  the  top  of  society,  there  has 
already  set  in  a  movement  below,  of  the  great  mass  of 
workingmen,  which  cannot  at  present  be  calculated.  We 
may  be  sure  of  two  general  results:  (1)  That  these  social- 
istic movements  will  not,  in  the  end,  secure  those  radical 
changes  in  society  which  they  are  now  avowedly  seeking; 
and  (2)  that  they  will  become  a  disturbing  force,  both  in 
the  realm  of  industry  and  of  politics,  in  the  vain  endeavor 
which  they  will  make  to  secure  those  ends. 

The  movement,  which  is  variously  denominated  commun- 


820  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ism,  socialism,  or  the  labor  party,  or  workingmen's  party,  is 
not  of  American  origin.  It  was  born  in  European  coun- 
tries, and  there  it  is  wide-spread.  At  present  in  America  it 
is  in  the  hands  largely  of  our  immigrant  population.  But 
it  has  behind  it,  in  Europe,  a  vast  sympathetic  force.  It 
has  the  vigor  of  youth  and  the  intensity  of  fanaticism  on  its 
side.  It  has  more.  It  seeks  some  ends  that  ought  to  be 
gained.  It  aims  at  some  wrongs  that  ought  to  be  re- 
dressed. There  are  changes  in  society  which  selfishness 
will  resist,  but  which  must  inevitably  take  place.  In  these 
respects  it  has  strength.  Its  social  philosophy,  if  the  crude 
theories  may  be  dignified  with  the  name,  is  its  weakest 
point. 

The  attempt  to  reorganize  industry,  commerce  and  gov- 
ernment, not  by  gradual  unfolding,  but  upon  a  general 
theory,  involving  a  radical  reconstruction,  is  an  absurdity 
only  this  side  of  insanity.  There  is  no  danger  in  the  final 
results;  but  intermediately  there  is  great  danger.  The 
movement  is  likely  to  draw  to  itself  the  indolent,  the  cor- 
rupt, the  industrious  poor,  not  enlightened,  the  laboring 
men  by  whom  the  great  manufacturing  interests  of  the 
world  are  conducted,  and  who  are  without  real  estate  or 
capital.  It  will  tend  to  organize  labor  as  distinguished 
from  capital  in  an  antagonistic  spirit.  It  wfll  seek  to  resist 
the  established  methods  of  industry  and  commerce,  by 
strikes,  by  unions,  whose  interior  will  embody  the  most 
absolute  despotism  known  to  mankind — for  labor-unions 
are  the  worst  forms  of  despotism  that  ever  were  bred  by 
the  human  mind.  [Applause.']  It  will  bring  to  bear  upon 
parties  an  influence  which  will  corrupt  political  doctrines, 
breed  demagogues  like  the  frogs  of  Egypt,  enfeeble  the 
laws  and  emasculate  the  administration  of  government. 
Should  times  grow  prosperous,  it  seems  likely  that  these 
tendencies  will  for  a  while  subside.  But  with  every  period 
of  general  distress  these  tendencies  will  break  out. 

In  much  that  is  involved  in  this  great  movement  I  have 
profound  sympathy.  Society  is  far  from  perfect.  The 
old  leaven  is  to  be  purged  out,  and  the  new  leaven  put  in. 
I  recognize  the  right  of  the   champions  of  industry,  even 


ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  821 

the  extremists,  to  discuss  their  philosophy,  and  to  empty 
all  the  instruments  of  persuasion  and  conviction  which  we 
employ  in  resisting  them. 

But,  gentlemen,  it  is  easy  to  foresee,  in  the  light  of  what 
has  already  happened,  that  the  nation  for  the  next  score  of 
years,  at  least,  is  liable  to  pass  through  stormy  times,  and 
that  the  law  will  need  not  only  a  wise  head,  but  a  strong 
hand,  that  disorder  may  not  run  to  riot,  and  that  the  pas- 
sions of  men  may  not  destroy  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
society. 

In  the  first  instance,  each  State  will  employ  its  police 
and  constabulary  force;  then  it  will  fall  back  upon  its 
volunteer  soldiery.  But  there  may  again  come  times  in 
which  an  enraged  mob  will  submit  to  the  regular  army  of 
the  United  States  when  the  militia  would  only  enrage  it 
the  more.  Indeed,  if  soldiers  are  to  be  employed  at  all  in 
aid  of  civil  administration,  the  trained  soldiers  of  the  fed- 
eral army,  under  regular  officers,  are  in  every  way  better 
than  militia,  be  they  ever  so  good.  [Applause!\  They  are 
likely  to  be  more  skillful,  more  self-possessed,  more  humane, 
more  efficient  than  the  extemporized  soldiers  of  the  State. 

Those  who  quake  with  dread  at  the  mention  of  a  stand- 
ing army  are  under  the  influence  of  old  prejudices,  based 
upon  European  experience.  Standing  armies  in  the  hands 
of  ambitious  monarchs,  in  the  midst  of  a  multitude  of 
contiguous  and  jealous  nations,  are  not  to  be  the  types  of 
American  armies.  In  the  whole  history  of  our  govern- 
ment there  has  never  been  a  disturbance  or  even  a  threat 
or  suspicion  of  danger  from  the  profession  of  arms  in  the 
regular  army.  Our  most  eminent  officers  have  been  pro- 
found lovers  of  peace.  There  has  never  been  an  accusa- 
tion of  plot  or  plan  to  augment  their  power  or  to  usurp 
any  function  of  government.  We  have  had  a  boiling  and 
bubbling  caldron  often,  and  our  private  citizens  have 
brought  fuel  to  it;  our  demagogues  have  roared,  our  poli- 
ticians have  plotted,  our  statesmen  have  plunged  the  coun- 
try into  blunders  and  whelmed  it  in  war;  but  the  army 
and  the  great  generals  whose  names  are  our  glory  have 
never  brought  on  a  disturbance;  have  always  counseled 


822  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

for  peace;  have  extricated  the  country  from  its  embarrass- 
ments and  dangers;  and  have,  by  their  uniform  and  uni- 
versal prudence,  respect  for  law,  and  good  fellowship, 
proved  themselves  to  be  safer  guides  than  have  been  our 
civil  leaders.  [Great  applause^  Since  the  founding  of  this 
government,  I  challenge  the  production  of  a  single  mis- 
chief-making military  man.  If  any  names  are  recalled  of 
generals  who  have  been  rash  and  dangerous,  in  every  in- 
stance they  will  be  found  to  be  extemporized  generals, 
made  out  of  professional  politicians.  [Laughter  and  ap- 
plause.]  Officers  and  soldiers  are  the  very  men  who  are 
above  all  others  friends  of  peace.  Caucus  and  Congress 
are  bellicose;  the  army  it  is  that  is  a  national  peace  so- 
ciety. 

And  yet  no  class  of  men  of  equal  attainments  and  char- 
acter and  general  ability  are  as  severely  criticised,  as  in- 
tentionally underrated,  as  unceremoniously  crippled  and 
abused,  as  our  soldiers. 

This  nation  is  indebted  to  the  West  Point  Military  Acad- 
emy for  as  noble  a  band  of  graduates  as  the  world  can 
produce.  [Applause.]  The  standard  of  honor  is  nowhere 
higher.  Respect  and  reverence  for  law  and  liberty  are 
nowhere  more  profound.  Scrupulous  fidelity  to  duty  is 
nowhere  more  nearly  a  religion,  and  the  honor  of  honesty, 
the  honor  of  honesty,  the  Honor  of  Honesty,  is  nowhere  so 
signally  illustrated  as  in  the  graduates  of  the  West  Point 
Military  Academy.  What  university,  what  college,  what 
theological  seminary,  can  point  to  its  two  thousand  grad- 
uates and  say,  "There  has  never  been  an  instance  of  dis- 
honesty in  the  administration  of  public  moneys"?  The 
only  institution  in  this  country  that  can  say  this  is  that 
academy.  And  yet  this  noble  cradle  of  noble  men  has 
never  been  pampered  and  dandled.  Funds  have  been 
grudgingly  voted  for  its  bare  subsistence;  improvements 
have  been  resisted;  it  has  been  treated  with  suspicion  and 
prejudice;  and  it  has  wrought  out  its  unexampled  results, 
not  by  abundance  of  means,  but  by  the  devotion  of  its 
corps  of  professors  and  teachers  under  the  rigor  of  a 
financial  system  which  has  carried  economy  to  stinginess. 


ARMY  OF   THE   POTOMAC.  823 

What,  then,  is  the  attitude  of  the  United  States  army- 
to-day?  The  smallest  in  proportion  to  the  population 
and  the  territory  which  it  guards  of  any  army  on  the 
globe  !  It  has  been  in  the  field  almost  without  rest  for 
twenty  years.  It  is  scattered  along  a  vast  frontier,  in 
small  companies,  watching  night  and  day  Mexican  thieves, 
or  fighting  savages;  marching  through  trackless  wastes, 
in  severest  winter  storms,  or  scorched  by  summer  on  arid 
plains;  yielding  up  its  Canbys  and  its  Custers.  \_Prolonged 
applause i\  It  has  been  made  the  scapegoat  of  bad  men. 
And  all  this  while  it  is  assailed  in  the  rear  by  hounding 
politicians,  who  care  nothing  for  its  honor,  who  would  re- 
trench its  numbers,  diminish  its  revenues,  and  make  hard 
and  bitter  the  lives  of  men  who  have  served  their  country 
at  pains  and  perils  which  would  have  appalled  the  stoutest 
heart  of  the  self-denying  heroes  of  caucus  and  Congress. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac:  You  repre- 
sent but  one  army  of  that  great  host  that  delivered  this 
land  from  slavery  and  disorder  and  restored  peace  to  all 
our  borders.  You  have  earned  your  honors  by  the  highest 
services  which  a  citizen  can  render  to  his  country. 

This  is  the  one  illustrious  day  of  the  year  that  is  wholly 
yours.  Again  you  are  soldiers  of  the  Republic.  The  past 
revisits  you.  It  reveals  its  hidden  meaning.  You  stand 
enshrined  in  memories  that  are  sacred.  You  recall  the 
multitudes  that  were,  but  are  not,  for  God  hath  taken 
them.  If  life  has  dealt  hardly  with  you,  to-day  you  will 
forget  it.  If  sometimes,  in  pain  and  poverty,  you  are 
tempted  to  think  yours  a  hard  lot  and  men  ungrateful, 
you  will  to-day  rise  above  these  weaknesses,  and  with 
cleansed  eye  will  see  the  heritage  of  honor  and  glory  laid 
up  for  you.  But  you  are  not  forgotten  by  thousands  of 
sincere  souls  over  all  the  land,  that  mention  your  names 
in  the  most  sacred  place  on  earth — the  place  of  household 
prayer.  Maimed,  impoverished,  neglected,  you  are  not 
lame,  nor  poor,  nor  lost  to  memory. 

In  the  light  of  this  day  I  behold  the  genius  of  our  coun- 
try, casting  upon   you   the  calm    light  of  the  future,   and 


824  rATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

pointing  you  to  clouds  of  witnesses,  heroes  who  have 
dared  to  offer  their  lives  for  their  country  and  their  kind, 
and  who  feel  for  you  the  eternal  sympathy  of  heroes  for 
heroes.  The  long  campaign  is  almost  closed.  The  march 
draws  near  to  its  end.  When  from  afar  your  ear  shall 
catch,  what  no  other  in  your  darkened  tent  may  hear,  the 
last  long  roll,  then  advance.  Overthrow  the  last  enemy, 
which  is  Death.  Then  hear  from  the  lips  of  the  eternal 
God  the  words  that  crown  you  with  glory  and  immor- 
tality— "  Hail,  and  welcome  !  " 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Beecher's  oration  there  were  loud  calls  for 
General  Hooker,  who  said  : — • 

"Mr.  President,  Comrades,  Audience:  I  am  sorry  to  disap- 
point you ;  but  if  you  expect  that  I  will  say  one  syllable  after  the 
address  you  have  just  listened  to,  you  are  very  much  mistaken. 
That  address  was  good  enough  to  last  a  long  time.  Study  its 
lessons,  and  digest  them,  I  doubt  if  more  home  truths  can  be 
found  in  any  discourse  of  the  same  length  since  the  records  of 
this  country  began." 

General  Henry  A.  Barnum  here  rose,  and  said  : — 

"  I  propose  that  the  wise  and  timely  address  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  shall  be  recognized  in  some  special  manner  beyond  our 
glad  applause:  and  I  move,  Mr.  President,  that  every  member  of 
the  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  every  loyal  person 
present,  rise  to  his  feet  and,  upon  a  signal  from  you,  in  a  unan- 
imous and  quiet  voice  say,  '  I  thank  you.'"    [Applause.] 

In  accordance  with  this  motion  the  whole  audience  rose,  and 
in  an  impressive  manner  said,  "I  thank  you;"  after  which  Mr. 
Beecher  came  forward  and  said : 

"  I  have  the  advantage  of  you  all ;  I  have  three  thousand 
thanks,  and  there  is  on  my  part  but  one  'I  thank  you'  to  divide 
among  so  many.  But  may  it  be  like  the  Scripture  loaf;  that 
started  five,  but  it  held  out  for  five  thousand." 


RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.* 


"And  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before  appointed,  and  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation  ;  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they 
might  feel  after  him,  and  find  him,  though  he  be  not  far  from  every  one  of 
us." — Acts  xvii.  26,  27. 

"There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is- 
neither  male  nor  female :  for  ye  are  ail  one  in  Christ  Jesus." — Gal.  iii.  28. 


The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  one  of  the  themes  of 
transcendent  importance,  not  neglected  yet  never  empha- 
sized according  to  its  merit.  We  are  one,  absolutely  one, 
with  whatever  varieties  and  differences  there  may  be  in 
structure  and  mentality.  By  physical  likeness  man  ap- 
pears to  be  one;  for  every  variation  in  feature,  in  com- 
plexion, is  superficial,  none  is  characteristic,  while  in  funda- 
mental structure,  attitude,  organ,  and  function,  men  are 
one — one  in  brain,  in  nerve,  in  lung,  in  liver,  in  heart,  in 
stomach,  so  that  a  physician  in  New  York  would  be  a 
physician  the  world  over.  The  works,  as  in  a  clock  or 
watch,  might  change  cases,  yet  keep  time.  It  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  there  should  have  sprung  up  in  the  infinite 
chances  of  evolution  even  two,  still  less  many,  creatures 
so  alike  in  qualities  and  functions  of  reason,  affection,  moral 


*Thanksgiving  Day,  Thursday,  November  27,  1SS4.  Lesson  :  Habakkuk 
iii.  2-19.     Hymn  :  "America." 

Preached  at  the  close  of  the  Congressional  and  Presidential  political 
campaign,  in  which,  from  considerations  of  the  relative  attitudes  of  the  two 
parties  towards  the  South  and  the  civil  service,  and  reasons  connected  with 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  relative  fitness  of  the  two  presidential  candi- 
dates for  the  duties  of  the  position  to  be  occupied,  Mr.  Beecher  had  heartily 
advocated  the  election  of  the  Democratic  candidate  (Grover  Cleveland, 
then  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York).  And  for  the  first  time  since  the 
election  of  1856,  the  Democratic  party  was  placed  in  essential  control  of 
the  Government. 


826  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

sense,  imagination,  and  will,  that  they  could  perfectly  har- 
monize, mutually  understand,  act  together,  mingle  in  mar- 
riage, comprehend  in  each  other  likenesses  and  differences, 
read  the  same  drama,  gloat  over  the  same  poetry,  reason 
by  like  syllogisms,  use  the  same  arithmetic  and  geometry. 
African,  Asiatic,  European,  American,  at  the  seat  of  intel- 
ligence they  are  the  same;  with  different  expansions,  with 
more  or  less  variation  of  appetite,  by  the  development  of 
one  or  the  other  part;  yet  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of 
so  vast  a  multitude  as  lie  within  the  circuit  of  the  races,  as 
having  come  from  different  origins,  when  they  are  thus 
held  together  by  a  common  relation  of  all  social  functions, 
all  the  sciences,  all  the  literature  and  thought  of  the  globe. 
Antiquity  is  modern  when  we  read  it. 

Finally,  the  test  is  that  mankind  are  capable,  by  reason 
of  their  common  origin  and  substantial  likeness,  of  inter- 
affiliating  and  dwelling  together — and  in  unity.  That  is 
the  consummation  of  Christianity.  Its  aim,  its  business, 
is  to  teach  men  the  sublime  art  of  living  together  harmoni- 
ously. To  do  this  in  a  schooling  which  will  enable  men  to 
dwell  together  in  this  life  is  the  mode  of  preparing  them 
to  dwell  together  in  another  life;  for  this  world  is  prac- 
tice-ground. 

Harmony,  then,  is  the  end  of  the  gospel.  Through  dis- 
cords, through  wide-gaping  intervals,  at  last  the  sym- 
phony of  human  life  is  to  rise  up  into  a  grand  choral 
unity.  Of  one  blood,  of  one  destiny,  the  human  family 
lives  in  a  sublime  disseverance,  nation  after  nation  seeking 
themselves  in  order  that  they  may  seek  their  fellows. 

The  progress  toward  a  real  union  and  harmony  ought 
to  be  the  highest,  as  it  really  is,  of  all  our  aspirations. 
The  most  transcendent  interest  is  that  which  marks  the 
progress  of  mankind  from  conflicting,  fighting  beasts  to 
loving  and  harmoniously  uniting  men. 

Material  prosperity  is  not  without  its  interest  in  looking 
at  this  question.  I  am,  to-day,  to  look  at  the  whole  ques- 
tion as  it  relates  to  America;  excluding  the  other  lands,  not 
as  worthless,  but  because  there  must  be  some  metes  and 
bounds.     I  do  not  disdain  the  moral  and  social  relations 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.  827 

of  material  prosperity;  and  yet  we  are  perpetually  warned 
and  advertised  by  philosophic  friends  from  abroad,  by 
pulpit  preachers  at  home,  that  we  are  in  danger  of  going 
toward  animal  conditions,  and  that  the  might  of  our  soil, 
the  might  of  our  heavens,  and  the  skill  and  industry  cf 
our  people,  are  yielding  such  an  abundance  of  bodily 
blessings  as  no  nation  ever  knew  in  any  age,  and  that  we 
are  in  danger  of  being  corrupted  by  it.  All  blessings  carry 
danger,  just  as  all  substances  carry  shadows.  True,  we 
are  in  danger  every  day;  but  there  is  nothing  that  should 
especially  awaken  our  fears  at  this  period;  and  one  of  the 
themes  of  thanksgiving  to-day  is  this,  that  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God  there  have  been  raised  up  great  counter- 
poising influences,  which  hold  in  check,  and  rather  sanc- 
tify, the  abundant  physical  blessings  of  our  time. 

The  family  is  not  disintegrated;  for,  although  here  and 
there,  as  there  always  were,  there  are  tendencies  of  evil 
and  of  mischief,  yet,  taking  our  land  comprehensively,  the 
sanctity  of  the  family,  the  moral  foundations  on  which  it 
must  needs  stand,  its  luminous  happiness,  were  nevermore 
eminent,  never  so  eminent,  as  to-day. 

Never  was  there  a  time  when  men  brought  into  the 
household  so  much  of  art,  of  beauty,  of  rational  enjoyment, 
of  virtue,  for  the  sake  of  happiness,  as  to-day.  Once  the 
most  rigorous  economy  shut  out  art.  To-day,  almost 
without  economy,  so  multitudinous  are  the  resources  of 
art  for  the  great  popular  refinement  of  this  land  that  the 
poor  man's  house  shines,  and  articles  of  beauty  are  a  part 
of  his  daily  fare.     He  feeds  his  eyes,  as  well  as  his  mouth. 

That  there  may  be  universal  intelligence,  the  common- 
school  system  of  America  has  spread,  not  alone  shining  in 
the  midst  of  the  older  States.  It  is  doubtful,  in  my  judg- 
ment, whether  in  Connecticut,  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  the 
whole  New  England  tribe,  there  is  as  much  (certainly 
there  is  not  any  more)  enthusiasm  for  common-schools 
and  popular  education  as  there  is  in  the  Western  States — 
in  Indiana,  in  Illinois,  in  Missouri,  yea,  in  Wyoming  itself, 
and  the  provinces  beyond,  clear  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
The  pride  of  the  common  people  is  in  our  common-schools. 


828  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

And  this  whole  land  is  being  provided  with  the  light  of 
that  knowledge  which  belongs  primarily  to  the  common 
people. 

More  than  this.  Academies  were  never  so  many  nor  so 
well  endowed.  Colleges  and  universities  spring  up  in 
every  direction.  Some  are  yet  in  youth;  some  are  ragged 
and  in  desolate  regions;  and  some  are  in  great  strength 
and  abounding  prosperity,  or  thitherward  tending;  never- 
theless, the  academy,  the  college,  and  the  university  are 
almost  universally  diffused  throughout  this  land.  The 
theological  seminaries  are  multitudinous.  Law  schools 
are  everywhere.  Medical  schools  are  abundant.  All 
the  institutions  which  first  develop  the  mind  itself,  and 
then  lead  it  along  the  lines  of  separate  occupations,  flourish 
without  sign  of  decadence,  with  every  sign  of  yet  being  in 
their  youth,  and  reaching  up  to  their  maturity. 

Churches  and  missions  have  neither  diminished  in  num- 
ber, nor  grown  lukewarm,  nor  in  anywise  lost  their  grasp, 
but  in  many  ways  are  manifesting  a  vigorous  manhood. 
The  many  methods  of  churches,  these  summer  associa- 
tions, these  universities  of  the  forest  and  of  the  field,  these 
Chautauquas,  are  on  every  side  enlarging  the  range  of 
social  Christian  life,  of  common  kindness,  of  growing  unity 
among  denominations,  and  of  larger  wealth  in  Christian 
literature  and  learning. 

In  connection  with  all  these  fundamental  facts,  I  call  you 
to  take  notice,  with  gratitude,  of  the  fact  that  the  wealth, 
the  fullness,  of  the  sea,  of  the  forest,  and  of  the  field,  is 
being,  to  a  very  large  extent,  moralized  and  Christianized. 
There  are  many  properties  that  are  yet  to  be  managed,  dis- 
cussed, and  controlled;  there  are  many  ways  in  which 
wealth  may  threaten  peace  and  liberty;  but  these  are, 
comparatively  speaking,  few;  whereas  the  general  aspect 
of  wealth,  in  our  day,  is  that  it  is  working  towards  refine- 
ment, virtue,  and  public  service. 

Look  how  it  is  rearing,  in  every  direction,  more  beautiful 
structures  for  home  life.  The  hut  for  the  savage;  the 
hovel  for  the  lowest  forms  of  civilization;  the  home,  as  you 
go  on  upward;  the  mansion  at  last.     On  every  line  of  travel, 


RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  829 

in  every  State,  and  in  every  direction,  you  shall  find  that 
instead  of  the  miserly  hoarding  of  money,  it  is  reappearing 
in  structures  of  rare  beauty,  to  enshrine  within  them  the 
family. 

Not  only  are  we  spending  largely  in  architecture,  do- 
mestic; but  we  are  planting  our  houses  in  gardens  of 
Eden, — and  mostly  without  any  serpents  in  them.  Land- 
scape gardening  has  become  a  living  profession,  and  it  is  a 
glorious  thing  for  a  man  to  know  how  to  frame  a  picture 
out  of  living  trees  and  streams;  how,  with  no  colors,  no 
palette,  no  small  brush  of  the  ever-stippling  artist,  to  take 
God's  great  elements  of  beauty,  and  bring  them  together 
in  such  landscape-pictures,  and  plant  down  a  house  within 
so  that  one  shall  think,  indeed,  that  he  is  living  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden. 

Galleries  of  pictures,  museums,  public  and  private  col- 
lections, everywhere,  are  indicating  the  directions  which 
wealth  is  taking.  Parks  are  springing  up  in  every  direc- 
tion. Men  are  learning  how  to  live  better.  Better  food, 
better  clothing,  more  enjoyments,  and  more  wholesome 
ones — these  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  growing  public  sen- 
timent; and  it  is  to  the  hand  of  wealth  that  we  are  in- 
debted for  these  things.  Wealth  is  not  yet  corrupted  nor 
corrupting. 

When  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn  parks  shall  be  joined 
together  by  a  bridge  over  Blackwell's  Island,  not  in  the 
whole  world  shall  there  be  such  a  driveway  as  there  will 
then  be  in  these  two  substantially  connected  cities,  that  lie 
like  one  vast  metropolis  with  a  stream  passing  in  the  midst. 

The  noble  sums  given  by  men  of  great  riches  are  not 
unworthy  of  our  thought.  The  donations  to  Harvard,  to 
Amherst,  to  Dartmouth,  and  to  Yale;  the  princely  gifts 
that  are  crowning  Princeton;  the  million  that  Vanderbilt 
gave  to  Nashville  University;  the  half  million,  given  re- 
cently by  his  son  to  royally  endow  the  medical  schools  of 
New  York;  the  large  gifts  of  our  own  townsman,  Mr. 
Seney,  whose  name  I  speak  with  reverence  and  affection, — 
these,  and  such  as  these,  are  our  reply  to  those  ravens  who 
croak  over  the  danger  of  luxury  and  riches. 


830  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

All  these  are  a  set-off  and  answer  to  those  who  fear  that 
America  will  be  ruined  by  mere  material  riches.  In  all  these 
tilings  our  land  is  doing  not  occasional  good  deeds;  it  is 
in  the  atmosphere.  It  runs  with  the  public  sentiment.  It 
tends  to  increase.  It  portends  a  future  vastly  greater  and 
more  glorious  than  the  present — a  future  such  as  never  was 
developed  in  any  other  age  or  nation. 

Alas,  that  there  should  be  a  single  seeming  exception  ! 
When  the  generous  and  sentimental  gift  of  the  French 
people  to  America,  the  Statue  of  Liberty  Enlightening  the 
World,  shall  arrive,  it  is  likely  to  find  no  place  to  stand  on. 
If  it  cannot  stand  upon  a  noble  pedestal,  casting  its  light 
afar  off,  the  last  light  to  the  tearful  eyes  of  those  leaving 
home,  the  home  flame  to  greet  pilgrims  returning,  the  morn- 
ing star  to  immigrants,  though  shining  in  the  West, — then 
this  great  gift  of  a  generous  people  had  better  be  turned 
end  for  end,  so  that  it  stand  upon  its  head,  that  the  torch 
may  be  quenched.  Has  the  golden  shower  rained  every- 
where but  upon  this  luminous  gift  of  the  great  republic 
across  the  sea  ?  What  a  monument  for  some  man  to 
associate  his  name  with  !  As  it  is,  it  seems  likely  to  be  a 
monument  of  the  stinginess  of  the  common  people.* 

After  these  general  views,  let  us  specialize  a  little  as  to 
the  condition  of  our  people.  Since  it  is  included  in  our 
common-schools  and  in  our  family  conditions,  I  will  not 
ask  your  thought  about  the  pains  taken  to  rear  children; 
but  I  would  say,  Look,  for  instance,  at  the  efforts  that  are 
making  already  to  gather  together  Nobody's  children, — the 
waifs,  the  homeless,  the  beggars.  Look  at  that  church  of 
the  children,  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  both  of  New  York 
and  Brooklyn,  as  well  as  of  sister  cities,  that  sweep  the 
streets  and  gather  up  the  waste,  as  in  great  manufacturing 
establishments  the  dust  of  the  gold  is  caught  upon  floors, 
swept  up,  prepared,  cleaned,  and  smelted  again.  Thus  they 
are  gathering  up  the  very  refuse  of  the  streets  in  which  is 
the  unspeakably  precious  gold  of  human  life,  and  are  car- 
ing for  it. 

*The  money  for  the  pedestal  was  duly  raised,  the  pedestal  and  statue 
reared,  and  the  whole  inaugurated  in  the  autumn  of  1SS6. 


RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT  831 

We  are  attempting  to  combat  with  some  success,  though 
slowly,  the  general  repugnance  to  foreigners.  I  remem- 
ber when  the  Irish  were  obnoxious  to  our  prejudices,  and 
subject  to  our  contempt.  I  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when 
they  are  universally  regarded  as  citizens  most  excellent 
and  desirable,  partly  because  they  can  vote,  but  more  be- 
cause great  numbers  of  them  have  developed  into  moral 
and  civic  worth.  To-day  there  are  men  who  scorn  the 
Chinese,  some  because  they  are  competitors  in  the  labor 
market,  some  because  to  do  it  will  win  them  votes,  and 
some  because  of  the  old  bestiality  of  human  nature  that 
allies  it  to  the  animal  kingdom,  and  causes  the  newcomer 
to  feel  the  horns  of  the  old  residents  of  the  barnyard.  For 
all  these  reasons  what  a  howl  and  an  outcry  there  has  been 
about  the  immigration  of  Chinamen  !  Stop  your  noise,  or 
stop  your  missions.  If,  when  Chinamen  are  brought  into 
America,  amid  her  churches,  her  schools,  and  all  her  relig- 
ious establishments,  they  are  not  tolerated,  but  are  followed 
down  the  streets  with  violence,  and  mobbed,  do  not  send 
such  Christianity  to  the  Chinese  empire.  I  do  not  wonder 
that  Chinamen  refuse  the  Christian  religion.  They  have 
got  a  better;  that  is  to  say,  a  better  than  that  part  of  the 
Christian  religion  that  enlightens  them.  I  will  not  say 
these  things,  however,  for  in  San  Francisco,  in  Denver,  and 
in  every  city  between  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic,  faithful 
men  and  women  have  gathered  up  these  poor  creatures 
from  our  midst,  and  in  schools  by  night  and  with  churches 
and  classes,  are  bringing  them  to  a  nobler  reception  and  a 
better  life.  I  mark  this  as  one  of  the  points  of  wholesome- 
ness  and  growth  towards  a  true  idea  of  liberty  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  If  these  foreigners  would  but  leave 
their  own  garments  at  home  and  put  on  our  sort,  they 
would  find  their  way  a  great  deal  easier.  The  Japanese  do 
this,  and  they  are  welcome  everywhere,  in  all  society  for 
which  they  are  fitted.  They  wear  our  clothes,  they  accept 
our  civilization  and  manners,  and  we  accept  them,  as  well 
for  these  as  for  higher  reasons  of  their  intrinsic  worth;  for 
no  better  population  could  be  brought  into  these  United 
States  than  the  educated  Japanese.    Indeed,  they  are  prac- 


832  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

tically  brought  in  now.  They  are  teachers  in  our  schools; 
for,  as  Oriental  art  has  almost  wholly  changed  our  Occi- 
dental art,  adding,  at  any  rate,  large  elements  of  beauty  to 
it,  so  Oriental  artists  are  becoming  teachers  in  our  schools 
to  show  us  how  to  design,  to  draw,  and  to  color  as  they  do. 
The  Indians,  also,  upon  this  continent,  have  not  been 
neglected.  We  have  been  a  long  time  in  learning  what  to 
do  with  them.  We  have  never  tried  letting  them  alone, 
much.  We  have  tried  shooting  them,  imprisoning  them, 
hanging  them,  cheating  them,  and  all  such  ways.  The 
gospel  method  of  civilization  we  have  never  made  much 
of.  But  now,  at  last,  we  are  indebted  to  the  Army  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  generals  of  it.  The  educated 
officers  of  our  armies  have  been  our  peace-messengers  for  a 
hundred  years.  Never  have  they  incited  one  intrigue,  never 
one  political  organization,  never  one  single  element  that 
tended  toward  war  or  the  supremacy  of  the  armed  hand 
everywhere.  Always,  the  educated  officers  of  the  American 
Army  have  been  humane  men;  men  of  peace,  studying 
civilization.  And  since  they  have  had  so  largely  to  do  with 
the  Indians,  and  since  the  polity  of  educating  them  was 
adopted — not  alone  of  educating  their  children  in  Eastern 
schools,  but  of  bringing  them  together  and  teaching  them 
the  civilized  arts — there  has  been  an  amelioration  steadily 
going  on;  and  when  once  we  shall  take  a  single  step  in 
advance,  and  give  to  the  Indians,  in  severalty,  farms  that 
they  may  own  just  as  white  men  own  theirs,  and  are  thus 
put  into  the  school  of  agriculture,  we  shall  have  touched 
at  last  that  foundation  on  which  civilization  must  always 
be  built.  You  cannot  civilize  a  hunting  and  fishing  popula- 
tion; you  cannot  civilize  a  pastoral  people,  wandering  about 
hither  and  thither.  The  rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss.  You 
cannot  treat  with  a  barbaric  people  in  any  way  until  you 
first  bring  them  on  to  the  basis  of  agriculture.  From  that 
will  spring  up  manufactures,  and  from  them  commercial 
interests;  and  then  you  will  have  full-fledged  civilization. 
Upon  that  basis  you  may  build  institutions  of  learning, 
refinement,  and  religion.  This  is  the  tendency  to-day.  I 
hail  it  as  one  of  the  auspicious  signs  of  that  growing  wis- 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.  833 

dom  which  God  is  sending  to  us  in  the  treatment  of  human 
nature. 

Even  the  outcast  Mormons  are  not  neglected.  Heroic 
women  there  are  who  have  dedicated  themselves  to  the 
cause  of  Mormon  education  and  made  themselves  knights 
errant,  nobler,  purer,  and  sublimer  than  any  that  figure  in 
mediaeval  history;  and  in  their  faith  that  intelligence  and 
religion  are  adequate  to  every  need  of  the  human  race, 
they  have  gone  down  into  Mormon  territories  and  are 
kindling  love  for  common-schools,  and  are  preaching  the 
pure  gospel — and  that  not  without  effect. 

It  is  with  all  such  efforts  as  it  is  with  the  grain.  The 
seed  cannot  live  until  it  has  died.  It  hides  itself  .until  it 
sprouts,  and  then  it  runs  through  its  several  stages  to  ma- 
turity. The  efforts  that  are  being  made  in  that  direction 
may  not  yet  be  producing  fruit  as  we  expected,  but  they 
are  germinating,  they  are  growing.  Something  may  be 
done  by  Government,  but  this  is  the  fundamental  cure  for 
all  such  errors  and  evils  as  Mormonism.  If  this  subject 
can  once  be  kept  aloof  from  politics,  it  may  be,  as  it  were, 
helped  by  the  auxiliary  influence  of  legislation,  by  the 
power  of  knowledge  and  of  religion,  and  the  evil  will  be 
abated  and  stayed;  but  if  it  be  made  a  foot-ball  between 
two  great  parties,  it  will  be  like  a  very  sick  man  with  a 
room  full  of  quarreling  doctors.  The  man  will  die,  and 
the  quarrelers  will  divide  all  that  is  left.  That  was  the 
power  of  Slavery — a  political  power.  That  gave  it  vital- 
ity. When  its  political  power  was  destroyed,  it  went  soon 
after.  It  will  be  a  crowning  reputation  to  any  adminis- 
tration to  abate  this  nuisance;  and  it  will  be  another  tes- 
timony to  the  self-redeeming  power  of  a  free  people  from 
dangerous  internal  maladies.  Under  absolute  monarchies 
remedies  spring  from  without,  and  are  enfixed  and  en- 
forced upon  the  people.  In  an  enlightened  republican  de- 
mocracy, the  cure  begins  within  and  works  outward. 

Finally,  the  cycle  of  history  in  the  great  modern  drama 
of  American  life  has  well-nigh  completed  itself.  First  we 
had  slavery,  then  disruption,  then  wars;  and  now  we  have 

peace.     That  has  taken  place  without  which  perfect  recon- 

53 


834  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ciliation  could  not  have  been  produced,  and  without  which 
it  could  never  have  existed  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  The  statesmen  of  sixteen  former  slave  States  are 
to  be  admitted  to  a  participation  in  the  administration  of 
the  national  government;  and  I  thank  God.*  It  is  the  last 
step.  We  have  need  of  them.  It  is  for  our  good  as  much 
as  for  their  own  that  they  have  come.  The  temper  of  the 
South  befits  this  final  reconciliation.  It  was  the  glory  of 
our  nation  that  there  was  a  conscience  against  the  dynasty 
of  slavery.  We  should  have  been  worthy  thrice  over  of 
stripes  and  chains  had  we  not  resented  and  resisted  it. 
Yet  the  whole  North,  as  I  am  witness,  was  opposed  to  any 
interference  with  slavery.  It  must  not  be  spoken  of  in 
the  prayer-meeting,  it  must  not  be  touched  on  in  the  pul- 
pit. It  would  disturb  trade,  it  would  destroy  industry, 
peace,  and  quiet.  We  heard  that  on  every  side;  but  there 
was  a  swelling  up  underneath,  and  God's  spirit  was  the 
reason  why  conscience  would  not  abide  in  peace  while  so 
mighty  a  system  of  injustice  existed,  and  was  striking  its 
bad  influences  through  all  the  members  of  this  great  com- 
monwealth. When  courage  was  given  to  men  to  speak 
and  make  themselves  heard,  God  sent  great  delusions 
upon  the  minions  of  slavery.  Terrific  was  the  blunder 
that  they  made;  and  then  God  gave  courage  to  men 
to  confront  the  dragon,  fiery-mouthed  and  threatening. 
When  the  price  of  patriotism  was  war,  from  every  hill, 
and  from  every  vale,  and  throughout  the  whole  North, 
the  cry  was:  "  Let  it  be  war;  but  it  shall  be  Justice  and 
Union  !  " 

I  thank  God  that  he  gave  wisdom  and  courage  to  men 
to  meet  that  greatest  exigency  of  our  times.  It  was  well 
met,  and  successfully  met.     Then  wisdom  was  given   to 


*  At  the  November  elections  of  1884  the  Democratic  party  carried  a 
large  number  of  the  Congressional  contests,  and  from  the  South  chiefly 
Southern -born  representatives  were  sent  to  Congress.  At  the  same  time 
Grover  Cleveland,  the  Democratic  candidate,  having  been  elected  Presi- 
dent, the  South  generally  hailed  that  as  an  indication  of  a  relaxing  of  the 
war-grudges  at  the  North,  and  the  reopening  of  broader  possibilities  for 
Southern  men  in  the  common  commercial  and  political  life  of  the  nation. 


RETROSPECT  A.YD   PROSPECT.  835 

us,  too,  when  the  war  was  past  and  on  us  was  rolled  the 
duty,  most  difficult,  along  the  road  of  darkness,  without 
experiment  or  any  precedent,  to  reconstruct  the  shattered 
fragments  of  the  sixteen  disinherited  States. 

That  mistakes  were  made,  cannot  be  doubted;  or  that 
sometimes  the  pressure  was  too  strong,  sometimes  too 
light,  or  that  things  which  experience  has  rejected  were 
at  the  time  supposed  to  be  vital.  But  the  work  was  in- 
herently difficult;  and  I  think  that  though  those  to  whose 
hands  it  was  committed  were  not  free  from  mistakes,  yet 
they  have  builded  well;  and  their  names  are  part  and 
parcel  of  American  history.  God  gave  us  patience,  not 
only  to  redeem  the  slave  from  bondage,  but,  after  the  shat- 
tering of  all  Southern  influences  and  institutions,  and  the 
destruction  of  their  wealth, — the  actual  subversion  of  so- 
ciety, so  that  the  white  masters  were  at  the  bottom,  and 
the  colored  slaves  were  at  the  top, — to  wait.  There  were 
great  difficulties;  human  nature  would  not  be  what  human 
nature  is  if  there  had  not  been.  There  were  many  impru- 
dent things  done,  North  and  South.  Nevertheless,  we  have 
waited  patiently  and  courageously  until  time  should  help; 
for  Time  is  God's  minister  of  mercy. 

Then  we  have  had  patience  given  us,  too,  to  redeem,  on 
our  side,  the  swollen  values  of  the  distempering  war.  We 
have  had  grace  and  conscience  given  us  to  redeem  our 
finances  and  to  bring  back  honestly  within  their  bounds 
the  issues  of  currency,  and  have  settled  business  on  nor- 
mal and  solid  foundations.  We  have  had  patient  men 
who  knew  how  to  take  the  thread  and  draw  it  out  of  the 
snarl  of  our  financial  affairs,  until  now  it  is  wound  upon 
the  spool,  safe  and  usable. 

But  one  thing  more  was  needed,  and  that  was  to  chase 
the  scowl  from  the  Southern  brow;  to  revive  the  old 
friendship;  to  clasp  hands  again  in  a  vow  of  loving  and 
patriotic  zeal.  It  was  given  to  us  last,  because  it  is  the 
greatest  of  God's  gifts.  There  never  has  been  such  a 
scene  since  the  earth  was  born;  there  never  has  been  such 
a  rupture,  never  such  a  conflict,  never  such  a  victory,  never 
such  a  reconstruction,  never   such  restoration  of  integrity 


836  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

in  business,  never  such  a  reconciliation  and  gladness  be- 
tween good  men  on  both  sides  as  come  to  us  to-day.  As 
yet  the  eyes  of  many  are  holden,  and  they  cannot  see  how 
great  a  blessing  God  has  brought  to  our  unbelieving  eyes 
and  timid  hands.  From  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  I  believe 
in  the  honor  and  integrity  of  thoughtful  Southern  men; 
and  when  I  get  from  them  such  letters  as  I  do,  and  hear 
from  their  lips  such  declarations  as  I  hear,  that  they  feel 
at  last  that  they  are  in  and  of  the  Union,  as  much  as  we, 
and  point  to  the  flag,  declaring,  with  tears,  "  That  is  now 
my  flag,"  I  believe  it;  I  should  be  faithless  to  God  and  to 
providence  if  I  did  not.  I  believe  it  with  an  enthusiasm 
of  faith,  and  with  a  longing  heart  of  love;  for  I  think 
they  are  above  hypocrisy  or  insincerity;  and  that  if  we 
choose,  the  last  cloud  will  rise  from  between  us  and  then 
pass  away  forever. 

Moses,  after  forty  years  of  toil,  was  allowed  to  see  the 
promised  land  from  afar  off  only.  Less  worthy,  yet  more 
blessed,  I  am  spared  to  go  over  with  the  rejoicing  tribes 
into  the  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  What  am  I, 
or  my  father's  house,  that  to  me  should  be  given  the  priv- 
ilege of  laboring  in  all  this  drama,  and  seeing  it  end  nobly 
thus  !  The  discipline  is  complete,  and  to  the  end  of  time 
this  great  epic  of  liberty,  our  struggle  with  slavery,  will 
shine  like  the  sun. 

Not  the  least  joyful  element  in  this  reconciliation  is  the 
assured  safety  and  benefit  which  will  accrue  to  the  colored 
race.  That  has  come  to  pass  which  was  their  only  safety. 
Just  as  soon  as  the  Southern  statesmen  accept  the  perfect 
restoration  of  themselves  to  the  great  body  politic,  and 
find  that  there  is  no  division  as  between  Northern  men 
and  Southern  men  in  any  of  the  honors  of  government; 
just  as  soon  as  they  are  in,  and  a  part  of  every  adminis- 
tration, as,  thank  God,  they  will  be;  just  so  soon  of  neces- 
sity that  will  take  place  which  has  taken  place  everywhere, 
in  every  community;  there  will  be  the  party  of  adminis- 
tration, the  "ins,"  and  the  party  opposed  to  them,  the  op- 
position, the  "outs."  The  moment  you  have  these  two 
parties,   each    party  has  a  sentinel   watching   it.     In    the 


RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT  837 

South  that  will  take  place  which  is  the  salvation  of  the 
colored  race.  As  long  as  they  were  a  fringe  upon  a 
Northern  party,  the  South  was  condensed  and  solidified 
against  it.  As  soon  as  they  are  divided  at  home  between 
the  administrational  party  and  the  opposition  party,  they 
will  be  guarded  and  taken  care  of.  The  administration 
party  will  not  allow  its  voters  to  be  injured;  the  opposi- 
tion party  will  not  allow  its  voters  to  be  injured.  They 
will  be  distributed  as  they  should  be,  and  the  strength  of 
each  party  in  the  South  will  be  the  safeguard  of  the  in- 
termediate voters.  I  regard  this  now,  with  schools  and 
academies  and  various  seminaries  spread  among  them,  as 
the  final  step  of  emancipation. 

It  is  in  these  views,  which  have  not  been  accepted  with 
sympathy  by  some  of  the  dearest  friends  I  have,  that  I 
have  acted;*  and  in  the  calmest  retrospect  I  now  rejoice 
that  I  was  able  to  act  so. 

The  greatest  mistake  of  my  life  has  happened  twice,  as 
I  have  been  informed.  I  propose  this  morning  now  to 
read  a  portion  of  the  letters  that  were  the  first  "  greatest 
mistake  of  my  life."  That  was  immediately  after  the  war, 
in  the  autumn  of  1866,  while  the  question  of  reconciliation 
was  still  pending,  and  is  in  the  now  somewhat  famous 
"Cleveland  letter" — not  Governor  Cleveland,  but  the  city 
of  Cleveland.     Twice  I  have  stumbled  on  Cleveland  ! 

I  was  in  1866  invited  to  act  as  Chaplain  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  our  Army  and  Navy, 
called  at  the  city  of  Cleveland,  Ohio.  The  object  of  that 
convention  was  to  so  shape  our  Northern  politics  as  to 
bring  the  Southern  States  back  immediately,  or  as  soon  as 
possible;  and  in  that  general  tendency  I  sympathized:  and 
this  is  the  letter,  or  part  of  it  only,  which  I  shall  read,  and 
which  expressed  my  ideas  at  that  time. 

I  read  it  now  that  you  may  see  how  straight  a  line  has 
run,  from  the  very  days  of  the  war  down  to  this  hour,  in 
my  thought,  philosophy,  and  action. 


*  Referring  to  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  political  campaign  of  1884, 
just  closed. 


838  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 


[Mr.  Beecher  here  read  the  passages  from  the  "  Letter  to  the 
Convention,"  which  are  enclosed  in  brackets,  to  be  found  on 
pages  739-74 1  •] 

My  own  friends  were  very  hot.  Some  dove  into  news- 
papers; some  into  letters,  which  flew  thick  and  fast  all 
around  about  me.  Neighboring  ministers  thought  that  I 
was  unseated  and  disrupted  forever.  In  the  midst  of  it  all 
I  knewl  was  right,  and  that  if  I  had  patience  others  would 
find  that  I  was  right.  And  they  did;  though  they  still 
talk  about  that  greatest  blunder  of  my  life,  "  the  Cleveland 
Letter."  I  am  going  to  send  down  that  document  to  my 
children  as  one  of  the  most  glorious  things  that  I  ever  did 
in  my  life.  But  such  was  the  excitement  and  clamor  that 
I  thought  it  wise  to  alleviate  the  fear  and  trouble  of  my 
people;  and  so  I  wrote  to  a  private  friend,  then,  a  letter  to 
be  read  to  the  church,  giving  a  fuller  view  of  the  ground  of 
my  first  letter;  maintaining  the  same  position,  but  with 
explanatory  reasoning.  I  will  extract  a  few  words  from 
that. 

[Mr.  Beecher  here  read  from  the  "  Letter  to  a  Parishioner"  the 
bracketed  portion  on  pages  742-743.  "  Then,"  he  said,  "  I  had  in 
the  letter  a  long  discourse  about  President  Johnson,  whom  I 
tried,  very  hard,  to  hold  in  the  harness,  but  who  kicked  out. 
This  portion  of  it  is  not  relevant  to  the  present  issue,  and  I  will 
not  read  it.  The  letter  then  proceeds:"  and  he  read  the  final 
bracketed  portions,  on  pages  748-749.] 

My  dear  friends,  if  I  had  written  that  for  to-day  I  could 
not  have  written  it  better,  and  I  do  not  think  it  needs  to  be 
written  any  better.  I  stand  on  that,  and  I  have  read  it 
this  morning  not  only  because  inspired  by  the  parallelism, 
but  because  it  has  been  represented  that  my  Cleveland  let- 
ter was  the  greatest  blunder  of  the  day;  and  then,  worse 
than  that,  that  I  backed  down  from  it  and  retracted  it. 
And  I  have  read  both  letters,  in  parts,  so  far  as  bears  more 
immediately  on  questions  of  to-day,  that  you  may  know  that 
God  gave  me  the  light  to  do  one  of  the  best  things  I  ever  did 
when  I  wrote  that  letter;  and  that  he  gave  me  the  grace 
to  stand  on  it  without  turning  back  for  one  single  moment; 
and  that  he  has  given  me  grace  to  lay  my  path,  by  sight, 


RETROSPECT  AXD    PROSPECT.  839 

along  those  two  letters — hindsight  and  foresight — from 
that  day  down  to  this;  and  that  he  has  given  me  grace  to 
withstand  the  impleadings  of  those  that  I  love  dearly,  not 
only  of  my  immediate  household,  but  of  my  blood  and 
kindred;  of  those  that  are  in  the  church,  that  are  to  me  as 
my  own  life,  and  those  that  are  of  the  political  party  with 
which  I  have  labored  thus  far. 

Still  seeing  that  luminous  light,  as  God  reveals  it  to  me, 
I  have  walked  in  it  and  toward  it;  and  abide  in  that  same 
direction  to-day;  and,  God  helping  me,  so  will  I  live  to  the 
end. 


EULOGY  ON  GENERAL  GRANT/ 


Another  name  is  added  to  the  roll  of  those  whom  the 
world  will  not  willingly  let  die.  A  few  years  since  storm- 
clouds  filled  his  heaven,  and  obloquy,  slander,  and  bitter 
lies  rained  down  upon  him. 

The  clouds  are  all  blown  away;  under  a  serene  sky  he 
laid  down  his  life;  and  the  Nation  wept.  The  path  to  his 
tomb  is  worn  by  the  feet  of  innumerable  pilgrims.  The 
mildewed  lips  of  Slander  are  silent,  and  even  Criticism 
hesitates  lest  some  incautious  word  should  mar  the  history 
of  the  modest,  gentle,  magnanimous  Warrior. 

The  whole  Nation  watched  his  passage  through  humili- 
ating misfortunes  with  unfeigned  sympathy;  the  whole 
world  sighed  when  his  life  ended.  At  his  burial  the  un- 
sworded  hands  of  those  whom  he  had  fought  lifted  his 
bier  and  bore  him  to  his  tomb  with  love  and  reverence. 

Grant  made  no  claim  to  saintship.  He  was  a  man  of 
like  passions,  and  with  as  marked  limitations  as  other 
men.  Nothing  could  be  more  distasteful  to  his  honest, 
modest  soul  while  living,  and  nothing  more  unbecoming 
to  his  memory,  than  lying  exaggerations  and  fulsome  flat- 
teries. 

Men  without  faults  are  apt  to  be  men  without  force.  A 
round  diamond  has  no  brilliancy.  Lights  and  shadows, 
hills  and  valleys,  give  beauty  to  the  landscape.  The  faults 
of  great  and  generous  natures  are  often  overripe  good- 
ness, or  the  shadows  which  their  virtues  cast. 

Three  elements  enter  into  the  career  of  a  great  citizen: 

That  which  his  ancestry  gives; 

That  which  opportunity  gives; 

That  which  his  will  develops. 

Grant  came  from   a  sturdy  New  England  stock;  New 

*Delivered  at  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  Oct.  22,  18S5. 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  841 

England  derived  it  from  Scotland;  Scotland  bred  it,  at  a 
time  when  Covenanters  and  Puritans  were  made — men  of 
iron  consciences  hammered  out  upon  the  anvil  of  adversity. 
From  New  England  the  stream  flowed  to  the  Ohio,  where  it 
enriched  the  soil  till  it  brought  forth  abundant  harvests  of 
great  men.  When  it  was  Grant's  time  to  be  born,  he  came 
forth  without  celestial  portents,  and  his  youth  had  in  it  no 
prophecy  of  his  manhood.  His  boyhood  was  wholesome, 
robust,  with  a  vigorous  frame.  With  a  heart  susceptible 
of  tender  love,  he  yet  was  not  social.  He  was  patient  and 
persistent.  He  loved  horses,  and  could  master  them; 
that  is  a  good  sign. 

Grant  had  no  art  of  creating  circumstances;  opportunity 
must  seek  him,  or  else  he  would  plod  through  life  without 
disclosing  the  gifts  which  God  hid  in  him.  The  gold  in  the 
hills  cannot  disclose  itself.     It  must  be  sought  and  dug. 

A  sharp  and  wiry  politician,  for  some  reason  of  Provi- 
dence, performed  a  generous  deed  in  sending  young  Grant 
to  West  Point.  He  finished  his  course  there,  distinguished 
as  a  skillful  and  bold  rider,  with  an  inclination  to  mathe- 
matics, with  but  little  taste  for  the  theory  and  literature 
of  war,  but  with  sympathy  for  its  external  and  material 
developments.  In  boyhood  and  youth  he  was  marked  by 
simplicity,  candor,  veracity,  and  silence. 

After  leaving  the  academy  he  saw  military  service  in 
Mexico,  .and  afterward  in  California,  but  without  conspic- 
uous results. 

Then  came  a  clouded  period,  a  sad  life  of  irresolute  vi- 
bration between  self-indulgence  and  aspiration,  through 
intemperance.  He  resigned  from  the  army,  and  at  that 
time  one  would  have  feared  that  his  life  would  end  in 
eclipse.  Hercules  crushed  two  serpents  sent  to  destroy 
him  in  his  cradle.  It  was  later  in  his  life  that  Grant  de- 
stroyed the  enemy  that  "  biteth  like  a  serpent  and  stingeth 
like  an  adder." 

At  length  he  struck  at  the  root  of  the  matter.  Others 
agree  not  to  drink,  which  is  good;  Grant  overcame  the 
wish  to  drink — which  is  better.  But  the  cloud  hung  over 
his  reputation  for  many  years,  and  threatened  his  ascend- 


842  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

ency  when  better  days  came.  Of  all  his  victories,  many 
and  great,  this  was  the  greatest,  that  he  conquered  him- 
self.    His  will  was  stronger  than  his  passions. 

Poor,  much  shattered,  he  essayed  farming.  Carrying 
wood  for  sale  to  St.  Louis  did  not  seem  to  be  that  for 
which  he  was  created;  neither  did  planting  crops,  or  rais- 
ing cattle. 

Tanning  is  an  honorable  calling,  and  to  many,  a  road  to 
wealth.    Grant  tried  that,  but  found  no  gold  in  the  tan  vat. 

Then  he  became  a  listless  merchant — a  silent,  unsocial, 
and  rather  moody  waiter  upon  petty  traffic. 

He  was  a  good  subaltern,  a  poor  farmer,  a  worse  tanner, 
a  worthless  trafficker.  Without  civil  experience,  without 
literary  gifts,  too  diffident  to  be  ambitious,  too  modest  to 
put  himself  forward,  too  honest  to  be  a  politician,  he  was 
of  all  men  the  least  likely  to  attain  eminence,  and  abso- 
lutely unfitted,  apparently,  for  pre-eminence;  yet  God's 
providence  selected  him. 

When  the  prophet  Samuel  went  forth  to  anoint  a  suc- 
cessor to  the  impetuous  and  imperious  King  Saul,  he  caused 
all  the  children  of  Jesse  to  pass  before  him.  He  rejected 
one  by  one  the  whole  band.  At  length  the  youngest,  called 
from  among  the  flock,  came  in,  and  the  Lord  said  to  Samuel, 
"  Arise,  this  is  he"  and  Samuel  took  the  horn  of  oil  and 
anointed  him  in  the  midst  of  his  brethren,  and  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord  came  upon  him  from  that  day  forward.  (1  Sam. 
xvi.) 

Ordained  was  Grant  with  the  ointment  of  war — black 
and  sulphurous. 

Had  Grant  died  at  the  tan-yard,  or  from  behind  the 
counter,  the  world  would  never  have  suspected  that  it  had 
lost  a  hero.  He  would  have  fallen  as  an  undistinguishable 
leaf  among  the  millions  cast  down  every  year.  His  time 
had  not  come.  It  was  plain  that  he  had  no  capacity  to 
create  his  opportunity.  //  must  find  him  out,  or  he  would 
die  ignoble  and   unknown  ! 

It  was  coming  !  Already  the  clouds  afar  off  were  gather- 
ing. He  saw  them  not.  No  figures  were  seen  upon  the 
dim  horizon  of  the  already  near  future. 


EULOGY  ON   GRANT.  843 

The  insulted  flag;  the  garments  rolled  in  blood;  a  mill- 
ion men  in  arms;  the  sulphurous  smoke  of  battle;  gory 
heaps  upon  desperate  battle-fields;  an  army  of  slowly  mov- 
ing crippled  heroes;  grave-yards  populous  as  cities;  they 
were  all  in  the  clouded  horizon,  though  he  saw  them  not  ! 

Let  us  look  upon  the  scene  on  which  he  was  soon  to 
exert  a  mighty  energy. 

This  continent  lay  waiting  for  ages  for  the  seed  of  civil- 
ization. At  length  a  sower  came  forth  to  sow.  While  he 
sowed  the  good  seed  of  liberty  and  Christian  civilization, 
an  enemy,  darkling,  sowed  tares.  They  sprang  up  and 
grew  together.  The  Constitution  cradled  both  Slavery  and 
Liberty.  While  yet  ungrown  they  dwelt  together  in  peace. 
They  snarled  in  youth,  quarreled  when  half  grown,  and 
fought  when  of  full  age.  The  final  catastrophe  was  inevita- 
ble. No  finesse,  no  device  or  compromise  could  withstand 
the  inevitable.  The  conflict  began  in  Congress;  it  drifted 
into  commerce;  it  rose  into  the  very  air,  and  public  senti- 
ment grew  hot,  and  raged  in  the  pulpit,  the  forum,  and  in 
politics. 

The  South,  like  a  queenly  beauty,  grew  imperious  and 
exacting;  the  North,  like  an  obsequious  suitor,  knelt  at  her 
feet  only  to  receive  contempt  and  mockery. 

Both  parties,  Whig  and  Democrat,  drank  of  the  cup  of 
her  sorcery.  It  killed  the  Whig  party.  The  Democrat  was 
tougher,  and  was  only  besotted.  A  few,  like  John  the  Bap- 
tist, were  preaching  repentance,  but,  like  him,  they  were 
in  the  wilderness,  and  seemed  rude  and  shaggy  fanatics. 

If  a  wise  moderation  had  possessed  the  South,  if  they 
had  conciliated  the  North,  if  they  had  met  the  just  scruples 
of  honest  men,  who,  hating  slavery,  dreaded  the  dishonor 
of  breaking  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution,  the  South 
might  have  held  control  for  another  hundred  years.  It 
was  not  to  be.     God  sent  a  strong  delusion  upon  them. 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  all  parties  in  the  State 
were  drifting  in  the  dark,  without  any  comprehension  of 
the  elemental  causes  at  work.  Without  prescience  or  sa- 
gacity, like  ignorant  physicians,  they  prescribed  at  random; 
they  sewed  on  patches,  new  compromise  upon  old  garments; 


844  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

sought  to  conceal  the  real  depth  and  danger  of  the  gather- 
ing torrent  by  crying,  Peace,  Peace,  to  each  other.  In  short, 
they  were  seeking  to  medicate  volcanoes  and  stop  earth- 
quakes by  administering  political  quinine.  The  wise  states- 
men were  bewildered  and  politicians  were  juggling  fools. 

The  South  had  laid  the  foundation  of  her  industry,  her 
commerce,  and  her  commonwealth  upon  slavery.  It  was 
slavery  that  inspired  her  councils,  that  engorged  her  phi- 
lanthropy, that  corrupted  her  political  economy  and  the- 
ology, that  disturbed  all  the  ways  of  active  politics;  broke 
up  sympathy  between  North  and  South.  As  Ahab  met 
Elijah  with,  "Art  thou  he  that  troubleth  Israel  ?"  so  slavery 
charged  the  sentiments  of  freedom  with  vexatious  med- 
dling and  unwarrantable  interference. 

The  South  had  builded  herself  upon  the  rock  of  Slavery. 
It  lay  in  the  very  channels  of  civilization,  like  some  flood 
rock  lying  sullen  off  Hell  Gate.  The  tides  of  controversy 
rushed  upon  it  and  split  into  eddies  and  swirling  pools, 
bringing  incessant  disaster.  The  rock  would  not  move. 
It  must  be  removed.  It  was  the  South  itself  that  fur- 
nished the  engineers.  Arrogance  in  council  sunk  the 
shaft,  violence  chambered  the  subterranean  passages,  and 
infatuation  loaded  them  with  infernal  dynamite.  All  was 
secure.  Their  rock  was  their  fortress.  The  hand  that 
fired  upon  Sumter  exploded  the  mine,  and  tore  the  for- 
tress to  atoms.  For  one  moment  it  rose  into  the  air  like 
spectral  hills — for  one  moment  the  waters  rocked  with 
wild  confusion,  then  settled  back  to  quiet,  and  the  way  of 
civilization  was  opened  ! 

The  spark  that  was  kindled  at  Fort  Sumter  fell  upon 
the  North  like  fire  upon  autumnal  prairies.  Men  came 
together  in  the  presence  of  this  universal  calamity  with 
sudden  fusion.  They  forgot  all  separations  of  politics, 
parties,  or  even  of  religion  itself.  It  was  a  conflagra- 
tion of  patriotism.  The  bugle  and  the  drum  rang  out  in 
every  neighborhood,  the  plow  stood  still  in  the  furrow, 
the  hammer  dropped  from  the  anvil,  book  and  pen  were 
forgotten,  pulpit  and  forum,  court  and  shop,  felt  the 
electric    shock.      Parties    dissolved    and    reformed.      The 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  845 

Democratic  party  sent  forth  a  host  of  noble  men,  and 
swelled  the  Republican  ranks,  and  gave  many  noble 
leaders  and  irresistible  energy  to  the  hosts  of  war.  The 
whole  land  became  a  military  school,  and  officers  and  men 
began  to  learn  the  art  and  practice  of  war. 

When  once  the  North  had  organized  its  armies,  there 
was  soon  disclosed  an  amiable  folly  of  conciliation.  It 
hoped  for  some  peaceable  way  out  of  the  war;  generals 
seemed  to  fight  so  that  no  one  should  be  hurt;  they  saw 
the  mirage  of  future  parties  above  the  battle-field,  and 
anxiously  considered  the  political  effect  of  their  military 
conduct.  They  were  fighting  not  to  break  down  rebell- 
ion, but  to  secure  a  future  presidency — or  governorship. 
The  South  had  smelted  into  a  glowing  mass.  It  believed 
in  its  course  with  an  infatuation  that  would  have  been 
glorious  if  the  cause  had  been  better !  It  put  its  whole 
soul  into  the  struggle,  and  struck  hard  ! 

The  South  fought  for  slavery  and  independence.  The 
North  fought  for  Union,  but  for  political  success  after  the 
war.  Thus  for  two  years,  not  unmarked  by  great  deeds, 
the  war  lingered.  Lincoln,  sad  and  sorrowful,  felt  the 
moderation  of  his  generals,  and  longed  for  a  man  of  iron 
mould,  who  had  but  two  words  in  his  military  vocabulary, 
Victory  or  Annihilation. 

He  was  coming !  He  was  heard  from  at  Henry  and 
Donelson. 

Three  great  names  were  rising  to  sight — Sherman, 
Thomas,  Sheridan;  and  larger  than  either,  Grant !  With 
his  advent  the  armies,  with  some  repulses,  went  steadily 
forward,  from  conquering  to  conquer.  Aside  from  all 
military  qualities,  he  had  one  absorbing  spirit — the  Union 
must  be  saved,  the  rebellion  must  be  beaten,  the  Confed- 
erate armies  must  be  threshed  to  chaff  as  on  a  summer 
threshing  floor.  He  had  no  political  ambition,  no  imag- 
inary reputation  to  preserve  or  gain.  A  great  genius  for 
grand  strategy,  a  comprehension  of  complex  and  vast 
armies,  caution,  prudence  and  silence  while  preparing,  an 
endless  patience,  an  indomitable  will,  and  a  real,  down- 
right fighting  quality. 


846  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Thus  at  length  Grant  was  really  born  !  He  had  lain  in 
the  nest  for  long  as  an  infertile  egg.  The  brooding  of 
war  hatched  the  egg,  and  an  eagle  came  forth  ! 


It  is  impossible  to  reach  the  full  measure  of  Grant's 
military  genius  until  we  survey  the  greatness  of  this  most 
extraordinary  war  of  modern  days,  or  it  may  be  said  of 
any  age. 

For  more  than  four  years  there  were  more  than  a  mill- 
ion men  on  each  side,  stretched  out  upon  a  line  of  be- 
tween one  and  two  thousand  miles,  and  a  blockade  rigor- 
ously enforced  along  a  coast  of  an  equal  extent.  During 
that  time,  counting  no  battle  in  which  there  were  not  five 
hundred  Union  men  engaged,  there  were  fought  more  than 
two  thousand  engagements — two  thousand  two  hundred 
and  sixty-one  of  record. 

Amid  this  sea  of  blood,  there  shot  up  great  battles,  that 
for  numbers,  fighting,  and  losses,  will  rank  with  the  great 
battles  of  the  world. 

In  1862  the  losses  by  death,  wounds,  and  missing,  on 
each  side,  as  extracted  from  Government  Records,  were: — 

UNION.  CONFED.  TOTAL. 

i.  Shiloh 13.500  10,699  24,199 

2.  Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks,      .     .  5,739  7.997  J3-736 

3.  7  Day  Retreat  and  Malvern  Hill,  .  15,249  17.583  32,832 

4.  2d  Bull  Run 7,800  3,700  11,100 

5.  Antietam, 12,469  25,899  38,367 

6.  Fredericksburg, 1 2,353  4-576  16,929 

7.  Stone  River, 11,578  25,560  37,138 

1863. 

8.  Chancellorsville, 16,030         12,281         28,311 

9.  Gettysburg 23,186        31,621         54,807 

10.  Chickamauga, 1 5,85 1  17,804         33,655 

11.  Chattanooga 5,616  8,684 

1864. 

12.  Wilderness, 37,737  11,400  49,137 

13.  Spottsylvania 26,421  9,000  35,421 

14.  Cold  Harbor H.931  1,700  16,700 

15.  Petersburg 10,586  28,000  38,586 

16.  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta 37, '99 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  847 

Over  26,000  Northern  soldiers  died  in  prison,  in  cap- 
tivity. If  we  reckon  all  who  perished  by  violence  and  by 
sickness  on  both  sides,  nearly  a  million  died  in  the  War  of 
Emancipation. 

The  number  must  be  largely  swelled  if  we  add  all  who 
died  at  home,  of  sickness  and  wounds  received  in  the  cam- 
paign. 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  his  report,  dated  November 
22,  1865,  makes  the  following  remarks,  which  show  more 
than  anything  else  the  spirit  animating  the  people  of  the 
loyal  States:  "On  several  occasions,  when  troops  were 
promptly  needed  to  avert  impending  disaster,  vigorous 
exertion  brought  them  into  the  field  from  remote  States 
with  incredible  speed.  Official  reports  show  that  after 
the  disasters  on  the  Peninsula,  in  1862,  over  eighty  thou- 
sand troops  were  enlisted,  organized,  armed,  equipped, 
and  sent  into  the  field  in  less  than  a  month.  Sixty  thou- 
sand troops  have  repeatedly  gone  to  the  field  within  four 
weeks.  Ninety  thousand  infantry  were  sent  to  the  armies 
from 'the  five  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and 
Wisconsin,  within  twenty  days.  When  Lee's  army  sur- 
rendered, thousand  of  recruits  were  pouring  in,  and  men 
were  discharged  from  recruiting  stations  and  rendezvous 
in  every  State." 

Into  this  sulphurous  storm  of  war  Grant  entered  almost 
unknown.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  he  could  obtain  a 
command.  Once  set  forward,  Donelson,  Shiloh,  Vicksburg, 
Chickamauga,  The  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  Petersburg,  Ap- 
pomattox, these  were  his  footsteps.  In  four  years  he  had 
risen,  without  political  favor,  from  the  bottom  to  the  very 
highest  command — not  second  to  any  living  commander 
in  all  the  world  ! 

His  plans  were  large,  his  undiscouraged  will  was  patient 
to  obduracy.  He  was  not  fighting  for  reputation,  nor  for 
the  display  of  generalship,  nor  for  a  future  Presidency. 
He  had  but  one  motive,  and  that  as  intense  as  life  itself — 
the  subjugation  of  the  rebellion  and  the  restoration  of 
the  broken  Union.  He  embodied  the  feelings  of  the  com- 
mon  people.     He  was  their  perfect  representative.     The 


848  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

war  was  waged  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  the 
suppression  of  armed  resistance,  and,  at  length,  for  the 
eradication  of  slavery.  Every  step,  from  Donelson  to  Ap- 
pomattox, evinced  with  increasing  intensity  this  his  one 
terrible  purpose.  He  never  wavered,  turned  aside,  or  dal- 
lied.    He  waded  through  blood  to  the  horses'  bridles. 

In  all  this  career  he  never  lost  courage  or  equanimity. 
With  a  million  men,  for  whose  movements  he  was  respon- 
sible, he  yet  carried  a  tranquil  mind,  neither  depressed  by 
disasters,  nor  elated  by  success.  Gentle  of  heart,  famil- 
iar with  all,  never  boasting,  always  modest — Grant  came 
of  the  old  self-contained  stock,  men  of  a  simple  force  of 
being,  which  allied  his  genius  to  the  great  elemental  forces 
of  Nature,  silent,  invisible,  irresistible.  When  his  work 
was  done,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Confederate  armies  was 
final,  this  dreadful  man  of  blood  was  as  tender  toward  his 
late  adversaries  as  a  woman  toward  her  son.  He  imposed 
no  humiliating  conditions,  spared  the  feelings  of  his  an- 
tagonists, sent  home  the  disbanded  Southern  men  with 
food  and  with  horses  for  working  their  crops,  and  when  a 
revengeful  spirit  in  the  Executive  Chair  showed  itself,  and 
threatened  the  chief  Southern  generals,  Grant,  with  a 
holy  indignation,  interposed  himself,  and  compelled  his 
superior  to  relinquish  his  rash  purpose. 

There  have  been  men — there  are  yet — for  stupidity  is 
long-lived— who  regard  Grant  as  only  a  man  of  luck. 
Surely  he  was  !  Is  it  not  luck  through  such  an  ancestry 
to  have  had  conferred  upon  him  such  a  body,  such  a  dispo- 
sition, such  greatness  of  soul,  such  patriotism  unalloyed  by 
ambition,  such  military  genius,  such  ar  indomitable  will,  and 
such  a  capacity  for  handling  the  largest  armies  of  any  age? 

For  four  years  and  more  this  man  of  continuous  luck, 
across  a  rugged  continent,  in  the  face  of  armies  of  men 
as  brave  as  his  own,  commanded  by  generals  of  extraor- 
dinary ability,  performed  every  function  of  strategy  in 
grand  war,  which  Jomini  attributes  to  Napoleon  and  his 
greatest  marshals,  and  Napier  to  Wellington.  Whether 
Grant  could  have  conducted  a  successful  retreat  will 
never  be  known.     He  was  never  defeated. 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  849 

Grant  has  been  severely  criticised  for  the  waste  of  life. 
War  is  not  created  for  the  purpose  of  saving  life,  but  by 
a  noble  spending  of  blood  to  save  the  Commonwealth. 
The  great  end  which  he  achieved  would  have  been  cheaply 
gained,  at  double  the  expense. 

After  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness  he  was  styled  the 
Butcher. 

But  we  are  not  to  forget  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  conduct  of  the  last  great  campaign  was  committed  to 
him.  For  four  years  the  heroic  and  patient  Army  of  the 
Potomac  had  squandered  blood  and  treasure  without 
measure,  and  had  gained  not  a  step.  With  generals 
many,  excellently  skilled  in  logistics,  skillful  in  every- 
thing but  success,  they  fought  —  and  retreated;  they  dug, 
they  waded,  they  advanced  —  and  retreated.  They  went 
down  to  Richmond  and  looked  upon  it — and  came  back  to 
defend  Washington. 

Their  victories  were  fruitless.  Antietam  was  ably 
fought,  but  weakly  followed  up.  Gettysburg,  with  hide- 
ous slaughter,  sent  Lee  back  unpursued,  undestroyed, 
though  he  waited  three  or  four  days,  helpless,  cooped-up, 
and  surely  doomed  had  Sheridan  or  Grant  been  in  Meade's 
place. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  needed  a  general  who  knew 
how  to  employ  their  splendid  bravery,  their  all-enduring 
pluck.  They  had  danced  long  enough;  they  had  led  off 
— changed  partners — chassed — they  had  gone  into  cam- 
paigns with  slow  and  solemn  music,  but  returned  with 
quicksteps.  They  seemed  desirous  of  making  war  so  as 
not  to  exasperate  the  °outh. 

Do  not  men  know  that  nothing  spends  life  faster  than 
unfighting  war?  Disease  is  more  deadly  than  the  bullet. 
In  all  the  war,  but  one  out  of  every  forty-two  that  died 
was  slain  by  the  bullet,  and  one  out  of  every  thirteen  by 
disease.  Six  million  men  passed  through  the  hospitals 
during  the  war;  over  three  million  with  malarial  diseases. 

It  seemed  doubtful  whether  the  Government  was  put- 
ting down   rebellion,  or  whether   Lee  was   putting  down 

the  Government.     An  eminent  critic  says:    "The  fire  and 
54 


850  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

passion,  downright  earnestness  and  self-abandon  that  the 
South  threw  into  the  struggle  at  the  outset  and  main- 
tained for  two  full  years,  had,  it  must  be  admitted,  so 
far  impaired  the  morale  of  the  Union  forces,  that  while 
courage  was  nowhere  wanting,  self-confidence  had  been 
seriously  diminished.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  de- 
voted and  decimated  Army  of  the  Potomac,  whose  com- 
manders, after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  always  ap- 
peared to  be  afraid  of  exasperating  the  enemy.  Driving 
Lee  to  extremities  was  the  one  thing  that  they  were  all 
loath  to  do.  They  would  fight  to  the  last  drop  of  blood 
to  defend  Washington,  to  hold  their  own,  to  preserve  the 
Union,  but  to  corner  the  enemy,  to  drive  him  to  despera- 
tion, to  make  him  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  own  blood, 
was  the  one  thing  they  would  not  do,  and  no  amount  of 
urging  could  make  them  do  it.  It  was  this  arriere  pensee 
that  held  the  hand  of  McClellan  and  of  Meade  after  An- 
tietam  and  Gettysburg.  Both  of  these  engagements  were 
victories  for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  both  were 
robbed  of  their  fruits  by  a  lurking  fear  of  the  lion  at  bay. 
'  They  are  shooing  the  enemy  out  of  Maryland,'  said  Lin- 
coln, with  his  peculiar  aptness  and  homeliness." 

When  Grant  came  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  he  re- 
versed the  methods  of  all  who  preceded  him.  Braver  sol- 
diers never  were,  and  valiant  commanders;  but  the  gen- 
erals had  not  learned  the  art  of  fighting  with  deadly  in- 
tent. Peace  is  very  good  for  peace,  but  war  is  organized 
rage.     It  means  destruction  or  it  means  nothing. 

At  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  Grant  stripped  his  com- 
missary train  of  its  guards  to  fill  a  gap  in  the  line  of  bat- 
tle. When  expostulated  with  for  exposing  his  army  to  the 
loss  of  all  its  provisions,  his  reply  was: — 

"  When  this  army  is  whipped,  it  will  not  want  atiy  provisions." 

All  summer,  all  the  autumn,  all  the  winter,  all  the  spring, 
and  early  summer  again,  he  hammered  Lee,  with  blow  on 
blow,  until,  at  Appomattox,  the  great,  but  not  greatest, 
Southern  general  went  to  the  ground. 

Grant  was  a  great  fighter;  but  not  a  fighter  only. 

His  mind  took  in  the  whole   field  of  war — as  wide  and 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  851 

complex  as  any  that  ever  Napoleon  knew.  He  combined 
in  his  plans  the  operations  of  three  armies,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  the  war,  the  whole  of  the  Union  forces  were 
acting  in  concert. 

He  had  the  patience  of  Fate,  and  the  force  of  Thor.  If 
he  neglected  the  rules  of  war,  as  at  Vicksburg,  it  was  to 
make  better  rules,  to  those  who  were  strong  enough  to 
employ  them. 

Counselors  gave  him  materials.  He  formed  his  own 
plans.  Abhorring  show,  simple  in  manner,  gentle  in  his 
intercourse,  modest  and  even  diffident  in  regard  to  his  own 
personality,  he  seems  to  have  been  the  only  man  in  camp 
who  was  ignorant  of  his  own  greatness.  Never  was  a 
commander  better  served,  never  were  subordinates  more 
magnanimously  treated.  The  fame  of  his  generals  was  as 
dear  to  him  as  his  own.  Those  who  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  be  his  rivals,  were  his  bosom  friends.  While 
there  were  envies  and  jealousies  among  minor  officers,  the 
great  names,  Thomas,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  give  to  history 
a  new  instance  of  a  great  friendship  between  great  war- 
riors. 

Some  future  day  a  Napier  will  picture  the  final  drama: 
the  breaking  up  of  Lee's  right  wing  at  Five  Forks;  Lee's 
retreat;  Grant's  grim,  relentless  pursuit;  Sheridan,  like  a 
raging  lion,  heading  off  the  fleeing  armies,  that  were 
wearied,  worn,  decimated,  conquered;  and,  at  the  end, 
the  modesty  of  the  victorious  general;  the  delicacy  with 
which  he  treated  his  beaten  foe;  the  humanity  of  the  terms 
given  to  the  men:  sent  away  with  food,  and  horses  for 
their  farms: — all  this  will  form  a  picture  of  War  and  of 
Peace. 

He  never  forgot  that  the  South  was  part  of  his  country. 
The  moment  that  the  South  lay  panting  and  helpless  upon 
the  ground,  Grant  carried  himself  with  magnanimous  and 
sympathetic  consideration.  After  the  fall  of  Richmond  he 
turned  aside,  and  returned  to  Washington  without  entering 
the  conquered  capital. 

When  Johnston  surrendered  upon  terms  not  agreeable  to 
Lincoln,   Stanton,  like  a  roaring  lion  fearing  to   lose  its 


852  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

prey,  sent  Grant  to  overrule  him.  He  loved  Sherman, 
and  was  unwilling  to  enter  his  camp  lest  he  should 
seem  to  snatch  from  him  the  glory  of  his  illustrious  cam- 
paign. From  a  near  town  he  enabled  Sherman  to  recon- 
struct his  terms,  and  accept  General  Johnston's  surrender. 

When  Lincoln  was  dead,  Vice-President  Johnson  be- 
came President;  a  man  well  fitted  for  carrying  on  a  fight, 
but  not  skilled  in  peace;  with  a  morbid  sense  of  justice, 
he  determined  that  the  leaders  of  rebellion  should  be  made 
to  suffer  as  examples;  as  if  the  death  of  all  the  first-born, 
the  desolation  of  every  Southern  home,  the  impoverished 
condition  and  bankruptcy  of  every  citizen,  were  not  exam- 
ple enough  !  He  ordered  Lee  to  be  arrested.  Grant 
refused.  When  Johnson  would  have  employed  the  army 
to  effect  his  purposes,  Grant,  with  quick  but  noble  rebell- 
ion, refused  obedience  to  his  superior,  and,  arranging  to 
take  from  his  hands  all  military  control,  repressed  the 
President's  wild  temper  and  savage  purpose  of  a  dishonor- 
ing justice. 

Having  brought  the  long  and  disastrous  war  to  a  close, 
in  his  own  heart  Grant  would  have  chosen  to  have  rested 
upon  his  laurels,  and  lived  a  retired  military  life.  It  was 
not  to  be  permitted.  He  was  called  to  the  Presidency  by 
universal  acclaim,  and  it  fell  to  him  to  conduct  a  campaign 
of  Reconstruction  even  more  burdensome  than  the  war. 

It  would  seem  impossible  to  combine  in  one,  eminent 
civil  and  military  genius.  To  a  certain  extent  they  have 
elements  in  common.  But  the  predominant  element  in 
war,  is  organized  Force;  of  civil  government,  Influence. 
Statesmanship  is  less  brilliant  than  generalship,  but  re- 
quires a  different  and  a  higher  moral  and  intellectual 
genius.  God  is  frugal  in  creating  great  men — men  great 
enough  to  hold  in  eminence  the  elements  of  a  great  gen- 
eral and  of  a  great  ruler.  Washington  was  eminent  in 
statesmanship — but  then  he  was  not  a  great  general.  At 
any  rate,  he  had  no  opportunity  to  develop  the  fact. 

Alexander  was  a  mere  brutal  fighter. 

Caesar  as  Emperor  differed  from  Caesar  as  General  only 
as  a  sword  sheathed  differs  from  a  sword  unsheathed. 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  853 

Frederick  the  Great  was  simply  a  military  ruler. 

Napoleon  came  near  to  combine  the  two  elements  in  the 
earlier  period  of  his  career,  but  the  genius  of  force  gradu- 
ally weakened  that  sense  of  right  and  justice  on  which 
statesmanship  must  rest. 

Grant  had  in  him  the  element  of  great  statesmanship;  but 
neither  his  education,  nor  his  training,  nor  the  desperate 
necessities  of  war,  gave  it  a  fair  chance  of  development  in  a 
condition  of  things  which  bewildered  the  wisest  statesmen. 

The  tangled  skein  of  affairs  would  have  tasked  a  Cavour 
or  a  Bismarck.  The  period  of  reconstruction  is  yet  too 
near  our  war-inflamed  eyes  to  be  philosophically  judged. 

First  came  the  disbanding  of  the  army.  That  was  so 
easily  done  that  the  world  has  never  done  justice  to  the 
marvel.  The  soldiers  of  three  great  armies  dropped  their 
arms  at  the  word  of  command,  dissolved  their  organiza- 
tions, and  disappeared.  To-day  the  mightiest  force  on 
earth;  to-morrow  they  were  not  !  As  a  summer  storm 
darkens  the  whole  heavens,  shakes  the  ground  with  its 
thunder,  empties  its  quiver  of  lightning,  and  is  gone 
in  an  hour,  as  if  it  had  never  been,  so  was  it  with  both 
armies.  Neither  in  the  South  nor  in  the  North  was  there 
a  cabal  of  officers,  nor  any  affray  of  soldiers — for  every 
soldier  was  yet  more  a  citizen. 

In  this  resumption  of  citizen  life,  Grant,  accompanied  by 
his  most  brilliant  generals,  led  the  way.  He  hated  war, 
its  very  insignia,  and  in  foreign  lands  refused  to  witness 
military  pageants.  He  had  had  enough  of  war.  He  loved 
peace. 

When  advanced  to  the  Presidency,  three  vital  questions 
were  to  be  solved. 

1.  The  status  of  the  four  million  emancipated  slaves. 

2.  The  adjustment  of  the  political  relations  of  the  dis- 
located States. 

3.  The  restraint  and  control  of  that  gulf-stream  of 
finance  which  threatened  to  wash  out  the  foundations  of 
honest  industry,  and  which  brought  to  the  nation  more 
moral  mischief  than  had  the  whole  war  itself.  We  are  in 
peril  from  golden  quicksands  yet. 


854  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

Grant  was  eminently  wise  upon  this  question.  His  veto 
saved  the  country  from  a  vitiated  and  corrupting  circula- 
tion. 

The  exaltation  of  the  domestic  African  to  immediate 
citizenship  was  the  most  audacious  act  of  faith  and  fidelity 
that  ever  was  witnessed. 

Their  fidelity  to  the  duties  of  bondage  had  been  most 
Christian.  In  all  the  war,  knowing  that  their  emancipation 
was  to  be  gained  or  lost,  there  never  was  an  insurrection, 
nor  a  recorded  instance  of  cruelty  or  insubordination.  This 
came  not  from  cowardice;  for,  when,  in  the  later  periods 
of  the  war,  they  were  enlisted  and  drilled,  they  made  sol- 
diers so  brave  as  to  extort  admiration  and  praise  from 
prejudice  itself.  They  deserved  their  liberty  for  their  good 
conduct. 

Yet,  were  they  prepared  for  citizenship  ?  The  safety  of 
our  civil  economy  rests  upon  the  intelligence  of  the  citi- 
zen; but  the  slaves  in  mass  were  greatly  ignorant. 

It  was  a  political  necessity  to  arm  them  with  the  ballot 
as  a  means  of  self-defense. 

In  many  of  the  Southern  States  a  probationary  state 
would  have  been  wiser,  but  in  others  it  would  have  re- 
manded them  to  substantial  bondage. 

In  this  grand  department  of  statesmanship  General 
Grant  accepted  the  views  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  the 
Republican  party, — Stanton,  Chase,  Sumner,  Thad.  Stevens, 
Fessenden,  Sherman,  Garfield,  Conkling,  Evarts,  and  all  of 
the  great  leaders. 

In  the  readjustment  of  the  political  relations  of  the 
South  he  was  wise,  generous,  and  magnanimous  in  his 
career.  Not  a  line  in  letter,  speech,  or  message  can  be 
found  that  would  wound  the  self-respect  of  Southern  citi- 
zens. 

When  the  dangerous  heresy  of  a  greenback  currency 
had  gained  political  power,  and  Congress  was  disposed  to 
open  the  flood-gates  of  a  rotten  currency,  his  veto,  an  act 
of  courage,  turned  back  the  deluge  and  saved  the  land 
from  a  whole  generation  of  mischief.  Had  he  done  but 
this  one  thing,  he  would  have  deserved  well  of  history. 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  855 

The  respects  in  which  he  fell  below  the  line  of  sound 
statesmanship — and  these  are  not  a  few — are  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  influence  of  advisers  whom  he  had  taken  into 
his  confidence.  Such  was  his  loyalty  to  friendship  that  it 
must  be  set  down  as  a  fault — a  fault  rarely  found  among 
public  men. 

Many  springs  of  mischief  were  opened  which  still  flow. 
When  it  was  proposed  to  nominate  Grant  for  a  third  term, 
the  real  objections  to  the  movement  among  wise  and  dis- 
passionate men  was  not  so  much  against  Grant  as  against 
the  staff  which  would  come  in  with  him. 

On  the  whole,  if  one  considers  the  intrinsic  difficulty  of 
the  questions  belonging  to  his  administration,  the  stormy 
days  of  politics  and  parties  during  his  eight  years,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  country  owes  to  his  unselfish  dispo- 
sition, to  his  general  wisdom,  to  his  unsullied  integrity,  if 
not  the  meed  of  wisest  yet  the  reputation  of  one  who,  pre- 
eminent in  war,  was  eminent  in  administration,  more  per- 
haps by  the  wisdom  of  a  noble  nature  than  by  that  intel- 
ligence which  is  bred  only  by  experience.  Imperious 
counselors  and  corrupt  parasites  dimmed  the  light  of  his 
political  administration. 

We  turn  from  Grant's  public  life  to  his  unrestful  private 
life.  After  a  return  from  a  tour  of  the  world,  during 
which  he  met  on  all  hands  a  distinguished  reception,  he 
ventured  upon  the  dangerous  road  of  speculation.  The  de- 
sire of  large  wealth  was  deep-seated  in  Grant's  soul.  His 
early  experience  of  poverty  had  probably  taken  away 
from  it  all  romance.  Had  wealth  been  sought  by  a  legiti- 
mate production  of  real  property,  he  would  have  added 
one  more  laurel  to  his  career.  But,  with  childlike  sim- 
plicity of  ignorance,  he  committed  all  he  had  to  the  wild 
chances  of  legalized  gambling.  But  a  few  days  before 
the  humiliating  crash  came,  he  believed  himself  to  be 
worth  three  millions  of  dollars  !  What  service  had  been 
rendered  for  it  ?  What  equivalent  of  industry,  skill,  produc- 
tiveness, distribution  or  convenience  ?  None.  Did  he 
never  think  that  this  golden  robe,  with  which  he  designed 
to  clothe  his  declining  years,  was  woven  of  air,  was  in  its 


856  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESSES. 

nature  unsubstantial,  and  not  reputable  ?  His  success  was 
a  gorgeous  bubble,  reflecting  on  its  brilliant  surface  all 
the  hues  of  heaven,  but  which  grew  thinner  as  it  swelled 
larger.     A  touch  dispelled  the  illusion,  and  left  him   poor. 

It  is  a  significant  proof  of  the  impression  produced 
upon  the  public  mind  of  the  essential  honesty  of  his  mind, 
and  of  the  simplicity  of  his  ignorance  of  practical  busi- 
ness, that  the  whole  nation  condoned  his  folly,  and  be- 
lieved in  his  intentional  honesty.  But  the  iron  had  en- 
tered his  soul.  That  which  all  the  hardships  of  war,  and 
the  wearing  anxieties  of  public  administration  could  not 
do,  the  shame  and  bitterness  of  this  great  bankruptcy 
achieved. 

The  resisting  forces  of  his  body  gave  way.  A  disease 
in  ambush  sprang  forth  and  carried  him  captive.  Pa- 
tiently he  sat  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death.  A  mild 
heroism  of  gentleness  and  patience  hovered  about  him. 
The  iron  will  that  had  upheld  him  in  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  war,  still  in  a  gracious  guise  sustained  his  lingering 
hours. 

His  household  love,  never  tarnished,  never  abated,  now 
roused  him  to  one  last  heroic  achievement — to  provide  for 
the  future  of  his  family.  No  longer  were  there  golden 
hopes  for  himself.  The  vision  of  wealth  had  vanished. 
But  love  took  its  place,  and  under  weakness,  pain,  and 
anguish,  he  wrought  out  a  history  of  his  remarkable 
career.  A  kindly  hand  administered  the  trust.  It  has 
amply  secured  his  loved  household  from  want. 

When  the  last  lines  were  written,  he  lay  back  upon  his 
couch  and  breathed  back  his  great  soul  to  God,  whom  he 
had  worshiped  unostentatiously  after  the  manner  of  his 
fathers. 

A  man  he  was  without  vices,  with  an  absolute  hatred  of 
lies  and  an  ineradicable  love  of  truth,  of  a  perfect  loyalty 
to  friendship,  neither  envious  of  others  nor  selfish  for 
himself.  With  a  zeal  for  the  public  good,  unfeigned,  he 
has  left  to  memory  only  such  weaknesses  as  connect  him 
with  humanity,  and  such  virtues  as  will  rank  him  among 
heroes. 


EULOGY  ON  GRANT.  857 

The  tidings  of  his  death,  long  expected,  gave  a  shock 
to  the  whole  world.  Governments,  rulers,  eminent  states- 
men, and  scholars  from  all  civilized  nations  gave  sincere 
tokens  of  sympathy.  For  the  hour,  sympathy  rolled  as  a 
wave  over  all  our  own  land.  It  closed  the  last  furrow  of 
war,  it  extinguished  the  last  prejudice,  it  effaced  the  last 
vestige  of  hatred, — and  cursed  be  the  hand  that  shall  bring 
them  back  ! 

Johnston  and  Buckner  [of  the  Confederates]  on  one  side 
of  his  bier,  Sherman  and  Sheridan  [of  the  Federals]  upon 
the  other,  he  has  come  to  his  tomb  a  silent  symbol  that 
liberty  had  conquered  slavery,  patriotism  rebellion,  and 
peace  war. 

He  rests  in  peace.  No  drum  or  cannon  shall  disturb 
his  slumber. 

Sleep,  hero,  until  another  trumpet  shall  shake  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.  Then  come  forth  to  glory  in  im- 
mortality ! 


%  i 


;;V#' 


